Gia Kvaratskhelia Position: Assistant Coach Alma Mater: Georgian State Physical Training Institute '93

The 2007 season marked a new era for the Notre Dame fencing program, as highly-respected assistant coach Gia Kvaratskhelia came on board to work alongside head coach Janusz Bednarski. Regarded as one of the top young foil coaches in the nation, Kvaratskhelia's background includes a successful competitive career in the former Soviet Union as a member of the Georgian National Team.

Guiorgie "Gia" Kvaratskhelia (GEE-uh Claw-duh-SKELL-ee-uh) - who spent the previous 10 years as coach of the Kanza Fencing Club in Salina, Kansas - filled the position on the Notre Dame staff previously held by Zoltan Dudas, who was named head coach at Princeton in the spring of 2006.

The 36-year-old Kvaratskhelia has made a tremendous impact in his short time at Notre Dame - through both his instruction of the Irish foilists and his tireless efforts on the recruiting trail.

Notre Dame qualified the maximum four foilists for the 2007 NCAA Championships and produced three All-Americans, led by a third-place finish from current junior Adrienne Nott. Her classmate Emilie Prot (14th) ended up one win shy of All-America honors while yet another junior foilist, Mark Kubik, sparkled at the 2007 NCAAs with a seventh-place finish to earn second team All-America status.

The team's other NCAA entrant in men's foil, current senior Jakub Jedrkowiak, placed ninth to secure the third All-America honor of his college fencing career.

Under Kvaratskhelia's guidance, Nott has developed into one of the leading contenders for the 2008 NCAA women's foil title. Her stellar sophomore year with the Irish included a dominating 56-7 record in the regular season before winning the Midwest Fencing Conference and NCAA Midwest Regional titles. Nott then placed third in the NCAA round-robin (18-5), with a +54 total-point differential that was fifth-best among the 72 total women's fencing entrants in the 2007 NCAA field.

Kvaratskhelia helped secure one of the top freshman classes in all of college fencing for the 2007-08 season, led by several elite foilists. Freshman Hayley Reese entered the fall of 2007 ranked eighth among U.S. under-20 women's foilists and i impressively was ranked 14th overall among all American women's foilists. Her classmates Zach Schirtz (9th) and Steve Kibik (20th) also are among the nation's top-ranked u-20 men's foilist, with Schirtz owning an overall ranking of 26th while Kubik is 30th (his older brother Mark is 21st in those USFA men's foil rankings).

Most noteworthy of all is the signing of foil prodigy Gerek Meinhardt during the 2007 fall letter-of-intent period. Meinhardt - who is set to join Notre Dame in the fall of 2008 - already has fenced at international events with the full U.S. men's foil team and has risen atop the USFA men's foil rankings, despite being more than 10 years younger than many of the nation's elite foilists.

Prior to arriving at Notre Dame, Kvaratskhelia transformed Kanza from a small recreational club into one of the nation's top foil centers. His fencers at Kanza - which included the Kubik brothers and their current Notre Dame teammate Teddy Hodges - combined to win three USFA national men's open foil team championships, with six of his Kanza fencers going on to compete on the Division I level as scholarship athletes.

Named the 2002 USFA national development coach of the year, Kvaratskhelia molded his fencers at Kanza into top competitors on the national and even international level. His Kanza fencers combined to be national finalists 15 times while receiving a total of nearly 50 national medals. Former Kanza fencers Ryan Dunn and Chris Miller were members of the U.S. Junior National Team before going on to successful collegiate careers (Miller as an All-American at Penn State and Dunn at Air Force.) Kanza product Christina Tillman also went on to fence at Air Force while Eric McConkey joined her as a Division I competitor at Cleveland State.

Known previously as the Coyote Fencing Club, the Kanza foil center had a roster of only five active fencers when Kvaratskhelia arrived in 1996 but that number of active competitors grew to a bustling gym full of 30 fencers in 2005.

During his time at Kanza, Kvaratskhelia worked cooperatively with many coaches from throughout the United States and from overseas. Kanza has hosted an impressive list of nationally-ranked fencers during recent years, with those elite foilists including the likes of Kurt Getz, the Kubik brothers, Andras Horanyi, Meinhardt and Tamara Najm. Kanza also welcomed more than 60 out-of-state fencers for its 2005 summer training camps and worked an "exchange" program with clubs in Russia and Ukraine, allowing fencers from his homeland and Kansas to train in an overseas setting. Kanza likewise has sponsored community outreach programs while helping grow the sport of fencing throughout the state.

Kvaratskhelia - who became a U.S. citizen in 2004 - developed an elite four-fencer team of youth men's foilists at Kanza, with that group winning USFA national titles in the open category during 2001, '02 and '04. The Kanza foilists brought home the bronze from the 2006 USFA Summer Nationals, led by Mark and Steve Kubik.

After immigrating to the United States in 1994, Kvaratskhelia stayed active in his own fencing career by competing in domestic and international events. He placed fifth in the open competition at a 1996 North American Cup and fenced at World Cup events in 1998 and '99. Kvaratskhelia first ventured into coaching in 1994, assisting Vladimir Nazlymov (now head coach at Ohio State) at Central Fencing Club in Kansas City and at the satellite Lawrence Fencing Club. Two years later, he accepted the challenge in Salina and spent 10 years building Kanza into a nationally-recognized club.

Kvaratskhelia grew up in the Soviet republic of Georgia and began fencing in 1988 at the age of 13. He progressed quickly and was a member of the Georgian National Foil Team from 1990-94, during which time he fenced alongside the likes of Vladimir Aptiaouri (a member of the U.S.S.R. foil team that won the gold at the 1988 Olympics). Kvaratskhelia took home the bronze medal at the 1990 Soviet Junior National Championship - shortly before Georgia declared its independence - and he later had an impressive 11th-place finish at the 1992 European Championship.

Noted for his tremendous communication skills, Kvaratskhelia is fluent in Russian, Georgian and English. He received his bachelor's degree in physical education and sport in 1993, from the Georgian State Physical Training Institute in his hometown of Tbilisi. He also received a sports journalism certificate from that institution ('92) and pursued graduate studies in journalism at Tbilisi State University in 1993, prior to coming to the United States.

Kvaratskhelia and his wife, Dani Edson, have a five-year-old daughter Maya.