Red Door Fencing, located in Des Moines’ historic East Village, is an epee club that promotes competitive and recreational fencing by providing quality instruction, a safe and supportive training environment, and fostering personal growth and community engagement.
We offer beginner classes, lessons, and training for children, teens, and adults. Our fencers compete in local, regional, and national tournaments, and we host additional educational opportunities (referee seminars, coaching workshops, fencing/training camps, etc.) and tournaments.
We are an affiliate member of USA Fencing, the national governing body for the sport in the U.S., and a 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
Last Saturday, Sarah, Nick, Daniel, and Jack drove down to Kansas City for the Heartland Fencing Academy’s Summer Challenge tournament. Daniel brought home the gold medal, Sarah tied for 3rd, Jack tied for 6th, and Nick finished 8th. Coach Kevin stayed back to run lessons and practice at the club, but we all worked together and coached each other. Thanks to HFA for hosting!
Jack fleches in a 15-point bout at HFA’s Summer ChallengeNick counterattacks as Daniel lunges during a direct elimination bout at the HFA Summer Challenge
Congratulations to Daniel and Jack for qualifying for Summer National Championships in Division 2 & 3 Men’s Epee at Iowa Divisionals last weekend! The competition in Minneapolis in July will be the first national championship tournament for both fencers.
Ben and Brevan traveled to Lincoln, NE today to fence at the Capitol City Youth Classic tournament. Ben tied for 3rd and Brevan finished 5th! Ben did a great job helping his less-experienced teammate, and Brevan learned a lot from fencing new and different people! Our friends at the Lincoln Fencing Club hosted another excellent event.
Huge thank you to everyone who volunteered to help set up, tear down, take on miscellaneous tasks, as well as our referees, families, coaches and 75 fencers who came out to our big annual tournament last Sunday! We really appreciate everyone’s flexibility in dealing with the last-minute venue change as well. We saw a lot of excellent fencing from our RDF athletes and fencers from across the Midwest (and beyond!).
In Senior Mixed Open Epee: 15th – Daniel 18th – Nick 26th – Jack 30th – Mat 36th – Chantal 40th – Natasha
Senior Mixed Open Top 8: 1st – Yuly Suvorov (SAS), 2nd – Brad Tucker (LFC), 3rd + C22 – James Burgess (HFA), 3rd – Joe Butler (LFC), 5th + D22 – Kailan Benford, 6th – Emma Buckingham (BBF), 7th + D22 – John Christian (BBF), 8th + D22 – Avi Limer (TCFC)
In D & Under Mixed Epee: 6th – Mat 9th – Steve 11th – Jack 14th – Cheryl 18th – Alex 21st – Natasha 24th – Chantal 28th – Campbell 30th – Erin 31st – Sophie
D & Under Top 8: 1st + C22 – Avi Limer (TCFC), 2nd – Ben Takata (CBA), 3rd + D22 – Quinn Bissen (TCFC), 3rd + D22 – James Burgess (HFA), 5th – Jay Johnson (HFA), 6th – Mat Johnstone (RDF), 7th + E22 – Kailan Benford, 8th + E22 – Thomas Fitzgerald (CIFA)
This was also a good follow-up to the Iowa Division referee seminar that we hosted back in January. The local referees have had a few tournaments to work on their skills and incorporate feedback from the seminar, and at this event had a chance for more feedback from Certified Referee Observer Essene Waters. We really appreciate her instruction and professionalism, as well as the hard work and improvement from the referees!
Unfortunately between keeping everything running and refereeing, Kevin and Sarah weren’t able to take many photos, but hopefully everyone’s families has a chance to get some good shots!
Quinn v. Ben (foreground) and James v. Avi (background) in D & Under semifinal bouts
It’s a little north of our original facility, east of Merle Hay Mall. Event times are all still the same. Apologies again, and we hope to see you all on Sunday!
At the Iowa State University Fencing Club’s Frosty tournament on Sunday, 8 RDF fencers competed in several events. In Senior Mixed Epee, Daniel tied for 3rd, Sarah was 5th, Mat finished 7th, Jack placed 8th, Campbell came in 17th, Nick was 18th, Natasha finished 19th, and Chantal was 29th. Jack also earned his E22 rating/classification! In Senior Women’s Epee, Sarah tied for 3rd, Tasha was 5th, with Chantal close behind at 6th. (And Mat also tied for 3rd in saber the day before!) There were a lot of close and well-fenced matches!
Last Sunday, many of our youth fencers competed at our Equinox Epee Youth tournament. We usually hold these events in the same large venue as the rest of the Equinox events, but due to gym availability this year, we split out the youth events into their own tournament, held at the club.
We had 6 kids fence in Y10 Mixed Epee, 4 in Y12, and 7 in Y14. It was the first tournament for quite a few of them, and the younger ones are looking forward to fencing each other more during regular youth practices in April. Everyone did a great job using the skills they’ve been working on in lessons and displaying excellent sportsmanship.
Everyone also earned Heartland Youth Circuit points, and we’ll make those awards at the end of the season.
Cheryl, Sarah, and RDF alum Evan (who fences at ICFC now that he attends U of I), competed at the Arnold Fencing Classic Regional Open Circuit tournament last Friday and Saturday in Columbus, OH. In Veteran Women’s Epee, Cheryl tied for 3rd, got a cool-lookin’ medal, and is now qualified for Veteran Women’s Epee at Summer Nationals. Sarah placed 7th in Div 2 Women’s Epee and 10th in Div 1A, missing the medals by a single point but still qualifying for Summer Nationals in both events. Evan finished 37th in Div 2 Men’s Epee and 62nd in Div 1A.
The final schedule for the (now not-quite-appropriately-named) Equinox Epee is two events on Sunday, April 10: Senior Mixed Epee at 9 am and D & Under Mixed Epee at 1 pm. Unfortunately, we’ve had to cancel the smallest event, Women’s Epee.
The venue is the old Franklin Jr. High, which was used as a megachurch before being purchased by a private entity that is trying to creatively repurpose it. Parking and entrance are on the northeast side, off 48th St. in Des Moines.
We’ve rescheduled the senior events (D & Under, Mixed, Women’s) for the Equinox Epee tournament from March 26-27 to April 9-10 (yes, it is no longer anywhere near the actual spring equinox, but we’re sticking with the name). The Y10, Y12, and Y14 events will be held at the club on Sunday, March 27, and you can sign up for those here: https://askfred.net/Events/moreInfo.php?tournament_id=50113
There are a couple reasons for the reschedule: April 9-10 is a better date for referees and we need enough lead time to get plane tickets for a higher level referee (we like to use this as a training & development opportunity for local referees), the Minnesota division has scheduled a tournament for the original weekend, and the school district whose facilities we used to use no longer allows tape on their floors, so we’re working on an alternative facility. The amount of space and time we get will determine the schedule of events, so please don’t make any non-refundable travel plans yet. If you preregister for the tournament on askFred, you will receive an email as soon as we know the schedule.
We’re not currently planning to do youth events on April 9-10, but depending on how much time/space we can get, we may add a 4th event.
red door fencing 