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.

Eli Dershwitz (Saber) | Olympian and World Champion

Eli Dershwitz is a Harvard graduate (‘19) from Sherborn, Massachusetts. At nine years old, he followed his older brother into fencing. We are proud to have the 2023 World Champion joining our full-time coaching staff. Eli is a two-time Olympian, having competed in the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games. He is currently training for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. His many fencing accomplishments include being a muli-time Senior World Championship medalist, two-time NCAA Champion, and the first American men’s Saberist to finish the season ranked number one in the FIE Senior points standings. He also found success on the Junior circuit, winning gold, silver, and bronze medals at the Junior World Fencing Championships. 

After graduating, he became the assistant coach of the Harvard fencing team where he aided the team in clinching the 2022 NCAA Women’s and Men’s Individual  Saber titles. He is now the assistant coach of the New York University fencing team. Tim Morehouse Fencing Club students will have the privilege of benefiting from Coach Eli’s extensive elite competitive experience. 

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.

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.

Dan Bass | Coach (Foil/Epee)

Dan Bass boasts over twenty years of experience in the sport of fencing as an athlete and coach. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Bass was a member of The Ohio State University’s varsity fencing team which won the 2008 NCAA National Championship as well as four Midwest Conference Championship titles. Shortly after graduating, he relocated to New Jersey where he began his coaching career.

Since then, Bass has coached at several nationally recognized club programs as well as high school and collegiate varsity teams. Most recently, he served as the Head Coach of the NCAA Division-1 Fencing Team at Fairleigh Dickinson University’s Metropolitan Campus. His students have earned numerous medals and achievements at the regional, national, and international levels of competition, including #1 rankings in the US and FIE point standings, NCAA All-American honors, and selections to Cadet, Junior, Senior, and Veteran national teams.

While foil remains his primary weapon, Bass has significant coaching experience and is a certified referee in all three weapons. 

Mamoudou Keita | Olympian and Elite Coach (Saber)

Coach Mamoudou qualified for the 2008 Beijing Olympics after just 6 years of fencing. In his now 20 years of fencing experience he is a two-time African Individual Saber Champion as well as a three-time silver and bronze medalist at the African Championships. He has a fencing master diploma in 6 weapons from the International School of Fencing Masters and is also an industrial electrical and building engineer. 

Before joining Tim Morehouse Fencing Club in 2022, Mamoudou coached in his native Senegal, Algeria and Saudi Arabia. With his 15 years of coaching experience, he was able to lead Algerian fencers to Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals in the African Junior Women’s Championships. He also coached two Algerian fencers to Olympic qualification for Tokyo 2021. We look forward to his similar achievements with our fencers at Tim Morehouse Fencing Club!

Mohamed Amer | Olympian and Coach (Saber)

One of our newest coaches, Mohamed Amer brings his Olympic experience to the TMFC Saber coaching team. He competed in the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Games and is currently training for the 2024 Paris Games while continuing to work with students. 

Mohamed hails from Egypt, where he started fencing at 12 years old. Along with his Olympic credentials, he is a two-time African Zonal Champion and where he has also won multiple silver and bronze medals.  He is also a Junior World bronze medalist as well as the FIE number one ranked Cadet Saber fencer in 2014. In 2015 he became the first African to hold the FIE Junior number one ranking.

Coach Amer looks forward to passing his knowledge gained from training with one of the best Saber coaches in the world on to his students at Tim Morehouse Fencing Club.