The Coach
Coach Charles Bosco has been in the sport of fencing as a competitor, official, and instructor for over 50 years. He was trained by Edward Lucia and Tony Orsi, two fencing masters from the famous Salle Santelli; each of them trained Olympic fencers. After many years of training with these coaches, Mr. Bosco opened Salle D'Armes Bosco in Brick, NJ. Salle D'Armes is French for "room of arms" and is named after the instructor. The New Jersey salle was very successful, with fencers going into national competition. Many of the students received college fencing scholarships.
In 1991, Coach Bosco moved to Madison, AL and soon took over the job of coach of the Huntsville Fencing Club. While coaching at a club was enjoyable, it lacked the total discipline of a salle. Therefore, in 2003 Salle D'Armes Bosco was re-established at a karate school in Harvest, AL. Although the facility was very small, many of the fencers became skilled enough to earn national rankings. Marianne Bosco, the coaches wife, won the US National Veterans Epee Championship in 2004, 2006, and 2007 and has been a member of the US National Team competing in the Veterans World Fencing Championship in 2004 (Krems, Austria), 2005 (Tampa, Florida), 2006 (Bath, England), 2007 (Sydney, Australia) and 2008 (Limoges, France). She also qualified for the team in 2009 but finances did not allow her to go to the World Championships in Moscow, Russia
The Assistant Coach
Our Assistant Coach is Bryant Finney. After fencing with us for a number of years Bryant has agreed to be our assistant coach. He trains the new students to get them up to an intermediate level. This is done with classes and private lessons. Bryant is a student at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and is ranked in epee and foil.