SAN ANTONIO – A Thomas Jefferson High School Social Studies teacher is trying to offer more options to keep students out of trouble through the sport of fencing.
David Vela said he’s been thinking about starting the sport for about four years now, and now he’s ready to make it a reality.
“I have been just thinking about it over and over, and then once I started asking my students, it got a lot of interest, and they constantly ask me, ‘When are you going to do it?’ So we are going to do it finally,” Vela said.
To teach the sport, Vela has to complete a six-month certification, and once that is done, he’ll be able to form a team.
“The students here have been exposed to sports,” he said. “They have baseball, archery and they have done bowling. But they haven’t done something like fencing. When I was growing up, I was always told if you want to network, play golf or tennis. I am bringing a new networking sport here that could get students involved with new social circles.”
Vela added that this sport will also give students who want to participate in sports but are afraid to do so a new outlet.
“There are some students who have social anxiety,” he said. “There are students who feel like they don’t fit into a team, and though fencing is a team sport, it is also an individual sport where you can work on yourself and your skills specifically.”
Most of all, he said the goal is to give student another avenue of structure to keep them from getting into trouble.
“Idle hands do the devil’s work,” he said. “I don’t want students getting into trouble with skipping classes and truancy or anything like that. I want to give them something else to do, versus doom scrolling on social media or being stuck online.”
In the meantime, Vela is raising money for the program, with each student’s equipment expected to cost about $1,000.
If you would like to help with this initiative, Vela says to call Jefferson High School to arrange the donation.
“The ultimate goal is to get many teams formed here on the westside so we can go to different bouts and compete,” he said. “Even to get the little kids involved. But when you hear of fencing, you associate that sport with Ivy League schools and things like that. I just want to give something to these students that the west side hasn’t seen before.”