High Desert Fencing Club finds new home

The High Desert Fencing Club has been looking for a new home to train their fencers, and now they have found it.

Back in April, NewsChannel 21 visited the club’s old facility as they were hoping for help from the community to find a new home.

They were able to find a new home on the south end of town. just off of Highway 97.

With better facilities, the club is now looking to expand their outreach in the community.

And they hope to be able to better train their competitive fencers as well.

We spoke Wednesday with two of those competitive fencers, who have see some success recently in national tournaments.

They said the new place is much better and will help them to better their fencing skills, as well as teach the younger fencers who come into the club.

Olivia Barnes said, “It helps a lot more to have this new facility where it’s not a garage door. Lots of times the smoke would leak in and we couldn’t even see halfway across the building because it was so smoky, and then no one would show up in those times again.”

Fellow fencer Michele Bodon said this new facility is creating a much more inclusive environment.

“If there is a whole class, the whole club has to kind of dedicate to that, because there is not that much space. So it definitely adds a lot more interaction between skilled fencers and beginners,” Bodon said.

The High Desert Fencing Club has been around for the past 25 years and is completely run by volunteers.

The new facility now has spectator areas, changing rooms, personal lockers and a tool bench to repair malfunctioning blades.

Club President Randall Barna said the new facility is a huge upgrade for his club.

With this new space, he hopes to be able to reach out to the community and get more people involved in the sport.

They have a partnership with Bend Parks and Recreation to get more people in there for classes.

Barna said fencing is a sport that really can appeal to a lot of people, because it requires both physical fitness and the ability to think quickly.

“Fencing is like physical chess,” he said. “There’s a lot of history and tradition and athleticism, but still strategy and cunning, and courtesies that you don’t see in other sports. So there’s a really special person who’s attracted to this, and we want to be able to provide that, because every single person needs to be accessible to sports and have fun at it.”

Barna said the community that’s been built at High Desert Fencing is something he’s proud of, and he hopes it will grow with this new facility.

If you would like more information on the High Desert Fencing Club, click here.