Born in Buga, Colombia, has been in the sport of fencing since she was 11 years old. In her native country she fenced furiously achieving numerous national titles until she moved to the United States in 1987.  She returned to Fencing in 1991 and fenced for Hunter College in New York City where she earned the title all conference and all region winner. In 2001 she became the assistance fencing coach at Hunter College and coached the foil men and women varsity team. On the same year she also became a certified fencing coach in foil and saber from the United States Coaches College. In 2004 she founded her fencing Club "Profencing-Proesgrima"  in Long Island, NY.  Also in 2004 she returned to competitive fencing and debuted in the international level representing Colombia at the 2004 Foil world Championships in New York City.  In 2006 she took 5th at the Buenos Aires Foil World Cup and competed at the 2006 World Championships in Torino, Italy. Soon she was among the top 100 fencers in the FIE  world ranking and got the chance to fence,train and endurance friendships with Olympian legends like Giovanna Trillini, Valentina Vezzali, Margherita Granbassi, Jujie Luan,  Aida Mohamed, Sylwia Gruchala, Mariana Gonzalez ... In 2007 she qualified for the Pan-American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  During the 2006-2007 she competed in South Korea, Shanghai, Cairo, Las Vegas, La Havana, Buenos Aires, Venezuela, and Canada looking to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games at Beijing.  Unfortunately at the Zonal Championships in Canada on August 2007 she got injured and it is uncertain if she will be able to keep fencing at the international level. Nevertheless, she is not giving up fencing and she resumed her fencing coach career and fences occasionally at local events and US national tournaments. In 2008 she reopened her club "Profencing" in Columbus-Ohio and founded the Youth Elite Fencing  program. As a coach she hopes to be able to guide and coach her students not only at the physical, tactical and technical level but also at the mental level.  Her fencing experience at the international level had taught her that the biggest obstacle for achieving success in any endeavor or competition can be one’s poor and frustrated state of mind.

Isabel's coaching techniques came from her coaches specially from Gia Abadshidze , former foil coach at OSU  and Currently at Penn State University. Coach Gia still coaches Isabel accasionally  and she consider him his mentor and organizes  wiith  him  youth fencing camps during the summers.

Also among her former coaches are  Buckei Leach , current national Foil Coach and Mikhael Petin, both of them from the Fencers Club in New York City.  Isabel first coach in Colombia was Sarah Gaviria.

Nevertheless, Isabel considers her recent participation and fencing experience at the world cup level  her main  fencing school. Besides of competing and training with the best fencers during 2003-2007, she dedicated a lot of time on videotaping and studying the coaching techniques from coaches like  Giulio Tomassini from the Italian team. The Italians has been dominating the podium in the three weapons at many world cups and Olympic games in the last 50 years. What ever the Italians are doing is working and for this reason Isabel  is planning to attend the Italian School of fencing Masters to obtained her title of "Maestro di Scherma.  She considers that fencing is constantly chainging and to be able to be keep growing and learning it is important to keep attending world cups to keep learning from the top fencers and their coaches.

George Abashidze is in his first year at Penn State   A former member of the USSR's National Foil Team, Abashidze's team competed in numerous international tournaments and he won his nation's foil crown as an athlete. Before coming to the United States, George coached the Georgian National Team.

Abashidze came to the United state as and coached club fencing in Portland, Ore., before taking an assistant coach position at Ohio State. While in Columbus, Abashidze helped Ohio State's foilists win five NCAA individual titles.

Among his athletes were Olympians Monica DeBruin and Hanne Thompson (a teammate of Penn State's Doris Willette on the U.S. women's foil team at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. That team won the Silver Medal.

Abashidze and his wife Iya have three children (Guram, a freshman at Penn State; Anna and Sophie). The Abashidze's reside in State College

Nick Jew started fencing at the age of thirteen in Temple, TX with the Round Rock Fencing Club with Coach Gary Murray. He fenced for RRFC throughout middle school and high school while traveling to NACs. While attending the University of Texas at Austin, Nick fenced for the University of Texas Fencing Club under Coach Paul Schimelman. While fencing at UTFC. He competed in both USFA tournaments as well as collegiate level competitions including SWIFA and USACFC. As part of the UTFC men's foil team, Nick was a member of the 2007 USACFC Men's Foil Championship team, and he placed 6th in the individual event for men's foil in 2008. In 2009, UTFC men's foil placed 1st overall in the Southwest Intercollegiate Fencing Association. While fencing for UTFC, he served as president of the club for two years. While at the University of Texas, Nick was an aide for the university courses in introductory and intermediate fencing with Coach Paul Schimelman. Additionally, as president of UTFC, he taught introductory fencing classes for the club as well as performing numerous recruiting demonstrations across UT's campus. Following graduation from the University of Texas with a BS in Biomedical Engineering, Nick moved to Columbus where he is now a veterinary student at the Ohio State University. Nick currently holds a C09 rating in foil with the USFA

Derek Wang, 12 : 1st place at the  OSU Fall cup Mix Y12  and 1st place in the Y12 and 8th place in the Y14 at the Regional Youth Circuit in Lakewood. Derek  started to fence on September  of 2008.

Mia Zerkle, 11: 18 months in fencing. 2nd place in the Girls Y12  at Regional  Youth Circuit in Lakewood,OH, 2nd place in the Mix Y12  and 2nd  place in the Y14  Mix foil competition at the Winter OSU Cup.  Mia started  to fence  on May of 2008.

Matthew Wiese, 14: 3rd Place at the Regional Youth Circuit and 1st place in  the Y14 Mix foil event at the Winter OSU cup. Mathew  has been with me since August 2009 and has been in fencing for less than a year. 

Gabe Ehrenfried,11:  3rd place in the Y12 Regional Youth Circuit in Lakewood  and 1st place at the Mixed foil at the OSU spring cup. Gabe started fencing on May 2008.

Ry Heath, 9: 2nd place in the Y10 event at the Regional Youth Circuit in Lakewod.  Ry started fencing in June of 2009.

Eleni Christofides,13: 7th Place in Y14  at the Regional Youth circuit in Lakewood, Eleni started fencing on January 2009. Elenin recnetly earn her E10 rating at a local tournament.

Payton Seats , 9: Payton started fencing in August 2009, He is still  in the beginning level. Finish 3rd in the New Years Eve Fencing Competition.