Coaches

Tommi Hurme – Head Coach

Tommi Hurme has 25+ years of competitive epee fencing experience including 4 years training in Budapest, Hungary alongside the Hungarian National Team. He is trained and coaches in the Hungarian fencing tradition and has worked under Dr. Paul Pesthy, Maitre Michel Sebastiani, Victor Svatenko, Dr. Aladar Kogler, Zoltan Dudas, and Ivan Kovacs. He is certified as a Prevot level coach from the US Fencing Coaches Association. He brings his experience from competing at the local, national, collegiate, and international levels to help students gain an advantage in competitive epee fencing. His fencing achievements include:

Junior National Team member in 2004, Junior National Champion in 2003, Princeton Varsity Fencing Team Captain in 2007 and 2008, Div 1 Nationals top 8 finisher in 2007, 8th place finish at NCAA Championships 2008, Paris World Cup top 32 finisher in 2009, 1st place Kupittaa Satellite World Cup Turku, Finland in 2011, and 1st place Men’s Epee Team Nationals 2008 and 2010.

Tomás Mata – Epee Coach

Coach Tomás Mata has a background as a physical education teacher and has 25 years of experience as an epee coach. He began fencing competitively in 1997 and competed in his first junior world cup in 1998 at the University of Notre Dame. He was a member of the Mexican national fencing team for 10 years. As a coach Tomas trained and qualified fencers for the Mexican national team in different categories such as cadets, junior, and senior. Most notably he trained and qualified Alejandra Terán for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games in Women’s Epee.

Claudine Barjak Cardenas – Epee Coach

Claudine Barjak Cardenas has been a personal trainer for 25 years and has been fencing since 2005. She has extensive experience in athlete development, injury prevention and rehabilitation, and positive youth coaching. Her fencing accomplishments include 2014 National Champion, December 2014 NAC Gold Medalist, 2015 National Championship Silver Medalist, 2015 Veteran PanAmerican Championship Silver Medalist, and 4 Top-8 North American Cup finishes, all in the Veteran 40 Women’s Epee category. Claudine is a moniteur level coach from the USFCA.

Jim Basler – Epee Coach

Coach Jim is a Texas native with over a decade of competitive coaching experience. He has coached students at every level of competition from local beginners to international competitors (Including one of the top 10 Cadets in Germany!). He started his career in New Braunfels, building and working with high school fencing programs in South Texas. He completed an apprenticeship under Mark Masters in Philadelphia and worked closely with national team member Ben Bratton during his time there.

In December of 2022 he represented the US at an FIE Coaching conference for Epee coaches in Lima, Peru; working with, and learning from, national coaching staff of various Pan-American countries. He has had students attend and fence for multiple NCAA schools including Vassar College, Drew University, and University of Pennsylvania.

Coach Jim is certified by the USFCA and AAI and is also a national armorer for the US.

Cameron Luong – Assistant Coach

Cameron started fencing with Olympian Fencing Club as a teenager. He is a current student at Trinity University and has been coaching with OFC since 2024.

Gracyn Githens – Assistant Coach

Gracyn learned to fence at Thunder City Fencing Club in Oklahoma City. She is a current student and Varsity Fencer at the University of the Incarnate Word and has been coaching with OFC since 2024.

June Hurme – Little Olympian’s Coach

Coach June Hurme started fencing in college at NYU when she met her husband, Risto Hurme, a Finnish Olympian in Modern Pentathlon and Fencing. Coach June has fenced recreationally for over 40 years and qualified for the veterans world championships in Sydney, Australia in 2007. She has three children who all fenced at Princeton University.

Join our team!

Olympian Fencing Club is always looking for talented and professional epee coaches or administrative staff. Help us achieve our mission to build one of the strongest fencing clubs in the country. Send us an email at info@olympianfencingclub.com to apply today!

View our job description here

Jacqui Willingham – Assistant Coach

Jacqui is an assistant coach and current member of the University of the Incarnate Word varsity fencing team. Jacqui learned how to fence with Olympian Fencing Club and is now sharing that knowledge with Y10 fencers.

Coaches

Coaches

Join our team!

Member Benefits

Sign up For Our Newsletter