Janusz Bednarski Position: Head Coach Alma Mater: SGPiS College '70

The University of Notre Dame's athletic heritage has featured many legendary coaches, but only one - current sixth-year fencing coach Janusz Bednarski - has directed his Irish squad to the national title in his first year as the program's head coach. Such was the accomplishment in the spring of 2003, when a veteran Notre Dame squad edged rival Penn State to return atop the pinnacle of the college fencing world.

Bednarski then helped guide the Irish to their historic comeback that won the NCAAs again in 2005, becoming the first Notre Dame head coach in any sport ever to see his teams win multiple national titles in fewer than five seasons. Previously, legendary football coach Frank Leahy saw the Irish win two national titles in his first five seasons as leader of that storied program.

Bednarski - who is quick to share all of the coaching credits for the team's success with his assistant coaches and his predecessor Yves Auriol - was named in May of 2002 as the sixth head coach in the program's storied history, after serving eight seasons as an assistant on the Notre Dame staff. Currently an elected member of the NCAA National Fencing Committee and chair of the NCAA Midwest Regional Committee, the sabre specialist saw his first five seasons as the Notre Dame head coach yield a .927 combined winning percentage (242-19) - with nearly an identical mark during that span by the Irish men (119-10) and women (123-9)

Bednarski recently has served as the coach for the best all-around collection of sabre talent in all of college fencing. Mariel Zagunis (the 2004 Olympic gold medalist) dominated her college bouts with the Irish as a freshman, going 29-1 in the regular season and advancing to the 2005 NCAA title match before returning to win the NCAA title in 2006. Valerie Providenza impressively won the 2004 NCAA sabre title and then battled through illness to post the second-most round-robin wins at the 2005 NCAAs (behind Zagunis), helping Notre Dame stage its historic rally that edged Ohio State for the NCAA title.

Zagunis (21-2) and Providenza (19-4) blitzed the 2005 NCAA field for a 40-6 combined record, marking only the fourth time since the current 23-bout format was adopted in 1996 that teammates in the same weapon (men's or women's) had posted 40-plus wins.

On the men's side, Patrick Ghattas and Matt Stearns combine with current junior Bill Thanhouser recently to give the Irish a talented sabre trio. Ghattas was one of the nation's top-ranked junior fencers, competing with Team USA at the 2005 World Junior Championships while earning All-America honors at the 2004 NCAAs and again in '05 (when he reached the title bout, followed by two more NCAA runner-up finish in 2006 and '07). Stearns turned in a 10th-place finishes for his own All-America honors at the 2005 NCAAs, combining with Ghattas for the second-most men's sabre wins (32) in the NCAA field, behind a potent Ohio State duo that managed only a split in their key matchups with Ghattas and Stearns. Thanhouser then placed sixth at the '06 NCAAs for his own All-America honors. Providenza and Ghattas ultimately became rare four-year sabre All-Americans while Stearns and Zagunis both posted two All-America finishes with the Irish.

A former Olympic-level coach with Poland's national-team program, Bednarski's leadership and training strategy positioned the 2003 Irish for their run at the program's sixth all-time NCAA title and first since '94. Auriol had been Notre Dame's only coach - in any sport - to guide his team to a national title in his second season (doing so with the 1987 women's fencing team) while five others have been national-title coaches in their third seasons with the Irish (see box on p. 15).

Bednarski served as head coach of Poland's Olympic Team from 1978-88, with members of those teams winning 11 medals at the Olympics and World Championships. Formerly a member of Poland's national sabre team, the Warsaw native received the prestigious Polish Silver Cross of Merit for his coaching accomplishments as head coach of the Polish National Team. Prior to assuming his duties as the Irish head coach, Bednarski had been a vital member of the Notre Dame program as it remained among the nation's best - with the Irish finishing as the NCAA runner-up every year from 1996-2000, in addition to third-place finishes in 1995, 2001, '02 and '04.

Bednarski's days as an assistant included helping coordinate the recruiting effort that fortified the Irish for their pursuit of the national title. The 2003 seniors finished as the most accomplished class in the history of Notre Dame fencing, combining for nearly 1,300 career victories and 20 All-America performances. The senior leaders in 2003 included a pair of four-time All-Americas in men's epeeist Jan Viviani and men's foilist Ozren Debic, with senior men's sabreist Gabor Szelle and senior women's epeeists Meagan Call and Anna Carnick each posting three All-America performances during their careers. Debic (157-8, .952) and Viviani (162-20, .890) finished with the top career winning percentages in Notre Dame history for their respective weapons while Szelle (182-13, .933) ranks fourth all-time on the sabre win percentage list and sixth among all men's weapons.

The 2005 senior class included a pair of top fencers from Bednarski's native Poland - three-time women's foil NCAA champion ('05 runner-up) Alicja Kryczalo and 2005 men's epee NCAA champ Michal Sobieraj ('03 NCAA runner-up), in addition to two-time NCAA foil runner-up Andrea Ament. Each of those three became rare four-year All-Americans, with Kryczalo going undefeated (23-0) in the 2002 NCAA round-robin before beating Ament in the gold-medal matchup (Ament's only losses in the '02 NCAAs came versus her teammate, followed by a third-place finish in '03).

Another member of the talented 2005 senior class, women's epeeist Kerry Walton, also had an impressive debut in 2002, winning the NCAA title, taking home the bronze at the World Junior Championships and claiming the gold at the U.S. Open Championships (she placed fifth at the 2003 NCAAs and was second in '04).

Bednarski's first season as the Notre Dame head coach included a 46-2 combined record in regular-season dual meets, with the Irish men going 24-0 to extend the program's third-longest winning streak to 83 matches (that streak ultimately ended at 90 matches in 2004). The Irish men claimed the number-one ranking in the middle of the 2003 season, after knocking off Penn State in a fiercely-contested 15-12 decision at Notre Dame's Joyce Center.

His 2004 Notre Dame squads combined for a 50-1 record, with both the Irish men (24-1) and women (26-0) holding the number-one ranking. The 2005 teams followed with a 43-5 combined record (22-2 by the women; 21-3 for the men) and the Notre Dame women held the nation's top ranking for most of that '05 season. Both Irish teams then suffered only one loss in 2006 (each 29-1), with the women again rising to the top spot in the AFCA poll.

During Bednarski's eight seasons as an assistant, the Irish won 93.6 percent of their dual matches (382-26) and the Irish men's team held the nation's number-one ranking in both the 2001 and 2002 final coaches' polls.

Bednarski's work with Notre Dame has made a significant impact in sabre and epee - with Bill Lester, Luke La Valle and Gabor Szelle combining over a six-year stretch ('95-'00) to win two gold, two silver and one bronze medal in NCAA sabre. His sabre fencers now have earned 32 All-America honors (out of a possible 42; with women's sabre making its debut in 2000) and have won four NCAA individual titles, plus six runner-up finishes.

The men's sabre squad posted the maximum two All-Americans in each of Bednarski's first six full seasons ('96-'01), with that level of success unmatched by any other Notre Dame weapon in that six-year stretch. He tutored two-time sabre All-American Andre Crompton ('02), who stood as high as sixth in the U.S. rankings, while Szelle and fellow senior sabreman Matt Fabricant earned All-America honors in 2003 to help pace the national title-winning effort.

Bednarski also oversaw the career of women's sabre captain Carianne McCullough, who progressed from being a walk-on to a nationally-ranked competitor and 2002 All-American. He then developed Destanie Milo into an All-American in her own right, with Milo's sixth-place finish at the 2003 NCAAs providing a final push to the team title.

Most recently, Bednarski quickly helped mold Providenza and Ghattas into top-level collegiate fencers. Providenza turned in a strong rookie season and won the 2004 NCAA title - becoming the first Notre Dame sabre fencer (men's or women's) ever to win the NCAAs as a freshman. Ghattas turned in his own All-America showing at the 2004 NCAAs (placing 10th) and surged to number-two in the USFA under-20 men's sabre rankings, before going on to his NCAA runner-up finishes in 2005 and '06.

After moving to the United States in 1988, Bednarski served as head coach at Denver's CFS Fencing Club - the largest fencing club in the Rocky Mountain region - from 1989-94. Many of his CFS products went on to achieve great success on the national and international level. While in Colorado, Bednarski served on the U.S. coaching staff at the 1993 (head coach) and 1994 Junior World Championships and was a U.S. coach for the 1992 Junior Pan-Am Games. His fencers have competed in Olympics, World Championships and World Cups in all age categories.

Bednarski served from 1994-2002 as head coach of the Escrime du Lac Fencing Club in Mishawaka (also known as the Indiana Fencing Academy) and has been a member of many advisory panels for the U.S. Fencing Association, the U.S. Olympic Committee and the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association. He is licensed by Federation International D'Escrime as an "A" category fencing director and is one of just a handful of fencing specialists in North America who are ranked by the International Fencing Federation.

His wide-reaching experience includes participating in the organizational efforts for World Championships held in Denver (1989 and '91), and South Bend (2000). In 1997 and '99, he was selected as Midwest Region coach of the year by the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association.

Fluent in several languages, Bednarski in 1970 received his master's degree in business from Warsaw's prestigious SGPiS Business College, where he worked as a lecturer in economics. He obtained his coaching diploma from the Academy of Physical Education in 1978 and has published several articles on coaching, effective club management and counseling of athletes.

A resident of Granger, Ind., Bednarski and his wife, Izabella, have two sons: Michael (34) and Andrzej (28), a three-time sabre All-American and 2002 graduate of Notre Dame who served as an intern assistant coach on his father's staff during the 2005 and '06 seasons.