Swords in School

Elliot Kidd & Lia Hendrix
Social Media Manager & Staff Writer
  Legal sword fights have been around for centuries from 15th-century Europe to the present day. Bonneville High School has their own fencing club that has been around since 1992. Mr. Haroldson, a world history teacher, is the adviser for Bonneville's fencing club. He and some of the seniors are responsible for leading the club.
  In fencing, specifically Bonneville’s own fencing club, has ranks that each blade wielder can conquer. There are five ranks; each beginner starts as a squire (freshmen). To move up a rank, newcomers must challenge students one year older. The fencers then have a ceremony bestowing them with a knight. (freshman-sophomore). The fencers repeat this motion of challenging a higher rank and performing the ceremony for each victory, to move up the ranks. The next few positions work as barren (sophomore-junior), count (junior-senior), and duke (senior). 
  The head honcho fencer of this school year is Ashton McCracken. He is a leader and has been in this club since his freshman year. McCracken’s reasoning behind joining is his brother was in fencing “when he was in high school and [he] thought it looked excellent [along with being] a history nerd.” Which fencing did seem to emerge in the middle ages, that is McCracken [favorite history era]. Though the fencing team meets only twice a week, “ [they] all [come] together and do something [they] all enjoy” it is a place where, “you meet people and create [bonds with the others].”
  Adam Roth, who holds the rank of duke, is another leader. He joined fencing after taking Haroldsons’s history class. Roth’s main reason is “swords'' as well as his friends joining along. Roth's main goal for this season is to have an exceptional time in addition to doing well in the spring tournament. An event that Haroldson used to hold all day on a Saturday, now spread out through their meetings. There are different sections of duels for ranks, consisting mostly of squires only facing off against each other. Each sword dueler can only earn two metals; however, contestants can enter three events. Roth in one event, last year, placed first! 
  Fencing started as a way to practice swordsmanship. People started practicing with wooden swords or swords with the tip covered. The more advanced swordsman would practice with weapons that were heavier than normal swords. Throughout the middle ages, schools for sword fighting and fencing started to develop. Many individuals thought that these schools should be outlawed because the schools invited criminals to become experts at sword fighting. Despite this, the schools still thrived. During the 18th century, despite its popularity, fencing was ruled as impractical and just as a sport due to the growing force of firearms. At this time, the first official fencing organizations began to form. 

​