Sept. 12, 2005

FAIRFIELD, CT - Thomas Vrabel was named the new men's and women's fencing coach at Sacred Heart University by athletic director C. Donald Cook. Vrabel joina the Pioneers after serving as fencing coach at Bridgeport Central High School since 2003.

Vrabel has over 30 years of experience both coaching and competing in all three fencing weapons. He has past collegiate experience as an assistant at Brown and the U.S. Naval Academy where he developed several NCAA All-Americans.

He has also been the coach at the Candlewood Fencing Center in Danbury, CT since 2002. While there he coached several of his students to an "A" ranking level to top 40 world rankings in the under-19 category.

The Stratford, CT resident has over 25-years of experience as a collegiate fencing official and has trained under U.S. Olympic Coach Zoran Tulum and Olympic gold medalist Witold Woyda.

Vrabel earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut, and his Master's and Ph.D from Cornell University.