Justin Feil

By: centraljersey.com
In practice, Charles Zhou has a tough time against fellow West Windsor-Plainsboro South epeeists Alex Gerber and Harington Lee.
Fortunately, the practice as well as training at a new club outside of school has paid off in matches for Zhou, a junior with the Pirates.
"Basically, I’ve grown a year older and gotten more experience," Zhou said. "I think the most important thing about fencing is experience. When you fence, you learn more. You learn something different every time. That experience accumulates. That’s helped me become better overall."
Zhou has grown plenty in the past three seasons. He began his career in foil as a freshman, but switched to epee before sophomore year to help strengthen that squad. There, he fenced on the C strip last year, but after graduation losses was elevated to A strip this season, where he’s proven he can hold his own. He has lost just twice this season for a young Pirates team that is 1-4. The epee has been strong throughout as Gerber and Lee picked up experience as alternates last year.
"Epee is arguably the only squad that hasn’t lost anybody from last year," said Pirates head coach Ed Chang. "They’re looking like our most consistent squad."
The Pirates will find out where they stand when they fence in the District 2 tournament scheduled for Saturday. Montgomery and WW-P North will also take their squads to the district tournament. The Pirates’ tune-up match against rival WW-P North on Thursday was postponed due to the snowstorm.
"I still think we have a lot to improve on," Zhou said. "We can strive to go farther and accomplish even more. What’s really important as a whole squad is to go to more tournaments and probably fence more. That’s probably the biggest aspect for our improvement."
Zhou is the only one of the Pirates epee team who was a starter in last year’s district tournament. The Pirates were second overall and their epee squad finished third, only losing second place by indicators.
"I’m hoping we can get at least that third place or better for our squad," Zhou said. "The layout is different from Cetrulo. It’s the wins overall. I think what’s really important is that as a team, we have to be able to control our mental game. I know a lot of other fencers at districts. Most of them go to my club and I fence them often. I think it’s more of a mental game, not a technique game. If we get past that barrier, I’m sure we’ll do very well."
Zhou has an action packed weekend split between his two main interests. In addition to the district tournament, he will compete in an outside fencing tournament as well as preparing for the Science Olympiad with his WW-P South school team. In fencing, he has taken a big jump this year since joining the Medeo Fencing Club in Bridgewater, where he trains under Yakov Danilenko, whom he calls "probably one of the best epee coaches in the whole state." It has paid off for Zhou.
"Charles is one off those kids that made a lot of progress over the summer," Chang said. "He did a lot of tournaments. He was unranked last year, now he’s a C or a D. He switched clubs over the summer and he’s getting a lot more experience."
The district tournament is a chance for everyone, not just Zhou, to gain experience. He understands how big that is for a young team that has few veterans. Senior Steven Yang is one of the favorites in sabre. Winston Leung is a freshman who has taken the A strip at foil. His athleticism is an advantage, and attending districts could help with the finer points.
"The main advantage is you get to fence 20 times the number of people you normally fence," Zhou said of districts. "It was a great experience. Even though it’s only to five (points), you’re getting exposed to the different fencing styles, all these different people, it’s the best way to improve.
"My advice that I’ll tell our team is probably going to be ‘Use this as an opportunity to grow, to take in all that experience and think about what places you’re weak and what places you’re strong and use that to your advantage. Use what you’re good at and get better at what you’re not.’"
Zhou has been able to take something from all of his experiences and put it to work on the strip. He may not always win in practice, but he carries himself best in meets.
"The one thing Charles has is finesse," Chang said. "He can read a situation. Charles can see what’s going on and he’s taking that finesse and trying to help out the younger fencers."
Every match has been an opportunity to gain experience, but with plenty of inclement weather, the Pirates have only fenced five matches plus the Cetrulo tournament in the last two months. Practices have given them a chance to improve every day, but fencing against better competition is one of the best ways to learn, and that is a big goal for a team that comes off last year’s first state tournament win in program history.
"There are a lot of freshmen and sophomores on the team this year," Chang said. "We realized that early on. It’s been about building and getting the team organized and together. You can see by our record we’re not having as stellar a season as last year. We’re all working on getting better.
"Coming off a season that was really great, it’s moving slowly," he said of progress. "We’re all trying to figure out the things we need to figure out."
Zhou isn’t content with a solid start to his season. He’d like to see the epee squad and the Pirates continue to make progress this year as they set themselves up for a big encore next year. The epee squad will graduate only Gerber, who has been steady on the B strip.
"Epee, I think our squad has done well," Zhou said. "They kept their focus even when down, which is tough to do in epee. I’m very proud of them.
"Our biggest problem for epee is we just have to keep our focus, myself included," he continued. "I sometimes get down and lose my focus. If we keep our focus and keep working hard, we’ll surely succeed."