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Kelsey glad he took a stab at fencing

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), May 16, 2004 by MERI-JO BORZILLERI THE GAZETTE

Short and pudgy 12-yearolds everywhere, take heart in the story of Seth Kelsey.

Ten years ago, Kelsey fit that description. Now the Colorado Springs resident is going to the 2004 Olympics.

He'll be part of what some consider the deepest and best fencing team the United States has fielded for an Olympics.

The 13-member team includes a pair of notable siblings: brother- sister Keeth and Erinn Smart, along with sisters Sada and Emily Jacobson. Keeth Smart and Sada Jacobson were each ranked No. 1 in the world last year. No U.S. fencer, male or female, has had a top world ranking before.

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The Smarts are products of coach Peter Westbrook's academy in New York City. Six-time Olympian Westbrook, a 1984 bronze medalist, is the last U.S. fencer to win an Olympic medal.

Kelsey is a 2003 Air Force Academy graduate and NCAA champion who trains in the Air Force's World Class Athlete Program, where elite athletes represent the military while getting paid to train for the Olympics.

Now 22, he tried other sports as a kid, including baseball and even Kung Fu.

"Those didn't work out too great," he said.

When he was 11, a friend introduced him to fencing, where athletes dress up in all-white uniforms, including a mask that resembles a beekeeper's.

"I was terrible," Kelsey said, sitting on a sofa in his Colorado Springs house. "I couldn't hit anything. (But) I liked the people."

His second year, Kelsey got to travel with members of his fencing club in Portland, Ore., just across the state line from his hometown Brush Prairie, Wash. He won a bronze medal at a national tournament. At age 12, he won the under-13 Junior Olympics.

"I thought, well, this is fun," he said.

Club coach Ed Korfanty believed it was more. One day when Seth was 12, Korfanty approached Kelsey's father.

"Coach said, 'Your son will be great, maybe win a World Cup medal, maybe win an Olympic medal,' " said Kelsey, grinning while recalling the conversation.

"My dad said, 'How can you tell this? I really like my son. But he's relatively short, he's pudgy...' "

Korfanty, Poland's former Olympic coach, explained he saw something special in Seth: He had an ability to train, compete and focus that was uncommon in a 12-year-old.

Besides that, "people say I have the best reaction time they ever seen," Kelsey said. "I like being under stress and pressure."

Kelsey is one of three Americans named to compete in men's epee. He's ranked No. 1 in the United States and 30th in the world. So far, Korfanty is 1-for-2 -- Kelsey recently won a World Cup bronze medal, where the field is comparable to the Olympics.

Kelsey is unusual in that he's the only specialist fencer at the U.S. Olympic Training Center. He duels with modern pentathletes, a group for whom fencing is only one-fifth of the equation. Pentathlon also requires training in equestrian, pistol shooting, swimming and running.

"It's a little strange," Kelsey said, explaining he could train anywhere in the country. "Training with pentathletes is good for other reasons. They're very athletic. They're great to fence with."

Kelsey said pentathlete coach Janusz Peciak, the 1976 Olympic pentathlon champion from Poland who has trained Olympic-caliber fencers, is another reason he's here. So is the fact that Colorado Springs doesn't provide many distractions.

Kelsey has come a long way from that pudgy 12-year-old. His arms are uncommonly long. He is 6-foot-4 and 206 pounds, courtesy of a steady growth spurt in high school and genes from his mother and grandmother, each 6 feet tall.

His plans for Athens are big, too.

"I think I can win a medal," Kelsey said. "I think anyone on the men's U.S. epee team can win a medal."

Barry is back

Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley and Sheryl Swoopes won't be around forever. This year, Ceal Barry is entrusted with coaching Generation Next.

Barry, the renowned University of Colorado women's coach, was named to head the 2004 USA Junior World Championship Qualifying Team, 18-and-unders. Barry returns to USA Basketball eight years after assisting head coach Tara VanDerveer as the 1996 women won Olympic gold.

Trials take place June 20-23 at the training center. The last junior world team featured Diana Taurasi, recently named to the 2004 Olympic team. The team won the qualifying tournament but lost to host Czech Republic and finished third in the 2001 world championships.

"It's been a while since I've had a USA Basketball shirt on and been overseas coaching a team," Barry said. "I know this competition has been a challenge for us at this age level."

Around the rings

Cue the "Twilight Zone" music: At the Nike Invitational Mile last week, an event held to mark Roger Bannister's breaking the four- minute-mile barrier, 2000 Olympian Michael Stember won in 3:59.4. That's the exact time Bannister ran 50 years ago to make history.... USA Hockey's 2003-04 season is no miracle, but it's pretty special. Teams representing the Colorado Springs-based federation in international events won eight times, got second five times and third twice, an unprecedented run of success. That includes the recent U.S. men's national team bronze at the world championships, the first medal won since 1996; the U.S. women's national team's eighth straight world championship silver and the U.S. National Junior Team's first gold in the world junior tournament's 28-year history.

Kelsey glad he took a stab at fencing

Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), May 16, 2004 by MERI-JO BORZILLERI THE GAZETTE

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