Head coach Janusz Bednarski has led the Notre Dame fencing team to three national championships, joining legendary Fighting Irish football coaches Knute Rockne and Frank Leahy and famed fencing skipper Michael DeCicco as the only coaches ever to lead their Notre Dame programs to three titles.

Fighting Irish Fan Chat - Feb. 10

Feb. 9, 2011

UND.com is debuting another of its new interactive features for the 2010-11 season, with its weekly Fighting Irish Fan Chats. UND.com will sit down for a live chat session with student-athletes, coaches and administrators making news in the world of Fighting Irish athletics. Fans are invited to join in and offer questions or comments for our guests, and if you can’t join us live, each chat will be archived so you can return to UND.com at your convenience and read what your favorite Notre Dame athletic personalities have to say on a variety of topics.

Thursday’s Fighting Irish Fan Chat will offer live conversations with coaches from two of Notre Dame’s top programs, as women’s golf coach Susan Holt tees things off at 1 p.m. (ET), followed by Janusz Bednarski, the skipper of the top-ranked Fighting Irish fencing teams, at 1:30 p.m. (ET). Both coaches will take questions live from you the fans, and also will discuss their seasons to date — women’s golf is preparing to open its spring season later this month, while fencing is gearing up for the start of postseason competition next month.

Holt led Notre Dame to its highest ranking ever at the conclusion of the 2010 fall season, with the Fighting Irish checking in at No. 17 in the Golfstat survey. Notre Dame also postd a 53-11 record against Division I opponents during the fall, winning two tournaments (Mary Fossum Invitational and Notre Dame’s own William K. Warren Irish Invitational) and finishing sixth or better in each tournament. What’s more, the Fighting Irish put together an outstanding fall semester in the classroom, earning the athletics department’s Top Team GPA Award with a 3.534 cumulative grade-point average during the fall of 2010.

Bednarski has coached the Fighting Irish fencing teams to a combined 37-1 record (women 19-0, men 18-1) and the No. 1 ranking in the nation. Most recently, both squads went undefeated at the Northwestern Duals last weekend, with the women earning seven victories and the men adding five conquests. Notre Dame will close out its regular season slate this weekend at the Duke Duals in Durham, N.C., before turning its attention to the Midwest Fencing Conference Championships on March 5-6 at the Joyce Center Fieldhouse on the Notre Dame campus.

Fighting Irish Fan Chat – Feb. 10

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