Coaches

Coaches

Maître Patricia Howes
Patricia is the Head Coach of Cutting Edge Fencing. She recently retired as the Head Coach of the RMC Fencing Program after 23 years of leading this successful program, and will continue to work with the teams as an assistant coach. Patricia is also currently the Co-Coach of the Canadian Women’s Sabre National Team Program. She was also selected to be the Head Coach for the Canadian Fencing Team at the 2013 & 2015 World University Games, and coached at numerous Canada Games for Manitoba and Ontario including the 2007 Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse where Ontario achieved a best-ever result in fencing winning eleven medals, and the 2013 Canada Summer Games.

Patricia is fully certified at Level IV in all three weapons and is an internationally qualified Maître d’Armes. Before moving to Kingston, she coached at the Lightning Fencing Club in Winnipeg Manitoba and coached at the 1999, 2003 and 2005 Canada Winter Games with Team Manitoba. Patricia is also a graduate of the NCI program.

Maître David Howes

David is the Assistant Coach of Cutting Edge Fencing. He was the Canadian Senior Women’s Epee National Team Coach from 2012 to 2018, accompanying Canadian teams at numerous world cups and world championships, and was a member of the coaching staff at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. David is also an Assistant Coach with the RMC Varsity Fencing team. David has been involved in the sport of fencing since 1983, and completed his first coaching course in 1989. He is fully certified at Level IV in all three weapons under the National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP), and is an internationally qualified Maître d’Armes. David also graduated in 2002 from the National Coaching Institute’s Diploma Program in High Performance Coaching.

David is also the Executive Director of the Canadian Fencing Federation and has held this position since February of 2020.

David was formerly the Head Coach of the Lightning Fencing Club in Winnipeg Manitoba. He was also the coach of Manitoba’s provincial team for the 2003 Canada Winter Games in New Brunswick (Team Toba results).

David coached Team Ontario at the 2007 Canada Winter Games in Whitehorse, where Ontario achieved a best-ever result in fencing winning eleven medals.

David at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio

Other Instructors
A number of our more experienced athletes also assist with the various youth programs.

Bill Mason

Bill is our Adult Learn to Fence program instructor and is a successful competitor on the Ontario veterans circuit.