COACHES

Coach Patrick Lausi started coaching for Palmetto Fencers Club in Columbia, SC in 2008. He has since been coaching for Edge of America Fencing Club in 2014 (whenever the club started). His fencers include SC divisional champions, regional/national competitors, and a future Div1 NCAA athlete.

Coach Ian Dube began fencing at the age of ten in the Tri-City Fencing Club outside of Boston. Under the coaching of Molly Sullivan (Olympic team 88/92) he competed for two years and anchored fencing as a part of his life. After a ten year hiatus from the sport, he continued learning from former NYU coach Tom Cakouros at the Monadnock Fencing Club in Keene, NH. Reinvigorated, his passion took him back to Boston where he trained with international fencers, before embedding himself here in the Lowcountry. After years of self coaching using competitive goals, he has become a top-rated fencer in South Carolina. Coach Ian aims to utilize the understanding and patience he has developed to impart his comprehensive approach to bouting with his students.

Coach Annemarie LeDonne started fencing for her high school in New Jersey. There, she was an Individual NJ State Epee Champion and member of a four-time State Championship team. She went on to compete for Rutgers University, an NCAA Division 1A school on a scholarship. She was also an Assistant Coach for her former high school, where they won various state championship titles. On October 27, 2022, she was inducted into The Columbia High School Athletic Hall of Fame. Coach LeDonne hopes to make fencing as popular in South Carolina as it is in New Jersey by introducing the sport and it’s possibilities to people of all ages and athletic ability.