Courtesy of Richard Jackim

The Thundercats fencing team in action.

The Thundercats fencing team season starts on October 22; to join the team, students can either visit the Thundercats’ website, www.thundercats128.org, or go to the informational meeting October 10 at 7:00 p.m. in the Libertyville High School library classroom.

The season lasts through early November. No prior experience of fencing is needed. The team is made up of students from Libertyville High School and Vernon Hills High School. Thundercats already has 20 members, but Richard Jackim, the general manager and assistant coach of the Thundercats, says he expects over 100 members total.

Fencing is not an official Illinois High School Association sport, so students will have to pay $300 to be on the team. The Thundercats can not be given donations from the athletic association so, as a club, they must support themselves.

The team will be coached by Tony Parello, with most practices at a gym in Rondout Elementary School. The Thundercats were able to sign up to use the brand new gymnasium and have the gym to themselves.

Practice will be held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday every week from 6:00-7:30 p.m., with an optional Friday practice. There will be three basic teams — varsity, junior varsity and a practice team.

“The practice team is for kids who want to pursue fencing but don’t want to compete in the high school tournaments…those kids are more than welcome to come and be a part of the team as well as enjoy all of the social aspects of the fencing,” Jackim said.

2008 Olympic Silver Medalist Tim Morehouse will be coming in November to give demonstrations and lessons to Thundercats members. The Thundercats also marched in the Homecoming parade — in full gear.

Tad Carlson, senior and co-captain of the Varsity team, stated that “Fencing is often called “physical chess”, so you have to prepare both you mind and your body for what you are about to do.”

The first tournament of the season will be the Stevenson Tournament on November 16; fencers will have around four weeks of formal practice before their first competition. Also, there is an optional four-week practice camp before practice officially starts, so most members of the team will have been practicing for eight weeks prior to their first tournament.

Brian Lemay, freshman and co-captain of the Varsity Team, said, “I’m really excited for the opportunity…we’ll be able to go to a lot more tournaments.”