Executive Director Kelly Williams
The Kansas City Fencing Center is under the direction of Executive Director Kelly Williams. Coach Williams is certified to coach foil, epee, and sabre by the United States Fencing Association and the United States Fencing Coaches Association.
Ms. Williams comes to us from Chapel Hill, NC where she studied Physical Education at the University of North Carolina. Prior to her move to Kansas, she was the Head Fencing Coach at North Carolina State University 1989-91 and Assistant Coach at University of North Carolina 1992-96.
In October of 1998 she became the first American fencer to win a silver medal at a Senior World Championship event.
The United States Fencing Association voted her the 1998 Female Athlete of the Year. Kelly is a 4 time US National Individual Champion, and lead 2 teams to US Women's Sabre National titles.
She represented the United States at the 1999 Senior World Championships in Seoul Korea. Coach Williams was the #1 ranked female sabre fencer in the US until retiring from competition to focus on coaching. Coach Williams has served on the Board of Directors for US Fencing, US Fencing’s Youth Development Committee and as chair for the Kansas Division of the USFA 2001-02. Additionally, Coach Williams was the Instructor for Level 2 and 3 Sabre at US Fencing’s Coaches College held at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
In collegiate competition Coach Williams' students successfully competed in medal rounds of NCAA Regional and National Fencing Championships. Ms Williams' students have placed within the finals (top eight) nationally in every United States Fencing Association sabre age group.
Coach Benjamin Kloeppersmith
Ben is a certified instructor in both Foil and Saber by the United States Fencing Association. He also has his certification in Sport Safety Training from the American Red Cross / U.S. Olympic Committee, and is certified by the American Coaching Effectiveness Program as a coach of young athletes.
Ben entered the world of fencing after the 1996 Olympics, when he first discovered that there is in fact a sport with swords. (His parents were energetically scolded for this gap in his prior education.) He found a home here at the Kansas City Fencing Center, studying saber with Vladimir Nazlymov. Ben actively competed on the national scene for five years, where he was consistently ranked among the top fencers nationally in his age group. He was selected by his peers to serve as Team Captain of KCFC’s Competitive Program, a testament to both his work ethic and his leadership skills.
Ben kept up his fencing while pursuing his other passion, graphic design, at JCCC. At the club, his natural empathy and strong understanding of fencing made it easy for him to help out younger students coming up through the sport. In the fall of 2003, Kelly offered him a full time position to do what he loved – teach saber!
Since then, Ben has coached both kids and adults in the art and sport of saber. Understanding that the game is not static, he works hard to stay abreast of the evolving modern game. With creativity and enthusiasm, he engages his students at all levels. Ben, in a very patient and playful manner, easily communicates with his students his passion for fencing, art and life.
And his wife thinks he's very cute and charming.
Coach andy Joyce
Andy began fencing during the Fall of 2012, his senior of college at the University of Central Missouri. As he likes to say, he started fencing to stave off boredom during college. It wasn’t long before he had a solid grasp on the fundamentals as the sport was a natural fit.
Upon graduating Andy decided to take a break from fencing while learning how to “be an adult”. Thankfully he came to senses and returned to the sport in the Spring of 2015 joining Kansas City Fencing Center as a student. Under Kelly’s coaching Andy’s techniques became increasingly more refined and his tactics expanded.
Andy’s knowledge of the sport grew, as did his passion for sharing that information with others. Coach Williams, finding Andy’s gentle, encouraging manner to be a good fit with our programs, began in 2017 to train him as a coach in addition to as an athlete. Andy now has his own classes that he teaches in Epee and fills in for Kelly when she needs be away from the gym.