The Great Neck South High School boys' fencing team led by Coach Robert Pirano became Nassau County Team Champions after defeating rival Garden City High School. After a bronze third place finish last year, South was eager for gold. In the regular season Great Neck South posted an 8-2 record beating the undefeated and long time rivals Garden City High School as well.

Team fencing consists of three weapons, foil, epee and saber. Team matches are won by the first team to get 14 wins with individual team members fencing five-point bouts with their opponents.

Coming into the county championship, Great Neck South was second seed. The first match was with the tough Jericho High School. However, Great Neck South was on a mission in win. Great Neck South won in the second-to -last match, which was clinched by Epee alternate Thomas Butler. South knew this was no time to celebrate. South still needed to defeat the difficult Garden City team if they were going to claim gold. Everyone needed to fence 100 percent.

From the beginning of the match with Garden City, it was close. Great Neck South was up a few points. Then, immediately, Garden City stole it right back. Great Neck South needed to overcome the highly skilled foil squad of Garden City. However, South's foil of David Phillips, Dylan Healy and Evan Walden were ready to win and dominated the immense Garden City line-up of county champions and national competitors. Saber, led by Jeremy Klepner, Rich Tinaro and Mike Cheng, kept Garden City in their place and fenced with great effort.

In a strong pull at the end, with the score 13-13, the epee team pulled off the win, with Clifford Fishler winning the final bout, assisted by epee team Michael Kim, and Tommy Butler, alternate, filling in for Rayson Hong.

Adding to the elation, the Great Neck South fencing team was selected as most sportsman-like by the other 10 teams in the county. Congrats to the Great Neck South boys fencing team and Rob Pirano.