Clark Native and ALJ Grad Leads Team USA Women's Saber as Head Coach in Paris Olympics

CLARK, NJ — Sure, it's exciting to talk about how many New Jerseyans are currently competing in the Olympics. And, maybe, those of us who count Rutgers as our alma mater get similarly excited to hear that the university is represented in Paris by five former Scarlet Knights. But what if we told you that Clark itself had a native son and Arthur L. Johnson (ALJ) High School graduate who is currently (like in, this very moment!) serving as the head coach for one of the U.S. Olympic teams?

Well, it does! Earlier this summer, TAPinto Clark paid a visit to the Advance Fencing & Fitness Academy (AFFA) in Garwood, where owner and head instructor Aleks Ochocki was busy running one of his school's summer camps, along with his team of coaches. We appreciated him taking the time to speak with us because, as it turns out, he had a few other rather weighty matters on his mind related to fencing, as well.

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Ochocki, a 2008 ALJ alumnus, is the head coach of the U.S. Olympic Women's Saber team, having been named head coach for the national team back in December 2021. He and the team are in Paris right now, as they compete and strive for Olympic glory.

When we met up with him, we asked him to tell us about the origins of his involvement in a sport that is not quite yet considered an American pastime.

As a child, Ochocki said, his parents signed him up for karate classes. The martial arts instruction took place right next to a fencing school. Fate or luck or just Ochocki ducking his head into the fencing room enough times had the effect that he witnessed people doing something that he wanted to try.

By age 12, he already had his parents driving him to New York City for elite fencing training, traveling to the best coaches around, which were a bit harder to find than one's average baseball coach on a Little League field.

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He must have picked the right sport, because Ochocki would eventually go on to win a National title in every age group starting from Youth-12 all the way through to Seniors.

In high school, at ALJ, Ochocki played other sports too—football and lacrosse—but fencing remained his primary athletic passion and commitment. He shared with us that the school even arranged for him to compete in high school competitions representing ALJ, despite the fact that it required adding a fencing team that the school had never had before with Ochocki as the one and only team member.

Gus Kalikas, the Clark Public School District's current athletic director, was actually one of Ochocki's high school coaches. We reached out to him as we were researching this story. Kalikas couldn't seem to say an adequate number of pretty terrific things about him.

"Aleks was a phenomenal three-sport student athlete at ALJ, playing football, fencing, and lacrosse throughout his career," Kalikas said. "He was a vital part of our Crusader Football program, helping guide us to 22 wins during his three years as a varsity player. He was a starter on our 9-1 Divisional Championship team in 2006 and was also a phenomenal lacrosse player. All of this, of course, pales in comparison to his accolades in the sport of fencing."

"I am so very pleased," Kalikas added, "to have followed his success from high school, to Penn State University, to his success as an adult coaching for the Olympic Fencing Team. Crusader Athletics is extremely proud of all of his accomplishments."

After high school, as Kalikas mentioned, Ochocki went to Penn State on a fencing scholarship, where he would go on to win the NCAA Individual Saber Championship in 2009 and 2012. He was also a 1st Team All-American in all four years of his college career.

Following college graduation in 2012, Ochocki continued to earn success and garner recognition in the sport, winning the 2013 U.S. National Championship, the 2013 Pan American Team Championship, and the 2014 Summer Nationals Championship.

Upon retiring from competition in 2014, he immediately turned his talents, enthusiasm, and experience to coaching.

He mentioned to us that one of his first organized efforts at fencing instruction actually occurred right here in Clark when he was given the opportunity by current Recreation Director Ralph Bernardo to offer classes through the Clark Recreation Department.

He has, since that time, made quite a name for himself. In addition to his current commitments in Paris, Ochocki has served as the assistant coach for the Notre Dame team, which won back-to-back NCAA Championships during his time there.

He currently serves as the assistant coach at NYU.

We had a really enjoyable time meeting Ochocki, finding out a bit about his journey, and also learning more about a sport that many people only know with a casual familiarity at best.

One question we asked him concerned the differences in fencing disciplines. There are, in fact, three different styles of fencing that use three slightly different swords, and that adhere, as well, to slightly distinct rules and regulations.

We won't pretend to be able to explain all the details to you here. But the three fencing disciplines are foil, épée, and Ochocki's specialty, saber.

Saber (sometimes spelled sabre) is the only form of fencing that allows points to be scored not only with thrusting (i.e., hitting the target with the tip of the blade), as with foil and épée, but also with cutting (i.e., hitting the target with the edge of the blade).

There's quite a bit more to it than that, of course. We encourage curious readers to learn more about the differences in the swords, technique, scoring, and rules of the three styles here .

Meanwhile, with all the official business out of the way, we were able to have some fun, which is what sports really should be all about, after all. I brought along with me during the visit to meet Ochocki my trusty sidekick, David Jr., who wasn't at all shy about picking up a sword and giving it a try. (after asking permission first, of course!)

In addition to all his other talents and virtues, Ochocki is a really great guy, generous with his time and just a pleasure to be around. He took David out on the matt and instructed him in an impromptu introductory fencing lesson, which of course, I was certain to capture for the photographic record.

All in all, we had a great time meeting Ochocki and were pretty certain that those in the community would love to hear about our visit and all the good things Clark's very own number-one fencer was now up to in the 2024 Summer Olympics.

TAPinto Clark wishes Aleks Ochocki and the team all the best in Paris. We're looking forward to tuning in and catching them in action. We hope to provide readers with an update on how he and the team are doing soon. Stay tuned!

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