May 16, 2002
Notre Dame, Ind. – Former Poland Olympic coach Janusz (pronounced YON-ush) Bednarski has been named head men’s and women’s fencing coach at the University of Notre Dame following eight seasons as an assistant coach on the Irish fencing staff.
Bednarski replaces Yves Auriol, who announced his resignation prior to the 2002 season which marked his seventh as head coach of both the Notre Dame men’s and women’s programs – and his 17th overseeing the Irish women’s program.
A Warsaw native, Bednarski served as head coach of his native Poland’s Olympic Team from 1978-88. During that 10-year span, members of those teams won 11 medals at the Olympic Games and World Championships.
Formerly a member of Poland’s national sabre team, Bednarski received the prestigious Polish Silver Cross of Merit for his accomplishments with the Olympic Team and for his achievements at the Olympic Games and at the World Championships as a coach and team captain. Bednarski has been a vital member of a Notre Dame fencing program that has remained among the nation’s best – with the Irish finishing as NCAA runnerup every year from 1996-2000, in addition to third-place finishes in 1995, 2001 and ’02.
“Notre Dame’s fencing tradition ranks second to none, and Janusz will enable us to continue that level of success,” says Notre Dame director of athletics Kevin White. “His international experience and connections, combined with his teaching expertise, assuredly will help our program remain among the elite in the collegiate fencing world. In addition, his familiarity with the program and our institution, based on his eight years as an assistant, should make for a seamless transition.”
In addition to his training duties, Bednarski also has helped coordinate the Notre Dame recruiting effort that has fortified the Irish program for another run at the national title in 2003. The current junior class includes a trio of three-time All-Americans and team captains, in men’s epeeist Jan Viviani, men’s foilist Ozren Debic and women’s epeeist Anna Carnick – with Debic (126-7, .947) and Viviani (118-14, .894) owning the top career winning percentages in Notre Dame history for their respective weapons.
The current freshman class includes a pair of accomplished fencers from Bednarski’s native Poland, women’s foilist Alicja Kryczalo and men’s epeeist Michal Sobieraj, in addition to foilists Derek Snyder and Andrea Ament. Each of those four freshmen earned All-America honors at the 2002 NCAA Championships, with Kryczalo going undefeated (23-0) in the NCAA round-robin bouts before beating Ament in the gold-medal matchup (Ament’s only losses in the NCAAs came versus her teammate).
Sophomore women’s epeeist Kerry Walton also flourished in the 2002 season, winning the NCAA title before taking home the bronze medal at the World Junior Championships and claiming the gold at the U.S. Open Championships.
During Bednarski’s eight seasons as an assistant coach, the Notre Dame men’s and women’s teams have combined to win 93.6 percent of their dual matches (382-26), with the 189-11 men’s record in that span including an active 59-match winning streak that ranks third-longest in the program’s history and longest since 1988. The Irish men’s team held the nation’s number-one ranking in both the 2001 and 2002 final coaches’ polls.
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| Janusz Bednarski |
Bednarski’s work with Notre Dame fencers has made a significant impact on recent team and individual results, particularly in sabre and epee. Under Bednarski’s tutelage, three Irish men’s fencers – Bill Lester, Luke LaValle and Gabor Szelle – combined over a six-year stretch (1995-2000) to win two gold, two silver and one bronze medal in the NCAA sabre competition. Many others coached by Bednarski have earned All-America honors, including his son Andrzej (a three-time All-America performer).
During Bednarski’s tenure at Notre Dame, Irish sabre fencers have combined to earn All-America honors 16 times (out of a possible 22), with women’s sabre making its NCAA debut in 2000. The Notre Dame men’s sabre squad posted the maximum two All-Americans in each of Bednarski’s first six seasons (1996-2001), with that consistent level of success unmatched by any other Notre Dame weapon during that six-year stretch.
Bednarski recently tutored two-time men’s sabre All-American and 2002 captain Andre Crompton, who currently stands 20th in the U.S. national rankings for senior men’s sabres. He also oversaw the career of women’s sabre captain Carianne McCullough (2000-02), who joined the program as a walk-on before developing into a nationally-ranked competitor and earning All-America honors at the 2002 NCAAs.
Bednarski, who in 1988 moved from Poland to the United States, currently serves as head coach of the Escrime du Lac Fencing Club (also known as the Indiana Fencing Academy) in Mishawaka, Ind. He previously coached the United States squad at the 1993 and ’94 Junior World Championships and also was designated as a coach for the 1992 Junior Pan American Games. His pupils have competed in the Olympic Games, World Championships and World Cups in all age categories.
He has been a member of many advisory panels for the U.S. Fencing Association, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association. He is licensed by Federation International D’Escrime as an “A” category fencing director and one of just a handful of fencing specialists in North America who are ranked by the International Fencing Federation. Bednarski’s wide-reaching fencing experience also includes participating in the organization efforts for World Championships held in Denver (1989 and ’91) and in South Bend (2000). In 1997 and ’99 he was selected as Midwest Region coach of the year by the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association.
Fluent in several foreign languages, Bednarski in 1970 received his master’s degree in business from the prestigious SGPiS Business College in Warsaw, where he was working as a lecturer in economics. He obtained his coaching diploma from the Academy of Physical Education in 1978 and has published several articles on coaching, effective club management and counseling of athletes.
A resident of Granger, Ind., Bednarski and his wife, Izabella, have two sons, Michael, 29, and Andrzej, 23, a fifth-year student on the 2002 Notre Dame men’s sabre squad.