"Winning is secondary," says Jill Ripa, who co-owns and manages the Rhode Island Fencing Academy and Club (RIFAC) with her husband Alex. It's a community; a very safe place. A lot of kids who don't really enjoy traditional team sports feel at home here."

Not something you expect to hear someone say about a sport that, to the untrained outsider, appears to involve people poking each other with long, sharp objects.

But it's true—fencing is incredibly nuanced; motions are precise and controlled. It's not an opportunity to live out a Three Musketeers fantasy. "There's a mental aspect to this sport, a maturity piece," says Jill. "You can't just pick it up and excel."

RIFAC was founded by Alex Ripa in 1994, initially as a club with the unstated goal of developing fencers so Alex would have people to fence with. The 1986 Portsmouth High School graduate who studied photography at the Massachusetts College of Art took up fencing in the late 1980's, in Boston. But when he moved to Rhode Island he found that there was nowhere convenient he could pursue the sport. Alex was happily surprised to find that he liked teaching and coaching fencing as much as he liked participating. "A lightbulb went off," he says. "I realized that this is what I was meant to do."

His first class had 4 students; a year or so later he had 150. Today over 500 fencers come to RIFAC to learn or train. For over 20 years RIFAC was located in Warren, but they have been at their current East Providence location for the past three. "We loved Warren," Alex says. "But East Providence is more centrally located and more convenient for more of our students and members." Their 12,000 square-foot studio is a modern, (air-conditioned!) facility featuring the latest equipment, including 15 electric strips (the "playing field" so to speak), where fencers face off.

Jill, a 1990 Cumberland High School graduate who studied Occupational Therapy at Boston University, joined him in 1996. Her degree serves her well at RIFAC. "Jill is fantastic at diagnosing issues and working with athletes," says Alex. She has also used her skills to make fencing accessible to athletes with different challenges. She has taught students with cerebal palsey and autism, and notably one with a bleeding disorder, for whom you might think fencing was completely out of the question. Jill fashioned special safety gear for the student, and his doctor gave the green light.

An accomplished fencer herself, Jill has earned several national medals and was a member of the gold-medal RIFAC foil team at the 2001 Summer National Championships.

Fencing may not enjoy the widespread popularity of soccer or little league, but there is nothing new about it. It developed as a sport in Europe in the late 1800's, and is one of only five sports (along with track & field, swimming, cycling and gymnastics) to have been a part of every modern Olympic Games. Most athletes specialize in one of three modern fencing weapons—foil, épée, and sabre—each with its own rules and strategies. Tune info the Games August 6-14 to catch men's, women's, and team events in all three disciplines.

Don't mistake RIFAC's "winning is secondary" approach with a lack of competitive drive. On the contrary, for the handful of students at the top of their game, Alex directs their coaching with that one goal in mind. Recently named Coach of the Year by the United States Fencing Coaches Association, he has had students one bout away, but he has not sent a student to the Olympic games….yet.

"In 2020—she's going," Alex says. He's referring to Morgan Partridge, an 18 year old Swansea resident and 2016 Providence Country Day graduate. Her weapon of choice is the foil, and she has taken it to several world cup events and earned a silver medal in the Pan Am Games in Cancun. She'll head to Notre Dame in the fall, where she was invited to join their very competitive fencing team.

Morgan and her older sister Bailey, (who fences for the Sacred Heart University team) started fencing after their mother told them how much she enjoyed the sport when she was on a college exchange program in Europe.

And if you doubt just how focused those Olympic fencers are, with moves so fast and precise you will probably struggle to follow them in real time, know that Morgan, in every other respect a typical teenager, claims that the reason she likes fencing enough to practice it for hours every day is because of "how difficult it is."

With that attitude and work ethic, we'll be seeing her in Tokyo.

Interested in checking RIFAC out for yourself? Visitors are welcome to stop by any Tuesday or Friday between 7 and 9 p.m. They also occasionally host open houses and free beginner workshops, so kids and parents can learn more about fencing before registering for a class. Check their website at rifac.com for more information.