My daughter has been involved in fencing for over a decade, from a 10 year old all the way to the Olympics. I’ve followed her all over the world with a TV camera (much to her chagrin, many times) and have hundreds of hours of tape sitting in boxes, probably never to be seen again. Once she went to Duke, I pretty much relaxed about not bringing a camera to the few collegiate fencing competitions we attended.

I’ve never regretted that until this past weekend, when I had the privilege to witness one of the most poignant moments in fencing–the kind of event only collegiate fencing could provide . Moments like these are too good not to share. Supply your own visuals.

"Rudy" Gets to Fence:

For every Austin Rivers swishing a buzzer-beater in the Big Game, there are thousands of college athletes who practice and sweat in anonymity, never making it onto a SportsCenter highlight reel or even a newspaper clipping for their parent’s scrapbook. As they become juniors and seniors, some heed that little voice suggesting their time in the gym might be better spent in the library. Others labor on for the love of their sport, even as their varsity dreams evaporate.

Meet 4th year senior Justin “Sandy” Goldsmith. It’s a tradition that many of the men’s fencers at Duke get a snarky nickname–a fencer who hardly says a word freshman year is forever called “Loudy;” another fencer with a giant ginger Afro and luxurious beard is dubbed “Q-Tip.” You get the picture. No one can tell me how Justin got his nickname, but I suspect it had something to do with his jet black hair, perpetual beard shadow and thick black hair on his legs. You never know.

Here’s the deal about Sandy. He is in his final year at Duke as a saber fencer, and he freely admits he was not a high caliber fencer when he arrived as a freshman. Still, for four years, he has come to all the practices, executing thousands of lunges and parries and ripostes. Sandy has never made the traveling squad, never been bused to NCAA dual meets with the rest of his varsity teammates, never participated in the NCAA post season. In fact, he has never fenced in a single bout his entire career at Duke.

But on this past Saturday, in the final Duke Home Meet of his college career, Duke Fencing’s “Rudy” gets the call.

Now, don’t get me wrong—Sandy is a real athlete with powerful legs perhaps more suited to a wrestler or fullback…he’s just never been able to crack the top three in his weapon and earn a regular starting position. When Duke coach Alex Beguinet suddenly calls for the substitution half way through the final match of the day with Johns Hopkins, a full-throated chant of “Sandy! Sandy! Sandy! Sandy!” erupts from the team. Almost in a daze, Sandy wanders for the first time towards a collegiate fencing strip, encased in a luminescent Duke lamé , teammates slapping him on the shoulders as he passes. He can’t wipe the huge yet embarrassed grin off his face, but his eyes are a little wild, and it seems there’s a bit of an “Oh, %&@$…what do I do now?” panic lurking there.

Sandy slides on his mask, takes a deep breath and comes on guard. He explodes off the line and scores his first touch so fast his opponent hardly has time to react. Sandy’s teammates go berserk. Sandy has an enormous smile on his face that would be visible through an opaque fencing mask. He toes the line again. Another launch, another point, and the crowd goes ballistic. Of course, it’s too good to last. Sandy’s opponent pulls the distance card a couple of times, retreating out of harm’s way and scoring, then hooks a blade and Sandy is now down 2-3…but the encouragement just gets louder from the guys clustered behind him. Sandy grabs a point with a nifty move, but then gets caught coming forward before he can launch his attack. Now Sandy is down 3-4 in a "first to 5 points" bout and his foe is beginning to take his measure. It’s been a good run and a great bout for the 4th year novice, but this isn’t a Disney movie.

Someone forgets to inform Justin “Sandy” Goldsmith, Duke’s Fencing’s Oldest Rookie.

I wish I could tell you how he scored point number four to force “la belle,” the French fencing term for a bout tied at 4-4 that Americans would recognize as match point or Sudden Death. I vaguely recall thinking it was a complicated fencing action he should have had no reason to expect to pull off so effortlessly. Now everyone in the stands and in the team holding area are on their feet, screaming encouragement. It’s total cacophony. A lightning launch off the line for both fencers, but the ref calls it a simultaneous attack, no touch. Sandy steps back to the line, raises his saber blade…and for a moment, silence drops onto the venue like there is not a millibar of atmospheric pressure left to support any sound waves.

The ref signals “fence,” and Sandy advance-lunges into Duke fencing legend. There is absolute pandemonium. All for a college meet. All for a bout unimportant to the W-L ledger…but of ultimate importance for a fencer who was given his chance…and then made the most of it when it counted. Had this indeed been scripted by Disney, Sandy would have been carted off the strip on his teammates’ shoulders in slow motion, but let’s remember, Sandy is a manly sized guy, and frankly, he’s getting pummeled so hard in the scrum of his jubilant teammates, there’s not a free hand for a power hoist.

When the crowd clears a bit, Duke’s perennially calm and stoic coach Alex Beguinet bounds up to Sandy, beaming a titanic, jaw-cracking smile, bouncing up and down as he engulfs his much larger fencer in a bone-crushing bear hug.

Saturday, February 11, 2012. Duke senior Justin “Sandy” Goldsmith fences his first and final bout for the Duke Blue Devils, and retires undefeated with a perfect, unblemished 1-0 record.

And that’s why I love college fencing.