Dec. 18, 2001
NOTRE DAME, Ind. – Coming off a year in which he was honored as the national coach of the year, Notre Dame fencing coach Yves Auriol has announced that he intends to retire from coaching following the 2001-02 season
Auriol — who has coached the Irish women’s fencing team since 1985, in addition to spending the past seven years as Notre Dame’s men’s fencing coach — guided Notre Dame to a third-place finish at the 2001 NCAA Combined Fencing Championships.
The Irish men posted a 25-0 regular-season record and were ranked No. 1 in the nation, while the women were 21-4 and ranked fourth nationally. An unprecedented six Notre Dame men’s fencers earned All-America honors in 2001, while two Irish women’s fencers earned All-America status.
His peers recognized Auriol as the 2001 national collegiate coach of the year, as announced in July at the annual meeting of the United States Fencing Coaches Association (USFCA).
“Seventeen years ago, I decided to come to Notre Dame because of its reputation and what the school stands for,” says Auriol.
“My time at Notre Dame has been very rewarding and there are many people who have made the fencing program such a great success. I’m very excited about the upcoming season and we certainly could have the makings to win a national championship.
“Then it will be time for someone else to take over the program, and I’ll do everything I can to help make that transition a smooth one.”
During Auriol’s tenure, his Notre Dame fencers have combined for 59 All-America honors (six of them NCAA champions), plus five Academic All-America citations. His 1987 squad claimed the NCAA women’s fencing title while his ’94 women’s squad helped Notre Dame win the NCAA combined title. In seven other seasons under Auriol, Irish teams have finished as the NCAA runner-up.
“Yves may be as well respected as anyone in the country when it comes to fencing, and his record over the years is a great indicator of that,” says Irish athletics director Kevin White.
“It will be a huge challenge for us to maintain the level of success he has achieved in his time at Notre Dame. It’s an impressive legacy he leaves behind.”
Auriol — whose squad is set to return 11 of its NCAA competitors from 2001 while welcoming a highly-accomplished freshman class — also recently was presented with an honorary monogram by the Notre Dame National Monogram Club, in recognition of his many years of quality service to the Irish fencing program.
Auriol’s women’s teams have lost just 22 matches during his tenure (344-22) and his 2000 men’s squad produced three fencers who placed among the top three in their respective weapons at the NCAAs — a feat matched just once previously in the program’s storied history.
A native of France, Auriol graduated in 1955 from Lycee de Toulouse before earning a master’s degree as a fencing master from the Institute National du Sport in Paris. He moved in 1972 to Portland, Ore., where he formed the Salle Auriol Fencing Club and spent some time as the women’s fencing coach at Portland State from 1975-85.
A former professional rugby player, he joined Notre Dame in the summer of 1985 and serves as an instructor in the physical education department.
Auriol has served as a coach with the United States team at three Olympic Games (1980-88) while also helping coach U.S. fencers at various world championship events in the late 1970s.
Under Auriol’s tutelage, former Notre Dame All-American Molly Sullivan was a two-time NCAA champion and led the Irish to the ’87 national title. She won a gold medal at the 1986 Pan Am Games before competing in the ’88 and ’92 Olympics. Another fencer from the Auriol era, four-time All-America epeeist Nicole Mustilli, was a member of the United States women’s sabre squad that won the gold medal at the 2000 World Championships.
Auriol and his wife, Georgette, are parents of a son, Stephane, a four-year foilist on the Notre Dame fencing team who graduated in 1999. The couple resides in Elkhart, Ind., where Auriol is an active participant in the local tennis scene.
The University later in the academic year will conduct a search for a successor for Auriol.
Auriol’s final Notre Dame squad appears poised to make another run at the national title, with 11 of 12 competitors, eight of them All-Americans, returning from the team’s 2001 NCAA contingent (junior foilist Forest Walton is studying in Rome as part of his architecture curriculum). Five newcomers also are expected to be NCAA contenders, including Walton’s sister Kerry, the nation’s number-two-ranked under-20 women’s epeeist (she did not fence for the Irish as a freshman).
Notre Dame fencers fared well in two individual tournaments during November, with freshman men’s epeeist Michal Sobieraj winning a 100-fencer competition at the Northwestern Open — while seniors Andre Crompton and Andrzej Bednarski placed second and third, respectively, in the men’s sabre competition. Irish fencers then won four of six events at the prestigious Penn State Open, with the Notre Dame champions including senior women’s sabre Carianne McCullough, junior men’s foilist Ozren Debic (who also placed 24th at the recent World Championships), junior men’s epeeist Jan Viviani and freshman women’s foilist Alicja Kryczalo.
Most recently, Notre Dame fencers turned in impressive results at the Dec. 8-9 North American Cup in Palm Springs, Calif. Kryczalo and fellow freshman Andrea Ament (the top-ranked U.S. under-20 women’s foilist) placed third and sixth, respectively, in the elite women’s foil field while Walton was seventh in women’s epee. Freshman Derek Snyder (number three in the U.S. under-20 rankings) and Debic were 10th and 11th in the men’s foil competition, with Sobieraj (11th) and Viviani (12th) also posting top finishes in men’s epee.