Current assistant gets retiring coach's recommendation
By MIKE CONNOLLY
Sports Writer
If all goes according to current fencing head coach Yves Auriol's plan, Janusz Bednarski will become the next head coach of Notre Dame's storied fencing program.
Bednarski currently serves as an assistant coach on the team and seems to be the natural choice to replace Auriol when he retires. He is also Auriol's recommendation for the next head coach.
"Hopefully Janusz will be the head coach here," Auriol said. "I am confident that Janusz will keep the program at a high level. He is a top coach."
Although Auriol has already made his preference known, assistant athletic director Bernard Muir, who oversees the fencing team, said no decision about the next head coach has been made. The search for the next head coach has not even officially begun yet.
"We haven't really set a firm time line," Muir said. "Our hope is that sometime around the [NCAA] championship we will know."
The athletic department has yet to determine who will even be involved in the search for a new coach, according to Muir. But Muir said any recommendation Auriol made would be taken seriously.
Between 20 and 30 different coaches have expressed interest in becoming Notre Dame's next head coach, according to former head fencing coach Mike De Cicco. Included on that list, according to De Cicco, is Tim Glass, a former Irish epee two time All-American who helped the Irish win the national title in 1977 and qualified for the 1980 Olympic games.
When De Cicco retired in 1995, he hand-picked Auriol as his successor. This time, however, he said he will not play a major role in choosing the next head coach.
He did, however, say Bednarski would be a good choice.
During his six years as an assistant, Bednarski has worked mainly with the sabre fencers and coached two individual national champions — Luke LaValle in 1998 and Gabor Szelle in 2000. His sabre squad ranks at or near the top of the collegiate fencing world every year.
"I think the fencers will respect Janusz because he has improved and developed the sabre fencers so much," Auriol said.
Bednarski is also the head coach of the Indiana Fencing Academy in Mishawaka. This academy has produced some of the top collegiate fencers in America, including Irish All-Americans Brian Casas and Anna Carnick. Bednarski's son Andrzej also trained at the academy. Andrzej is currently a fifth-year senior at Notre Dame and has earned All-American honors three times.
Bednarski's recruiting ability is one of his major strengths. As the former coach of the Polish Olympic team, he is well respected by the international fencing community — especially in his native Poland. He was key in bringing top freshman recruits like Alicja Kryczalo and Michal Sobeiraj to Notre Dame.
"Janusz is an excellent coach and a great recruiter," De Cicco said. "Some of the top fencers we have right now are part of the respect that Janusz has in the fencing community both nationally and internationally."
Sabre captain Andre Crompton believes that being a strong international recruiter should be a key criteria in picking the next head coach.
"They need to have someone who is going to be vocal and knows how to recruit and bring people in here," he said. "If you look across the board [at the top fencing schools], that's what they are doing now. They are recruiting big and not spending the time to fine tune a fencer. They are recruiting big and fast. That's what [2001 national champion] St. John's and [2001 runner-up] Penn State are doing. We need to do the same thing."
While Bednarski may have the skills to replace Auriol as head coach, he will not be able to replace Auriol as an epee and foil coach. Bednarski has focused on coaching sabre while Auriol has concentrated on the other two weapons. Auriol, however, has also hand-picked a new foil and epee coach as well.
Zoltan Dudas, formerly of Hungry, appears to be Auriol's choice for assistant coach next year. In fact, Auriol has been trying to being Dudas on board this year to assist with coaching foil and epee, but has had problems getting past red tape and paper work. Auriol hoped that Dudas would be approved within the next week.
"I have been trying to get him here to start helping," Auriol said. "Some people aren't getting lessons because we are short handed."
Currently Dudas is Bednarski's assistant at the Indiana Fencing Academy. Before moving to the South Bend area in October, he was a coach in the Cleveland area. In Cleveland he coached current Irish freshman Andrea Ament for the past two and a half seasons — ever since he moved to the U.S.
"I have been working with him for two years so I would love it if he moved here," Ament said. "I have been working with Hungarian coaches for years. He has a good style."
Although Auriol has made his choice known and appears to have addressed the need for a foil and epee specialist as well, the final decision in hiring a head coach rests with University President Father Edward Malloy.
Muir, however, expressed hope that a new coach would be in place by the NCAA Championships on March 21-24.
All Sports Stories for Wednesday, January 30, 2002
