Dec. 21, 2006
The 2007 fencing season will mark a new era for the Notre Dame program, with highly-respected assistant coach Gia Kvaratskhelia recently coming on board to work alongside fifth-year Irish head coach Janusz Bednarski. Kvaratskhelia – regarded as one of the top young foil coaches in the nation – took some time for a question-and-answer session with und.com, providing an insight into his fencing background (dating back to his youth in his native Georgia, in the former Soviet Union) and his coaching philosophies.
(Note: a short biography of Kvaratskhelia is included below, followed by quotes from others and then the Q&A transcript with the new Irish assistant coach; also look for additional photos to be added to this release.)
Guiorgie “Gia” Kvaratskhelia – who spent the past 10 years as coach of the Kanza Fencing Club in Salina, Kansas – fills the position on the Notre Dame staff previously held by Zoltan Dudas, who was named head coach at Princeton in the spring of 2006. A former foil standout with the Georgian National Team, the 31-year-old Kvaratskhelia transformed Kanza from a small recreational club into one of the nation’s top foil centers. His fencers at Kanza have combined to win three USFA national men’s open foil team championships and four of his Kanza fencers have gone on to compete on the Division I level as scholarship athletes.
Named the 2002 USFA national development coach of the year, Kvaratskhelia molded his fencers at Kanza into top competitors on the national and even international level. His Kanza fencers combined to be national finalists 15 times while receiving a total of nearly 50 national medals. Former Kanza fencers Ryan Dunn and Chris Miller were members of the U.S. Junior National Team before going on to successful collegiate careers (Miller as an All-American at Penn State and Dunn at Air Force.) Kanza product Christina Tillman also went on to fence at Air Force while Eric McConkey joined her as a D-I competitor at Cleveland State.
Known previously as the Coyote Fencing Club, the Kanza foil center is located in the middle of the state, in a city (Salina) of roughly 50,000 residents. The club had a roster of just five active fencers when Kvaratskhelia arrived in 1996 but that number of active competitors had grown to a bustling gym full of 30 fencers in 2005.
During his time at Kanza, Kvaratskhelia worked cooperatively with many coaches from throughout the United States and from overseas. Kanza has hosted an impressive list of nationally-ranked fencers during recent years, with those elite foilists including the likes of Kurt Getz, current Notre Dame sophomore Mark Kubik, Andras Horanyi, Gerek Meinhardt and Tamara Najm. Kanza also welcomed more than 60 out-of-state fencers for its 2005 summer training camps and worked an “exchange” program with clubs in Russia and Ukraine, allowing fencers from his homeland and Kansas to train in an overseas setting. Kanza also has sponsored several community outreach programs in the Salina area while helping grow the sport of fencing throughout the state.
Kvaratskhelia – who became a U.S. citizen in 2004 – developed an elite four-fencer team of youth men’s foilists at Kanza, with that group winning USFA national titles in the open category during 2001, ’02 and ’04. Most recently, the Kanza foilists brought home the bronze from the 2006 USFA Summer Nationals, with that team including Kubik and his younger brother Steve.
Gia Kvaratskhelia (far right) with members of the Kanza Fencing Club men’s foil team that claimed the bronze medal at 2006 Summer Nationals.
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After immigrating to the United States in 1994, Kvaratskhelia stayed active in his own fencing career by competing in domestic and international events. He placed fifth in the open competition at a 1996 North American Cup event and later fenced at World Cup events in 1998 and ’99. Kvaratskhelia first ventured into coaching in 1994, assisting Vladimir Nazlymov (now the head coach at Ohio State) at his Central Fencing Club in Kansas City and at the satellite Lawrence Fencing Club. Two years later, he accepted the challenge in Salina and spent the next 10 years building Kanza into its nationally-recognized status.
Kvaratskhelia grew up in the Soviet republic of Georgia and began fencing in 1988 at the age of 13. He progressed quickly and was a member of the Georgian National Foil Team from 1990-94, during which time he fenced alongside the likes of Vladimir Aptiaouri (who had won the 1988 Olympic gold medal in men’s team foil, as a member of the U.S.S.R. team). Kvaratskhelia took home the bronze medal at the 1990 Soviet Junior National Championship – shortly before Georgia declared its independence – and he later had an impressive 11th-place finish at the 1992 European Championship.
Noted for his tremendous communication skills, Kvaratskhelia is fluent in Russian, Georgian and English. He received his bachelor’s degree in physical education and sport in 1993, from the Georgian State Physical Training Institute in his hometown of Tbilisi. He also received a sports journalism certificate from that institution (in 1992) and pursued graduate studies in journalism at Tbilisi State University in 1993, one year prior to coming to the United States.
Kvaratskhelia and his wife, the former Dani Edson, have a four-year-old daughter Maya.
The “Getting to Know” question-and-answer with Kvaratskhelia is included below and is preceded by comments from Bednarski and Kubik about the new Irish assistant coach.
NOTRE DAME HEAD COACH Janusz Bednarski – “This was a wonderful opportunity for us at Notre Dame to add a great coach of Gia’s caliber and this also is a great opportunity for him at this point in his career. He developed his coaching to the highest level working with kids at his club and I’m very confident that he will have tremendous success here at Notre Dame. … There were other candidates who were interested but we were very impressed with Gia and with what others had to say about his ability as a coach. One of the most important things is how he is giving his heart and energy to every day of his coaching. He is very friendly and kids, parents, everyone likes him a lot. He Is an excellent choice for the Notre Dame fencing program. … Gia is quickly learning about college fencing. He is very intelligent and I am quite impressed with how serious he is about the job. He is very active as a coach and a great communicator. It was very fortunate when I was sick and in the hospital, unable to be here on a regular basis, because Gia had just started and was able to keep things going with practice and just helping the kids. We are very excited for how he can help us in the future and Gia is a perfect fit for Notre Dame and our fencing program.”
NOTRE DAME SOPHOMORE FOILIST Mark Kubik – “Since Gia’s arrival, we really have become a new team. Even after merely a month, our results at the Penn State Open were quite impressive. I believe a lot of this is due to Gia’s presence. He is an incredible coach, to say the least. People have commented on his incredible understanding of many of the mental aspects of the sport. Be it foil, epee or sabre, Gia knows how to develop that winning mentality. He also brings a very modern understanding of foil. He’s the best, it’s that simple. … Gia’s most impressive asset is his ability to motivate hard work. Since his arrival, the overall level of intensity at our practices has increased significantly. Another obvious consequence should be evident next year, in 2007-08. Because of his reputation in the fencing community, Gia’s arrival has stimulated a great deal of interest in being a foilist at Notre Dame. Our sheer foil numbers and the quality of our foil teams next year should reflect that.”
GETTING TO KNOW Gia Kvaratskhelia (interview conducted with assistant sports information director Pete LaFleur; Dec. 19, 2006)
Q: How did you first become interested in the position at Notre Dame?
A: “People were calling and telling me that there was an opening at Notre Dame. I researched to see how big fencing was here, looked at who went to Notre Dame and I decided to come talk to Janusz, but not knowing what I was going to do. Once I got to the campus, I he realized that it was a great opportunity to grow as a coach and take a step forward in my coaching career while developing elite fencers.
Q: And it sounds like meeting Janusz Bednarski helped seal the deal for you.
A: “I’d heard wonderful things about Janusz but meeting him in person when I made my campus visit, it made a big impact for me. He is like a Santa Claus. Many of the kids I knew in fencing were telling me how wonderful Janusz is and how he is such a kind person. That was a big part in my decision. He has given me the freedom to express myself and develop the fencers the way I want to do, which is a bonus to an already great opportunity of being a coach somewhere like Notre Dame.
“I never had looked at Notre Dame because Janusz is so low-key. College coaches usually are pretty arrogant and standoffish but Janusz is totally the opposite. I never had the chance to get to know him and of my fencers had gone to places where I knew the coaches, but I didn’t know Janusz. Once I came to Notre Dame, I just knew I wanted to be there.”
Q: When you first came to Notre Dame, it was extra challenging for a number of reasons, without your wife and daughter here and then with coach Bednarski being out of commission for several weeks due to his appendectomy. Describe the transition you had to undergo.
A: “I am very close to my four-year-old daughter Maya, because my wife Dani is a nurse and works at night. Since my daughter was three month old, I have taken care of her night and day. It has been incredibly painful and hard to not be with her and we have a great bond. Missing my wife and daughter has been the biggest obstacle for me the past few months but we are excited to all be together again. This will be a great environment for our family and for our daughter to grow up in.
“Notre Dame as whole and the fencing gym in particular is so relaxing, it’s just a wonderful place. You get there and throw yourself into the work and the kids are totally committed to you. It is a two-way street – I work hard but I know the kids are going to follow me. All of the captains of the team received me so warmly, especially when Janusz was in the hospital. They have been a great help and support to me. The kids really stepped up to help me a lot.
“We have some very spirited kids on the team, especially a few members of the women’s team. There are the days where I jokingly wonder to myself what I am doing here when the girls get so crazy – but 99 percent of the time I am having a blast. The kids are great. They are sophisticated and understanding of all the challenges they face in the sport of fencing. It is a dream job working with the fencers here at Notre Dame.”
Q: What is the general philosophy behind your coaching style?.
A: “When working with kids, my main motto is positive reinforcement. If they like you and if you are personal with them, they know that you are not just their coach but also their friend and their role model. Kids will give everything they have if you tell them how wonderful they are and how much they can achieve if they work hard, opposed to yelling and screaming, criticizing and putting them down. I learned that with that approach you can get 100 times more, but most importantly you can build them as good human beings. Fencing is a small part of their life and if you contribute to them becoming a good person, everyone wins. They have to know what the goals are, but they also have to enjoy it and love it. If that feeling is not there, then there is no point in doing it. They will know that they have me on their side, as long as they give the effort.”
Q: How will you approach the new task of college recruiting?
A: “That’s an aspect that for me will come very east. For the past 11 years, I have known just about every youth fencer in men’s and women’s foil. I have seen them growing up on the circuit and I know them really well. There is a buzz in the air and we expect to develop a great foil program here at Notre Dame. I think going to all the local, national and international events for more than a decade is going to help give me an edge over other coaches. I am really excited to talk to kids who want to come to Notre Dame.
“A main criterion I use in evaluating fencers is work ethic and dedication to studying. There are a lot of great fencers out there, but many of them go to college and they flame out. It’s important to know the kids who are in love with fencing and to realize that their goals are not just to get to college but to go higher, to win the NCAAs and compete in the Olympics.”
Q: Tell us about your homeland, the place where you first developed your love of fencing.
A: “I was born in 1971 in Tbilisi, which is the capital of the Republic of Georgia. It is located south of Russia and north of Turkey. It is a continuation of the Mediterranean, right at the Black Sea. It is 36,000 square miles, which is comparable to the size of West Virginia.”
Q: How big of a sport is fencing in Georgia?
A: “Georgia used to be part of the Soviet Republic and now is an independent state. Up until the 1992 Olympics, we participated as part of the Soviet state. Georgia has a population of only four-and-a-half million people but we had two Olympic champions in fencing and close to 15 world champions, plus numerous junior world champions. Fencing is a top-five sport in Georgia and people would know the fencers’ names and would recognize them in the papers. People follow fencing very closely there. In the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Georgia won 12 medals and four were gold, including one in fencing. There also were four silver and four bronze. We sent 16 competitors to the Olympics that year and 12 came back with medals.
“Fencing is big all through Russia and the former parts of the Soviet Union. Georgia is probably one of the top-five fencing areas in the old Soviet Union, with the top being Russia, Ukraine and Belarus, all of which are much larger in population. There was 70 years of history that Georgia was part of the USSR.”
Q: How did you get involved in fencing?
A: “When I was 13, I started fencing in PE class. I was encouraged by my parents and my mother Tsiuri had fenced briefly in college. There were 60 kids who tried out in the class but five years later I was the only one who had stayed with it. My mother was involved in some athletics, mainly shooting and fencing, mostly at the recreational level. My father Noshrevn played soccer recreationally with his friends.
“Fencing was the first competitive sport I tried. I played soccer and tried swimming and basketball but I was pretty much denied because of my height and athletic ability at that time. I might have been athletic enough but not strong enough. The sports are competitive over there, it is not like the YMCA over where everyone could try it.
“Fencing came by surprise and I fell in love with it from the start. I liked the individual aspect of fencing. You were on your own and nobody could help you make decisions. If you win, as a little kid, you get all the glory. One year later, I got lucky to meet my coach and he currently is an assistant coach at Ohio State, Gia Abachidze. He coaches the foil fencers at Ohio State. We later came over to the states at the same time in 1994.
“My older brother Alex was a soccer player and was into playing the piano. When I got older, enough my parents were burned out on the piano. So I stuck with the fencing and it was the only sport I ever wanted to do. I ended up focusing on it the rest of my life.”
Q: It didn’t take you long to make an impact on the national-team level. Walk us through those years.
A: “In 1986, I first became one of the four fencers in boys foil on the Georgian Cadet National Team, which is for fencers under 17 years old. I had started fencing in 1983 and then, in ’84, Gia Abachidze had taken me as a student after he had retired from his own fencing career. My first year in fencing had been tough because they tried to make me fence epee and I was not getting very good coaching. So 1984, when I started working with Gia, is when things began progressing for me.
“In 1987, I made the Georgian Junior National Team, which is for fencers under-20, and I became the Georgian national junior champion. I participated in various cadet and junior World Cups during 1987 and ’88 and medaled at events in Germany and St. Petersburg. Then, in 1989, I became a member of the full Georgian Senior National Team. I was progressing very quickly because of the environment and the excellent coaching. I was the winner of a big tournament, the Georgia Cup, when I was just 18 years old. The other three men’s foilists on the national team at that time were maybe 20, 25 and 26 years old, so I was definitely the youngest in that group. One of my teammates was Vladimir Aptiaouri, who had won the 1988 Olympic gold medal in men’s team foil. He was part of a great USSR foil team that included Anvar Ibraguimov, Boris Koretsky, Ilgar Mamedov and Aleksander Romankov.”
“I fenced against Vladimir several times in practice and at competitions. In 1989, he beat him in the final of the Georgian Championship. That was just one year after he had been an Olympic champion. I was ranked second in all of Georgia rankings and was in the top-10 in the Soviet junior standings for 1990. That also was the year that Georgia declared its independence from the Soviet Union and for a year and half we did not get recognized from the international Olympic committee as an independent federation and we could not participate in any competitions for almost two years.
“In 1992, we competed in the European Championships in Portugal as an independent state for the first time. I finished 11th in that competition. This was an open senior competition and I was only 21 years old at that time. Then, in 1993, I was second at a World Cup in Tehran. In 1992, it was a commonwealth team that went to the Olympics and the team was too strong for me to make it. And then, by 1996, I could not qualify for the Olympic team because of my immigration status, I already was living in the United States.”
Q: What did you learn from being coached by Gia Abachidze, who interestingly now coaches at one of Notre Dame’s biggest rivals in fencing, Ohio State?
A: “Gia was coaching me all through the time before I came to the U.S., aside from a few coaches I had with the national teams. I really liked his coaching style. He was pretty mellow but had a very good knowledge of the sport. He had been a member of the Soviet team before being a coach and had fenced with the best of the best. He was a three-time Soviet Union champion and European champion. He was not as crazy as many Russian coaches are described. He was very balanced between intensity and calmness. He would explain and take your strengths and weaknesses and work to perfect your actions. He could observe what each fencer and each opponent possessed and would work on those things to help produce success in the bouts. He would take strengths and try to capitalize on them.”
Q: What did your family think of your quick success in fencing?
A: “My mother was my biggest critic. She and my father always told me that if I was going to do something, I better do my best. Sometimes it was even harder, because so much of my life was fencing. People expected me to do well because of the time I put into it. There were many morning workouts and national-team programs that affected my schedule.”
Q: How did you end up coming to the United States?
A: “I came to the states in 1994 after Georgia had went to civil war in 1991 and 1992. There was no financing there for the fencing team and the country was on the verge of collapse. I decided to try my strengths here and competed in a North American Cup in New York. I was second in one of the N.A.C.s and fifth in another one. Without being a citizen of the United States, I didn’t have a shot to make the national teams here.
Q: And then you entered a new phase in your life as a coach.
A: “In 1996, I ended up in Kansas City for a few months with Vladimir Nazlymov, who is now the head coach at Ohio State. He had his own club there, the Central Fencing Club, and also coached the high school team. He had been in Kansas City for four or five years. I knew I could not compete in the World Cups or Olympics, so I decided to become a coach.
“I had some coaching offers in L.A. and Arkansas but I wanted to test myself instead of going to some huge fencing center. I wanted to go somewhere by my own and see what I could do with it. I met with a guy Merle `Boo’ Hodges, from Salina, Kansas, and I worked with him for 10 years. He was a doctor and had just a little bit of experience with fencing but he gave me the opportunity to be a coach by running the Kanza Fencing Club in Salina, Kansas. It was one of the best decisions to do this. I met my wife and was able to develop fencers and be a good coach.
“I kept competing and went to the 1998 and 1999 World Championships for the Republic of Georgia and also competed in some local competitions to show my students what the demeanor, intensity and sportsmanship are supposed to be like.”
Q: It seems that the Soviet influence on U.S. fencing, particularly on the collegiate level, has become substantial over the years.
A: “No question, the Russian and Soviet influence on American fencing is huge. Russians have a huge influence on what fencing has become over the past 10-15 years. Russian-run teams are closer, tighter units. Poland also was a big part of the Eastern European powerhouse. Of course, Janusz is from Poland, as is Ed Korfanty, the sabre coach in Portland who has developed so many of the great fencers we have here at Note Dame.
“And then you have Vladimir Nazlymov and Gia Abachidze at Ohio State. At St. John’s, Yury Gelman and his top assistant Mikhail Shimshovich both are Ukranian. And then at Penn State, the head coach Emmanuil Kaidanov came from the U.S.S.R. and his longtime assistant Wes Glon is from Poland, as is the Wayne State Jerzy Radz who has brought some great epeeists into college fencing. Even down in Atlanta, Arkady Burdan came over from the U.S.S.R. He has coached the Jacobson sisters in sabre. Many of these coaches I have mentioned also have become important coaches for U.S. Fencing. When you look at this group, it’s obvious the great impact that the Soviet and Polish coaches have made on college fencing. With Notre Dame, Penn State, St. John’s and Ohio State, those are four great programs that all are led by Russian or Polish coaches.”
Q: Getting back to your club in Kansas, many of the Kanza fencers went on to compile some impressive results.
A: “Yes, my students in Kansas have won over nearly 50 national medals in every age category, including three who won national titles. Five of the kids went on to earn Division I scholarships, plus Mark Kubik who now is at Notre Dame. He was primarily coached by his father but I also coached him some over the years. One of the kids from the club was Chris Miller, who was a North American Cup finalist in the open category while he was in high school and then went on to have a good career at Penn State. There also was Ryan Dunn and Christine Tillman, who both went to Air Force. Ryan was a seven-time national medalist as a youth fencer. Our club also produced Calina Artsy, who became a junior national champion in women’s foil.”
Q: It wasn’t just kids from Kansas who came to your club. How did you attract fencers from all over the nation?
A: “Some kids would come to our club from out of state, from Virginia and Texas. Some would drive from as far as Kansas City. We did several international camps for national teams and Ukranian teams. The top three kids from New York and California came to the summer camp to train for us. At one point, we had the top three in juniors and cadets training at the same time in our club in Kansas . One of my friends, Slava Grigoriev, is a two-time Olympian who ran the camps with me in Kansas. There also was the case where people saw our kids from Kansas winning the medals. You establish contacts and one fencer comes in and then it spreads and there is more interest and you become the person to go to. People realized we had a serious fencing club and they were interested in checking us out.”
Q: Looking back at those 10 years, how much work did you put into the process of making a fencing club in Kansas so successful?
A: “Before I got there, the club met just once a week. I think if you work really hard and know what you are doing and put all heart and soul into it, good things will happen. The first five years, I hardly took any days off. I put all his dedication, energy and desire into the fencing club and established the first layer of kids. After that, I had to keep up the work and things start happening for me and the club.”
Q: Your English is excellent. Did you have a lot of exposure to the language as you were growing up?
A: “I was taught English in school, along with Georgian and Russian. English was the third language. I didn’t really study much English and had to start from scratch when I came to the states. I knew some words and phrases. In Kansas, where there are no immigrants, I had to know how to speak English. I got married to my wife Dani Edson, who is American, and I have known her for six years. She is a cardiac intensive care nurse. I speak to my daughter Maya in Georgian and my wife speaks to her in English.”
Q: Speaking of your family, you had mentioned that your wife and daughter soon will be joining you here at Notre Dame.
A: “Our family is excited for the move, but of course there is the stress of moving and finding a house. Notre Dame provides a great environment. I went to some football game this fall and saw little girls my daughter’s age who had the cheerleader outfits and Notre Dame t-shirts on and they were being involved. I’m really looking forward to that for her. I am a big-time Kansas University basketball fan but now football will be a big deal for me as well.”
Q: Give us some of your early observations about the current Notre Dame foilists.
A: “Jakub Jedrkowiak is the most technical and complete product I have ever seen in his life. If we could put a little fire in this guy, he could be back to the world level and be really good while also being dominant in the NCAA competitions. Mark Kubik of course is a fencer who I have known for several years. It was kind of disappointing with his finish last year at the NCAAs but I am totally positive that he will turn it around and bring a lot of wins for Notre Dame. Frankie Bontempo is an amazing fencer. Give him another year to train really hard and he will prove how great he is. His talent got overlooked when he was younger and he could have been a totally different fencer.
“Adrienne Nott is another fencer who I already was familiar with and she is a finished product, you just have to polish it every day. She is one of the toughest competitors I have ever seen. That girl will never quit and she is so technically advanced due to her great coaching from New York. Plus, being lefthanded give her a big advantage. They say that only 30% of fencers are lefthanded but 70% of world champions are lefthanders. It’s like in tennis with the tough angles it provides. It’s a big advantage especially in foil, because the target angle is smaller and the angle is different.”
“The sky is the limit for Melanie Bautista, if she keeps working as hard as she does. With the talent she has, she could go a lot further than anyone could anticipate. That is amazing since she has such little background in fencing, but sometimes there are kids like that and it just blows you away. Emilie Prot is an incredible fencer who people might overlook. She is one of the most talented and technical fencers that I’ve ever seen. We need to work on her psychological aspect to the point where she feels like she belongs at the top. If she breaks past that, she will be amazing.
“I think years to come we will be one of the best foil programs in the nation and I’m extremely excited to be involved with so many great fencers here at Notre Dame.”