I had the opportunity to meet several men involved with this when I was in high school. The talent was there and I'd like to see it grow stronger.
-Rudey
Turning the Underdogs Into Fencing Champions
By WILLIAM C. RHODEN
Published: August 2, 2004
PETER WESTBROOK keeps climbing mountains and leaving footprints.
In 1976, Westbrook was a young first-time Olympian. He was terrified - a rookie and an oddity in the sport of fencing.
His mother was Japanese, his father African-American, and he felt out of place in a sport in which brown and black faces were virtually nonexistent.
There were no footprints to follow.
Twenty-eight years and five more Olympic teams later, Westbrook, 52, has made a map for young African-American fencers who have followed his path. His 13-year-old academy has become a training ground for some of the nation's best fencers.
On the eve of an Olympics shrouded in controversy about steroids and concerns about security, Westbrook brings us back to three compelling themes of Olympic competition: endurance, determination and possibility.
Four of the 14 fencers on this year's United States Olympic fencing team are from Westbrook's academy.
His college-level fencers have won N.C.A.A. and conference championships. His younger fencers are coveted by some of the top prep schools and private schools in the New York-New Jersey area.
In 1991, Westbrook began giving free lessons to young people from underprivileged families. He began with 16 youths, ages 9 to 18. He saw many talented African-Americans and felt that he could produce champions if he could only introduce them to the sport.
"If we got people like that in fencing, we could be world champions and gold medalists easily with athletes like that: big, strong, and talented and fast," he said.
"I just thought African-Americans could take advantage of the sport, maybe get some scholarships, turn their lives around being around a lot of other positive African-Americans. That was pretty much it. I didn't think people would gravitate this much to what we do. I didn't dream that literally we'd have the best team in the country."
He produced his first Olympian for the 2000 Games in Sydney, Australia.
With the success of his fencers, the attitude toward the Peter Westbrook Foundation, at the Fencers Club in Manhattan, has evolved from amusement to patronizing congratulation to competitive alarm. When Westbrook arrived on the scene in 1976, he was safely unique.
"People would look at me and say, 'He's different, he's special,' " Westbrook recalled. "A lot of people even told me: 'Pete, you're not really black, you know. You're Japanese.' That made me easier to swallow.
"Then I started my foundation. People did not welcome the kids as much as they had welcomed me.
"The kids are telling me, 'How come every time we go to the tournaments and we sweep, nobody claps for us anymore?' I tell them that people like to root for the underdog, and you guys aren't the underdog anymore."
Westbrook said that one of his fencers protested: " 'But Pete, I'm the underdog. I just started fencing two years ago.' "
Westbrook said he responded this way: " 'I know. But the organization is not the underdog. This has been a white sport and you guys are coming in black and proud and beautiful and winning everything.
"Sometimes, people are tired of seeing black people winning all the tournaments.' "
Westbrook was introduced to fencing by his mother, who bribed him with $5 if he agreed to try the sport.
Westbrook became so proficient that he earned a fencing scholarship to New York University. He made the Olympic teams in 1976 and '80. He won a bronze medal in the 1984 Games, and also made the 1988, '92 and '96 Olympic teams.
Westbrook won't be going to Athens to watch his fencers. Strict security measures, in place since the Sydney Games, have made it impossible for individual coaches to go on the floor and coach.
His fencers are tough-minded competitors who understand that the hardest part of the competition will be performing at a high level under pressure.
"The main thing in Olympic competition is the fear," Westbrook said. "You get so scared. I prepare my kids for fear - not that I'm preparing them for defeat, but I'm preparing them to look at the other side of the coin."
He related a conversation he had with one of his Olympic-bound fencers. "I asked: 'If you lose, if you get beat, how is it going to feel?'
"He said, 'Terrible.'
" 'Then what's going to happen?'
" 'I'll come back, train harder, then I'll be all right. Feel bad for a week or two.' "
Westbrook said he told him: " 'That's not that bad. The fear that you're feeling, that is so insurmountable, is really one week of feeling bad, and then you're going to rebuild yourself and heal, and then you'll be all right.' "
The most impressive aspect of Westbrook's work is that he has broken the money code by subsidizing the cost of fencing instruction, which can cost $30 to $40 a lesson. That is for four lessons a week over a course of seven to nine years.
Last month, Westbrook's foundation received a $1 million donation for its endowment fund, the largest grant the foundation has received. Westbrook's goal is to have a $5 million endowment so he can buy a building for fencing facilities, an academic center and offices. "Once we get $5 million, we can begin that dream," he said.
The rest of the article can be found here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/02/sp.../02rhoden.html
-Rudey
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