IvyLeagueSports.com, NJ
July 19 2008
Yale’s Harutunian to the USFA Hall of Fame in 2009
Created: 7/19/2008 12:27:07 PM
Courtesy of Yale Sports Publicity
Yale Fencing Head Coach Henry Harutunian was elected for induction to
the United States Fencing Hall of Fame in the summer of 2009.
Harutunian, who has coached at Yale since 1969, will join Gilbert
Rosiere, Jose Velarde, Arkady Burdan and Sherry Posthumus in the 2009
enshrinement.
"It is the highest honor," said Harutunian, who has served as coach
for the U.S. Olympic Fencing team. "Being selected represents a
lifetime recognition. I’ve done whatever I can in my life to serve
this country, and they have recognized that by putting me in the hall
of fame. I am honored to join the great ones of the past."
For more than 30 years, Yale fencers with the will have been counting
on Harutunian to hone their skill.
Harutunian has produced numerous All-Americans and an NCAA men’s foil
and women’s sabre champion during his tenure. Remarkably, a number of
those honored had never touched a weapon before coming to Yale. The
men are 238-125 (.656) under his guidance and captured the NCAA sabre
title in 1994. The women, meanwhile, have a 269-69 record (.796) and
have won three national titles (1982, 1984, 1985).
Harutunian, the 1996-97 USFCA Coach of the Year, had a distinguished
career as a fencer and coach in his native Armenia. He was named
eminent coach of the Republic of Armenia in 1963, while serving on the
coaching staff for the Soviet national team from 1962-1966.
One of his pupils made the U.S.S.R. Olympic team in 1956 and went on
to become the first Soviet to claim the individual epee title at the
Junior World Championships in 1958. Harutunian came to the United
States in 1966 and coached at Brandeis for three years prior to
joining the Yale staff.
Before long, Harutunian had joined the U.S. coaching elite. He began
working with the American national team in 1977, and in 1984, he
served as one of three U.S. Olympic coaches. He also coached the
Americans in the 1979 and 1983 Pan American Games and in the 1979,
1981, 1983, 1991 and 1993 World University Games.
Harutunian was named Coach of the Year by the National Intercollegiate
Women’s Fencing Association in 1982 and by the IWFA in 1984 and 1985
at the NCAA Championships. In 1986, the U.S. Men’s Fencing Coaches
Association selected him Coach of the Year.
He has also choreographed stage fencing for both theater and the
screen, and has acted in films. Harutunian’s philosophy of fencing is
guided by the following passage from The Works of Moliere: "The eyes
which watch and warn, the brain which evaluates and decides, the hand
which executes the decision must harmonize precision and speed to give
real life to the sword."
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