Freshman fencer Edriss Ndiaye chose Ohio State to play out his collegiate fencing career. Credit: Amal Saeed | Lantern File Photo
As one of the top 10 fencers in his class coming out of high school, Edriss Ndiaye caught the attention of many college programs nationally, receiving a slew of offers from some of the top teams in the country.
Among the offers were multiple teams ranked in the top 10 in the nation including No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 4 St. John’s, No. 5 Ohio State, No. 7 Penn State and No. 10 New York University.
Luckily for the Buckeyes, Ndiaye committed to Ohio State and has not looked back since.
“So far, I don’t regret a thing. It’s been amazing,” Ndiaye said. “Their process of integrating us and getting back into training has been perfect and I’m really happy with their training regime and the way the coach has been running things.”
Picking a school out of such a prestigious list is a challenge, but Ndiaye said he was confident in his decision and knew that Ohio State had “a lot of resources here that a lot of other schools don’t have” to prepare him to succeed in and outside fencing.
Ndiaye said he feels the added pressure of moving up from high school to college competition, but he’s excited to work and compete with fencers at this level.
“I think there’s definitely pressure coming into college, it’s a new environment,” Ndiaye said. “I think a big part of how great this is is that I’m working with other people who are just as motivated to get to the top level as I am. We’re all working on the same goal, we’re all trying to get to the main point so it’s like you really feel like you have that push from everybody around you.”
Part of what has made Ndiaye such a talented fencer has been the level of competition he has fenced at throughout his career.
Being one of the highest-ranked high school recruits and rising as high as fifth in the nation, he has participated in multiple international and national competitions. Ndiaye fenced in the 2019 Junior Olympics and earned a bronze medal. He also has top 16 finishes to his credit at the Division I Championships, San Jose Junior World Cup and Cadet European Circuit in Rome and a top 8 finish at the North American Cup.
Ndiaye said his national and international experience has prepared him for the college level.
“Because I’m used to the level of pressure, and in the college circuit there’s a lot of intense competitors, a lot of whom also fenced on the international circuit,” Ndiaye said.
Ndiaye’s background is different from that of other fencers: He started the sport much later than most of his competition.
“With me, what’s crazy is I started fencing about five years ago while over 90 percent of my competitors started fencing at the age of 8, at the age of 7,” Ndiaye said. “So, for me, coming into the sport, I was kind of an underdog because I didn’t have much experience.”
Despite his late start in the world of fencing, Ohio State head coach Donald Anthony Jr. said Ndiaye’s desire stood out above all his attributes.
“As far as being a fencer, we know that part, but he really wanted to be at the Ohio State University,” Anthony said. “You can’t substitute the passion for wanting to be part of a program and then you combine that with the fact that he has the fencing skills to add to our competitiveness.”
Anthony said Ndiaye puts in time to improve. Anthony said Ndiaye’s athleticism has allowed him to develop quickly despite starting to fence at a later age.
“He’s got a lot of upside and one of the nice things about coming here, with the coaching staff we have, we can get the best out of him and help him on that journey,” Anthony said.
Ndiaye said he has been working all offseason on tactics and footwork with retired fencer and new addition to the Ohio State coaching staff Elvis Gregory Gil — who Ndiaye said played a part in his decision to come to Ohio State.
Anthony said he sees Ndiaye “working hard” with Gil and it has caught his eye.
In terms of his support system, Ndiaye credited his mom as his biggest supporter in his fencing endeavours.
“My mom supported me financially, she supported me emotionally, mentally. I guess you can say she supports me in every single aspect,” Ndiaye said. “Even though it was kind of hard for her to make it to my competitions because of financial reasons, she still made an effort to make sure that I got to these competitions and was still always there and had me no matter what.”
Ndiaye also credited his coach from back home, Rolando Tucker, as being a driving force in his life and helping him realize his potential and take that next step.
Ndiaye and Anthony share the same goal for his career at Ohio State. Ndiaye said his goals include being an All-American and making the NCAA Championships.
“We share the goal that he has, being able to make the U.S. team, which means he’ll be in the top 4 in the country consistently. I’d like to see him on the junior championship team,” Anthony said.
