Eugene Vortsman '08 had been a rock all day for the men's fencing team against New York University, but with Brandeis trailing the Violets 13-12 he found himself behind three touches to one, and the team's chance for a UAA championship was slipping away. From the sidelines, Will Friedman '09 saw his teammate needed help and quickly called "timeout". Friedman stepped forward, put his hand on Vortsman's shoulder, and said a few words of encouragement to his teammate. Following the timeout, Vortsman did not relinquish even one touch the rest of the bout, keeping the Judges alive on the way to their eventual UAA Championship title that day.

Players rarely call timeouts to give advice on most teams, but for the Judges, it's a common practice that illustrates the close relationships the players share.

"It makes it so that you're able to listen to your teammates without getting angry at them, and I think that's really important," Friedman said.

Vortsman referred to the team as a bunch of "hard-working jokers," and at practice last Friday, it was easy to see both sides of this double-edged sword. Captain Brendan Doris-Pierce '07 greeted his co-captain Jeremy Simpson '06 by pretending to tackle him as he walked into the door. Doris-Pierce continued to poke fun at Simpson as they were warming up, saying: "You tied your shoelaces and stretched your back, all on one foot."

Teammate Mike Mello '07 rolled his eyes and said, "Brendan, you talk too much."

Laughter filled the room, with the loudest laugh belonging to Doris-Pierce.

"It's easier to help people out because you know you can be honest with them," Kirsten Heinz '09 said. "It makes it easier for us to push each other."

With a team of sharp blades and sharp jibes, Doris-Pierce was only one of many victims of playful mockery. As Jessica Newhall '09 waited for Caitlin Kozel '09 and Kai Keller '07 finished their practice match, she told the two of them to "stop flirting and fence."

"We're all a bunch of goofballs," Doris-Pierce said. "We all joke around and we all make fun of each other. If we didn't joke so much, we'd probably kill each other."

The level of goofiness is only matched by the intensity of the competition during practice. The boisterous jokes from Doris-Pierce's mouth earlier in the day are soon followed by loud screaming coupled with the slamming of his helmet and saber against the floor after losing a touch during a bout against Simpson. Earlier, when a bout between Newhall and Hannah Rosen '08 went on through the end of the women's team's practice, Rosen and Newhall both refused to stop. When the bout finally ended with Rosen winning 15-14, the men's team was already starting to warm up for its practice, and both fencers' faces were bright red.

"We take the sport seriously, but we don't take ourselves seriously," Doris-Pierce said.

This contrast is truly a rarity. There are many teams that work hard, but tighten up under pressure. There are other teams that play fun and loose but never work hard enough to fulfill their talent. The fencing teams are goofy and easy-going, fiery and super-competitive, able to conjure whatever side is needed for th situation at hand.

"The closer you are with people, the more you enjoy getting better than them," Friedman said. "If I weren't friends with Eugene [Vortsman], J.D. [Carroll] and Mike [Mello], I couldn't be like, 'Hey, this is what you have to do, this is the mistake you're making.' They would normally get pissed at me if I did that, but because we're all friends, I can easily help them."

For this group of sharp-object wielding goofballs looking to defend their UAA crowns and improve nationally next season, the very tricky key to success will be balancing the added pressure of a winning season with their boisterous personality.

But the returning captains know the best way to manage their core of tremendous young talent is to make sure that they keep having fun and acting like doofuses, or else.

"When recruits come in and watch the team interact, they see it as a family," Doris-Pierce said. "If you can see a team that's performing very well and gets along very well, that's a team anybody would want to play for.