The room’s bright beaming lights cast an intense glow on the adrenaline-pumped Tyler Groen as he set foot in the presence of the opponent he’s going to bout. Coaches and future combatants watched among the spectators while the sharp end of Groen’s sabre struck his opponent’s chest advancing him to the world stage. The only thing running through Groen’s mind as he celebrated his hard-earned victory was the enthusiastic cheers from his coach.
Five years ago, senior Tyler Groen ventured into the world of fencing, seeking a new and distinctive hobby. To his astonishment, Groen discovered that he possessed a natural talent for fencing.
“I don’t know, I just didn’t want to be basic.” Groen said.
This desire to be different from the people around him paved the way for an international competitor.
“We went to a center and they were having tryouts and I just clowned all the other little kids,” Groen said. “Then, I just kept going.”
Over the summer, Groen dedicated himself to an intense schedule of rigorous training and participated in numerous matches, relentlessly pushing himself to attain the level of excellence he had diligently aspired to achieve.
“I had been slacking because of school and I was like ‘Man, I’m probably not gonna make it, it’s fine,’ But then I made it, so I started like, going hard and focusing, then we went to nationals,” Groen said. “I participated in 11 and I won nine. I think I was fourth in the nation and it was top six go, then we went to Hokkaido Japan on the sixth of July of this year for worlds”
Upon arriving in Hokkaido, Japan for worlds, Groen had no time to rest, he was greeted with three matches as soon as he landed from an eight hour flight winning only one of the three, but the next day Groen “clowned” on the competition with a clean sweep winning all 12 of his matches. However, despite his remarkable performance, he narrowly missed securing a top-five position, ultimately finishing sixth place in worlds.
“I could tell everyone was looking at me because they were all from like Italy or France, places that actually care about fencing, because, here, half the country doesn’t know what fencing is,” Groen said. “They were looking at me like ‘Who is this guy? Oh, is that an American flag? Last place, gone’.”
Groen didn’t leave worlds empty handed, he gained the respect from his enemy competitors and proved that someone from our school could be on the same level of expertise as individuals who devoted their lives to the sport. Not only that, but he demonstrated that even while being in school and other extracurriculars that he was able to do so much.
“Number one in the US. I beat all of them. Number six goes crazy.” he said.
