Jack Woods, right, poses with New Jersey Fencing Alliance founder Frank Mustilli. Woods won the Men's Junior Foil Event at the ntegrity Cup Regional Junior Cadet Circuit.
MAPLEWOOD, NJ – The 2019 Integrity Cup Regional Junior Cadet Circuit was held at the New Jersey Fencing Alliance in Maplewood over this past weekend, Aug. 24-25. Cadet and Junior fencers competing in the three different weapons came from the greater New York City metropolitan area as well as numerous states along the East coast.
Maplewood’s national and international foil fencing champion and 2018-19 New Jersey State High School individual foil champion, Jack Woods, won the gold medal in the Men’s Junior Foil event.
Woods, who has been training at The Durkan Fencing Academy in South Hackensack, has taken a break this summer to inspire and coach young NJFA fencers. It was at a NJFA summer camp at the age of 8 that Woods first started and fell in love with the sport of fencing. All the years that he had spent under the tutelage and guidance of owner and founder of NJFA, Frank Mustilli, laid the foundation for his future national and international accomplishments.
Mustilli said, “Jack defeated his opponents in the final bouts before the end of the first three-minute interval. In his final bout against Boston’s Adam Yang, he demonstrated some really high-risk strategic moves with incredible speed and lightness of touch to defeat him. I always enjoy watching him and am proud of what he continues to achieve both on and off the fencing strip.”
Mustilli, who has the day job of CFO and Director of Finance at J. Supor Group of companies, poured countless hours, hard work and personal funds into realizing his dream of creating NJFA. He was a successful college fencer and his two daughters went on to victories at national and international World Cup levels after fencing for Columbia High School.
NJFA has not only exposed the greater Maplewood/South Orange community to the sport of fencing, but has put Maplewood on the map, as a major fencing destination and initial training ground for future high school fencing champions and regional, state, national and international fencers on the U.S. fencing circuit, including recent Olympic bronze medal winner and Columbia High School Hall of Fame recipient Ibtihaj Muhammad. Since 1993, Mustilli has sent 31 fencers to the NCAAs.
Mustilli introduced and has been actively involved in the years of continued success of the Columbia High School Fencing team. The CHS fencing team continues to train at NJFA as the large facility can easily accommodate the 100 fencers on its team, while still being able to operate its normal youth group and private classes.
NJFA frequently provides opportunities for the Maplewood/South Orange community to be introduced to the sport of fencing, by having its open door policy at various tournaments, as well as organizing live bouting in the various weapons at numerous public events.
NJFA will showcase the sport of fencing on Sunday, Sept. 15, at South Orange’s biggest public event, “Play Day,” which will take place on South Orange Avenue from 1 to 6 p.m.
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