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 Jennifer Salmon
Coach Jennie started fencing in high school at Lakeland Regional in Wanaque, NJ where she won numerous individual titles and received multiple all-district and all-state honors. She was a double individual gold medalist at the Garden State Games by winning both the junior and open events in the same year. She went on to win a full scholarship to Temple University where she trained under Nikki Franke, 1976 and 1980 United States Olympic Team Member. She was a part of the 1992 NCAA Championship Team and captain from 1992-94. Jennie received All American honors twice during her years at Temple University.
In addition to her coaching, Jennie is certified in the areas of Early Childhood, Elementary and Special Education. She has her Masters Degree in Literacy and has been an adjunct professor in the Masters Program for Literacy at Dowling College.
Jennie started coaching after graduation, volunteering to assist at Temple University and coaching for the Inner-City Games in Pennsylvania. She moved to Long Island in 2000 where she became the coach of the Ward Melville High School fencing team and has won Suffolk County Coach of the Year for 8 consecutive years from 2002 – 2009. She has also been honored as the USFA Long Island HS Coach of the year twice. Jennie has continued to coach at Ward Melville and has coached individuals for the Mission Fencing Center for 7 years. She has had many students recruited to fence at prestigious Universities including Penn State, Tufts, MIT, Cornell, Temple, and Princeton. In addition, Jennie’s students have received national rankings and she has coached members of the US Cadet National team. Since 1999 Jennie has had the following results as a H.S. fencing coach:
- 91 All county fencers
- 31 All-Long Island fencers
- 12 Individual County Champions
- 8 consecutive Undefeated League/County Championships
- 7 consecutive Long Island Team Championships
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 Jeffrey Salmon
Jeff Salmon started fencing at Comsewogue High School in Long Island where he was a County Champion and Empire State Games Gold medalist. He went on to win a scholarship to Penn State University where he trained under Emmanuil Kaidanov, five time U.S. National Team Coach. Jeff placed in the top 12 as an individual in the NCAA Championships and was one of two sabre fencers chosen for NCAA training at German Olympic Center in 1987
Jeff was an Assistant coach for the Penn State Fencing Team during Two National Championship seasons. He brought his expertise to Ward Melville High School by starting a Fencing Club in 1995. In 1999, by popular demand, the club became a varsity team. As coach, Jeff went on to win Suffolk County Coach of the Year honors 5 times as well as USFA Long Island HS Coach of the year 3 times. He founded Mission Fencing Center in 2001 where he has coached students to many honors including national rankings and National team status. He has prepared many students to fence at prestigious Universities including Penn State, MIT, Stanford, Notre Dame, University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. His students have had success collegiatelly, nationally and internationally.
In addition, Jeff has extensive experience as a Fencing Official. He is a Nationally Rated Official in all three weapons and an Internationally Rated Official for Sabre, refereeing in numerous World Cups and World Championships. Since 1999 Jeff has had the following results as a H.S. fencing coach:
- 93 All county fencers
- 23 All-Long Island fencers
- 8 county Champions
- 5 Undefeated League/County Championships
- 5 Long Island Team Championships
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Coach Dennis Kolakowski has been fencing for eleven years, and coaching for eight of them. He started out working for the Fencing Center of LI as a house coach and worked his way up to become the General Manager and the club's primary coach. Coach K is currently the Head Mens and Women Varsity coach at Cold Spring Harbor High School. In his short time there he has the record for career wins on both the Mens and Womens side.
Coach K was named Coach of the Year Honors for the 2005-2006, 2007-2008 and 2008 - 2009 seasons by his peers in the Nassau County Coaches Association. He also received the Costello Award for "Outstanding Long Island High School Coach" as from the Long Island Division of the United States Fencing Association during those same seasons.
In addition Coach K has also coached two national champions and students who are on the national point standings. Coach K also works with the HYPERLINK "http://www.liffes.org/" Long Island Foundation for Education and Sports doing private courses throughout the island including programs in Westbury, Roosevelt, Nesconsent, and Port Jefferson.
Jeff Wolfe
Jeff Wolfe, a longtime coach at Brentwood High School and fenced at New York University. After graduating he became a teacher at Brentwood where he began both a Boys Team and a Girls Team. The Girls Team was the first girls' varsity program on Long Island.
During his tenure (1971-1998) members of his team were Junior Olympic finalists 10 times. A number of his fencers went on to represent the United States at the Cadet World Championships, Junior World Championships, Junior Pan Am Championships, Senior World Championships and World University Games. Countless numbers have been medalists at North Atlantic Sectional Championships.
In 1987 he was the first recipient of the NFCAA Regional Coach of the Year Award. In 1988 he became the first high school coach to be appointed as cadre for an international team, when he was named to coach the US Cadet Team at the Continental Cadet Championships and the World Cadet Championships.
His record at Brentwood is no less outstanding. The Girls' Team enjoyed 18 undefeated seasons, 19 League Championships, and 18 Sectional Championships. His W-L record was 288-14. The team also set a New York State inning 98 consecutive dual meets.
He continues to coach as an assistant at Ward Melville HS.
In 2006 the Long Island Division of the USFA announced that beginning in 2007 it would give a "High School Coach of the Year Award" as the "Jeff Wolfe Coach of the Year Award".
In 2006 he was also nominated for election into the USFA Hall of Fame and is currently a nominee for the Suffolk County Sports Hall of Fame as well. We are very proud to have him as a member of our coaching staff.
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Guest Coaches
Attila Lukacs
Atilla was born in Budapest, Hungary. He started fencing at the age of 9 and competing at 12. He is a multiple Hungarian National Champion. In International competitions, he took 9th at the Cadet World Championships, 3rd at the Junior European Championships and has won many Junior World Cup medals. He has been mentored and coached by Kornell Udvarhelyi, the Junior National Team coach in Hungary and the National Women’s Epee Coach in the United States. He has also been coached by Gabor Udvarhelyi, a coach of multiple European, World and
Olympic Champions.
Michael Corona
Coach Corona has been a force in Long Island High School Fencing for many years. He is the Boys Varsity Fencing Coach at Brentwood High School. He has coached many County, Long Island and Regional Champions. He also led his team, in 2007, to an Undefeated Season where they captured not only the Long Island Championship, but the only County Championship for Brentwood High School Boys Fencing in it’s over 40 year history.
Coach Corona learned to fence at Centereach High School and went on to become a 3 time fencing All–American for Penn State University.
Brian Sirlin
Former Empire State Games foil gold medalist. Fenced foil for Brandeis University under coach Bill Shipman and qualified to compete at the NCAA National Championships.
Luther Clement
Luther Clement has been among United State Fencings’ Sabre Elite for over a decade. He has been a member of numerous National and International teams and won medals all over the World. He is currently ranked 2nd in the USA for Senior Men’s Sabre and is in training as he represents the United States in International Competition.
We are thrilled that Coach Luther can take time out of his busy competitive schedule to work with the athletes at Mission.
Ivan Lee
2004 Olympian and 5 time US Division I National Champion, Ivan Lee works with Mission’s competitive Sabre fencers. His Elite Level National and International experience is an invaluable resource in preparing our competitive fencers for all levels of competition. |
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