Coach Phillip joins us from Poland, where he had an impressive career as a high-level international foil fencer. A Junior World Championship bronze medalist, he brings a deep passion for the sport and a strong foundation in athletic development, holding both a BA and MA in Physical Education from Gdańsk University.
Khalil Thompson | (Olympian) (Saber)
Tim Morehouse Fencing Club is proud to welcome Olympian Khalil Thompson to our coaching team for the 2025–2026 season! Khalil will bring his Olympic experience and passion for teaching to students across all three TMFC locations—coaching in Port Chester on Mondays and Wednesdays, at our Manhattan West Side location on Tuesdays, and at our East Side location on Thursdays and Fridays. In addition, he will be on the road with our athletes, supporting TMFC fencers at competitions throughout the season.
Khalil Thompson is from Teaneck, NJ. He first picked up a blade at age nine through the Peter Westbrook Foundation, inspired by his sister and drawn to the fast-paced art of saber.
He was an Olympian for Team USA at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics in addition to being a multi-time senior world team member. Khalil’s was alsonmember of the gold-medal-winning U.S. Pan American Championships team and the U.S. Senior World Championship team in 2019.
Slava Grigoriev | Olympian and Head Foil Coach
Slava Grigoriev is a two time Olympian and recognized as one of the top coaches in the United States. His passion and dedication to the sport of fencing has helped to create numerous national and international level athletes. His students have won Cadet and Junior World Championships as well as Pan American and Asian Championships.
Slava is dedicated to helping his students gain self-confidence, coordination, focus and precision as well as to develop a winning attitude through good sportsmanship in order to realize their full potential as athletes.
His students have also had incredible NCAA success with former and current students being recruited for and fencing at some of the nation’s top colleges and universities including Princeton, Yale, Columbia, Penn, Cornell, Brown, Duke, Stanford, NYU, Notre Dame, Vassar, Brandeis and Rice.
Tim Morehouse, Olympic Silver Medalist | Founder of Tim Morehouse Fencing Club (Saber)
Tim is one of the most decorated US athletes coaching Saber in the USA today with an Olympic Silver Medal ('08) won in the men's saber team event and a quarter final individual finish at the London Olympics ('12). Tim is a three-time US Olympic Team Member ('04 '08 '12), 9-time senior world team member and two-time individual US National Champion ('10 '11).
Tim spent fifteen years as a student of 4-time Olympic and USA Fencing Hall of Fame Coach Yury Gelman.
Tim also has extensive experience in education having served both as a teacher and teacher trainer in the prestigious Teach For America program. Tim holds a Masters Degree in Education and he was honored by the White House as a "Champion For Change" in 2012 because of his efforts in education through his non-profit Fencing In The Schools and his work with Teach For America.
His students have won national medals at every level and his students were recruited and attended elite schools including Yale, Johns Hopkins, Cornell and Princeton amongst others.
Essam Mohamad | Olympian and Coach
While Coach Mohamed Essam is one of the most recent coaches to join Tim Morehouse Fencing Club, he is a highly accomplished fencer and experienced coach. Fencing for 24 years, he has been a National Foil Team Member in his native Egypt for the last 10 years. He is a Rio 2016 Olympian, participating in the individual and team events. Since 2013, he has earned multiple Senior individual medals at the African Zonal Championships and the African Games. In 2011, he was the African Junior Individual Champion. He has earned more than 50 medals from Egypt’s National Championships for the Junior and Senior Competition. As a member of the Egyptian Team, he is a multi-time African and Arab Champion. He has a degree in BSC Logistics & Supply Chain Management from the Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime.
Before joining the TMFC team, Mohamed worked as a coach for 5 years in clubs located in Egypt as well as France. His previous students won 15 medals at Egypt’s National Championships for Cadet and Juniors. In his short time at TMFC, his students have already won numerous medals at Regional and National level competitions, including a North American Cup Cadet Boys gold medal. We look forward to more success in the future!
Iba Keita | Elite Coach (Saber)
Tim Morehouse Fencing Club welcomed Coach Iba in 2022. Iba started fencing at 7 years old in his home country of Senegal. He was the Junior African Individual Saber Champion in 2008. In 2010, he was a member of the silver medal-winning team at the African Championships as well as a semi-finalist in the individual event. He obtained a License for Legal and Political Sciences in Public Law from the Digital University of Senegal.
He began coaching in 2007 at the Senegalese International Fencing Academy before he started coaching in the United States in 2018. In 2016 he received a “Master of Arms” diploma from the FIE as the Valedictorian. In the United States, Iba has had multiple youth students medal in North American Cups as well as the Summer Nationals, including a Youth 12 National Champion. Coach Iba excels at motivating his students to do their best and keep a positive attitude.
Eddie Grigoriev | Coach (Foil)
Coach Eddie has over 20 years of fencing experience. He hails from Briarcliff Manor, NY. He was the 2011 Asian Junior Foil Individual Champion representing Kazakhstan and has placed in the top 64 of the Senior World Championships. In the U.S., has placed in the top 8 of Division 1 foil.
He has been coaching for 7 years and joined Tim Morehouse Fencing Club in 2019. His students have found success at Regional, National and International competitions.
Carlos Ugalde Fernandez | Coach (Saber/Foil/Epee)
Carlos Fernandez Ugalde comes to the Tim Morehouse Fencing Club with a passion for fencing and loads of international experience.
Originally from Spain, Coach Carlos started fencing at age 12 and several years later, made the Spanish National Team. He has served as the National Coach of Argentina and also the National Coach of Spain.
It’s his passion to inspire young fencers to have a love for the sport. “I want my students to have fun,” he says. “At the same time they are getting ready for competitions.”
He adds: “My goal every day is to transmit the love and passion I have for fencing to them.”