Buckie Leach 2020-21 Fencing Staff

Buckie Leach joined the Notre Dame fencing staff as an assistant coach prior to the 2016-17 season. The legendary foil specialist came to the Irish from U.S. Fencing, at the conclusion of his second stint as the United States National Women’s Foil Team coach, after the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janiero in 2016.

Leach oversaw the growth in Stefani Deschner’s career junior season in 2019-20. Deschner earned her first ACC Championship after defeating teammate Morgan Partridge in the Foil Championships. Deschner earned an at-large berth to the NCAA Championship after finishing third at the Midwest Regionals. Following the season, Deschner was named the ACC Fencer of the Year for Women’s Foil and was named ACC Fencing Scholar-Athlete of the year. She was also Notre Dame’s nominee for ACC Female Athlete of the Year.

Leach, a native of Ithaca, New York, and a 2013 Fencing Hall of Fame inductee, combines the ability to develop talent to world-class levels, and to bring results on the biggest stages. During his career, his students have included seven Olympians (at least one on each U.S. Olympic Team since 1996); two Under-20 World Champions; five Under-17 World Champions; three World Championship bronze medalists; an Olympic Silver Medalist; four NCAA Champions; several collegiate All-Americans; and numerous U.S. National Champions.

Leach first served as U.S. National Women’s Foil Coach from 1996-2004. In Atlanta, the U.S. was led by a seventh-place finish from Ann Marsh, and a 10th-place finish from the women’s foil squad (which included Notre Dame’s Sara Walsh as a replacement athlete). Four years later in Sydney, the U.S. women — led by Marsh and Felicia and Iris Zimmermann — took fourth place in the team event.

In his second term as U.S. National Women’s Foil coach, the U.S. qualified the maximum two fencers for Rio — Notre Dame senior Lee Kiefer (ranked third in the world at the time), and Nzingha Prescod (ranked eleventh). The U.S. women’s foil team — with Kiefer, Prescod, Nicole Ross, and Irish sophomore Sabrina Massialas — finished in fifth place in the 2016 World Championships (there was no women’s team foil event in Rio).

During this Olympic cycle, U.S. women foilists have earned 10 individual and six team medals.

Leach has excelled as a club coach in addition to his national team accomplishments. From 1981-2001, he built the Rochester (N.Y.) Fencing Centre into a national powerhouse, placing more athletes onto U.S. National and Olympic Teams during that time frame. In 2001, he moved to New York City’s famous Fencers Club and continued to develop national-caliber fencers.

Leach earned his fencing master’s certificate from the American Fencing Academy in 1979.