About Us
The Sabre Rattlers is the fencing club at the University of Wisconsin-Rock County in Janesville.  Membership is open to all students, and most take either the Introductory or Intermediate Fencing course offered by the campus.

The club also offers Associate Membership for people who have their own fencing equipment but are not students.  Associate Members are allowed to participate in club functions, but do not vote on expenditure of club funds.

During most semesters, club membership is about 10 students.

Pete Mory and Brian Duckwitz are the club’s faculty advisors.  Pete has been teaching fencing at UW-Rock for over 40 years and is officially retired from the Physical Education department; Introductory and Intermediate Fencing are the only classes he teaches now.  Brian teaches English on campus and has been fencing for four years.  He also teaches ENG 370 “Is the Pen Mightier Than the Sword?” in the Fall semester and, along with Pete, teaches INT 290 “A Conversation in Steel,” which is designed to connect the literature course and the Fencing class.  If students complete all three courses successfully, they fulfill their IS requirement for graduation.

Pete and Brian have also studied the early 15th Century longsword fighting method of Fiore dei Liberi with Bob Charron of St. Martin’s Academy of Medieval Arms in Stoughton.

Brian is also currently working with Michael Garrison, Prevot d'Armes and coach of the UW-Madison Fencing Club, to study for his Moniteur d'Armes coaching certification.

Meetings
The Fencing class is held on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 11:00-11:50, and our meetings have traditionally been right afterwards.  If there is enough interest, extra times can be arranged.

Sabre Rattlers Invitational Tournament
The club sponsored its first tournament in April 2008, the “Sabre Rattlers Invitational.”  The tournament was only open to those people who are, or have been, enrolled in the fencing classes offered by the campus. It was well-attended and very long since we ran all three weapons and had only one strip in use.  Foil and Sabre were run “dry,” as neither the campus nor club owns electric equipment for those weapons.  Epee was done with beeper boxes.  All in all, it was an excellent experience and we look forward to doing it again next year.

Contact Us
Email Brian Duckwitz at brian.duckwitz@uwc.edu