CityView Magazine

24 July 2023 sees himself staying with it. "I can't think of any sport I'd want to do besides fencing," he says. "If I stick with it, I can get really good at it and it will look good on a college record and make you a well- rounded person." Zachary would recommend the sport to anyone who is not very athletic and doesn't have a favorite sport. "I would say fencing is a good one. You don't need that many capabilities, and it's good for almost everyone," he says. 'Wow, I feel powerful' Truett Canady gave his 17-year old son, Issac, a fencing lesson gi certificate for Christmas. "I wanted to get him involved in something outside that was sports-related," Truett says. "A buddy in law school told me he took up fencing so he could get a scholarship to college. He was on the UNC fencing team and traveled across the country at their expense. I told that story to my children, and one of them said, 'Why don't you do that for Issac?'" Issac said he had fenced once before but did not know the rules. "So it was basically two idiots in suits stabbing each other. But once I learned the rules, I thought, 'Wow, I feel powerful,'" says Issac. "I enjoy the people, and they're a lot of fun to be around." Issac would like to fence in college and has already found he enjoys that level of competition. "I always wanted to go to UNC, but before fencing it was just a dream," Issac says. Issac competed in low-level tournaments and did very well. "When I first started doing tournaments, I didn't know what I was doing," he says. Longer periods between bouts allowed for more instructional conversations. "Sometimes I won bouts and didn't know what I was doing. I started watching the tournaments and observing what opponents were doing. I started to use that against them. I felt very powerful," Issac says. Guevarra says Issac caught on quickly and has progressed a lot in a year's time. He also started to compete in regional and national tournaments. Issac's father says he's amazed by the change in his son and has enjoyed watching Issac work hard to get better. Zachary has not competed in tournaments. His mother, Rachel urnher, says she appreciates that fencing is an individual sport and that you can choose to compete or not. "I liked that it wasn't a requirement. If you play soccer, you're expected to compete in tournaments. Fencing is what you make of it," urnher said. "We didn't have to buy any equipment, which I really liked. Coach Guevarra provided everything. Zachary is a ley, and the coach had ley equipment, so it was a no brainer for us." urnher was worried that her son was starting the sport too late. "Zach was 7 when he started. In this day and age, people put their kids in sports at age 3, so we were worried he'd be behind. But 7 was the youngest you could start fencing, so it was perfect for him. It seemed to tick all the boxes," urnher says. Zachary takes lessons once a week and Issac Canady, 17, says the structure of fencing has helped him in other areas of life.

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