Dudas takes the helm, seeks to build up program

The fencing team starts the new season with a new head coach, Zoltan Dudas. Dudas, who was selected for the job in March, was formerly an assistant coach at Notre Dame for five years. During his stay with the Fighting Irish, he helped lead them to a team finish of fourth place out of 29 teams at the 2006 NCAA Championships in Houston earlier this year.

Dudas graduated from Juhasz Gyula College in his native country of Hungary in 1992. He worked as a physical education teacher, leading the handball team at Szechenyi Istvan High School to a National Handball Championship in 1999 over a staggering 250 teams. He then came to the United States in 2000 and worked as a fencing coach at the Saturn Fencing Center in Cleveland, Ohio, prior to joining the program at Notre Dame.

As the successor to Michel Sebastiani, who served for 25 years as head coach of the Princeton fencing program, Dudas seeks to build a stronger Tiger squad that will claim more spots in the NCAA Championships in the years to come. He believes the Princeton team is capable of doing so despite losing its top two performers, who qualified for the NCAA finals, to graduation.

"We have a couple good performers who qualified for the NCAA finals last year," Dudas said. "And I think two or three freshmen are also able to compete for spots in the NCAA finals. So I think we're close to the same level we were last year. Individually, we may not get as good results, but on average we should get the same level of performance."

The coach also revealed that though he would be satisfied with six or seven spots in the NCAA Championships this year, he plans to increase that number annually by one or two, ultimately aiming for 10-to-12 spots. He sees this year as particularly important for his ambitions as it is the last year of early decision admissions.

"For me, this year is very important in recruiting specialists," Dudas said. "It will be a test for us, and without the early decision [students], it will be harder to recruit. We may have to change our early recruiting process. But more and more students in fencing look for Ivy League schools, and I think Princeton would be a top choice for many students. A lot of ND recruits went to Ivy League schools. It's been especially [widespread] during the last three or four years, and here at Princeton I have a much longer, deeper recruiting list."

For the fencing squad, this could be a difficult junction, especially for seniors who have trained for three years with a different coach and different training procedures. Despite the changes, Dudas feels that the fencing team is trying to follow instructions and achieve more than it did last year.

"The students are doing well," he said. "They are trying to do more, both for themselves and for the school."

Since arriving, Dudas has hired two new assistant coaches. Hristo Hristov, who coached the national squad of his native Bulgaria, was hired for his expertise in sabre.

"My first job was to find someone for the sabre," said Dudas, who himself teaches epee. "Most coaches specialize in one weapon, and we needed a specialist for the sabre. I can already see the improvement of the sabre squad."

He then hired Szilvia Voros three weeks ago, a foil specialist.

"The most important thing is the character of the coach," Dudas said. "She's a great person. Very responsible and has an excellent background, so she's doing very well."

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Princeton is now in the ideal situation of having one coach for each weapon. The athletes will be able to receive deeper training, and it's a situation that pleases the new head coach is very pleased with.

The fencing team heads to New York City to face its next opponent, NYU, this weekend.