Epee Coaches
Gago Demirchian, Head Epee Coach
Coached by his father, Armenian National Coach Edouard Demirchian, Gago started fencing in childhood. With the benefit of having his father as a coach and being a natural talent, Gago started winning many athletic titles at a young age. He became a three-time Armenian National Epee Champion and scored fourth in the USSR National Championship. Gago is a former US national epee coach, and has prepared many Olympian finalists and numerous participants in world championships.
Lewis Weiss
Lewis started fencing in 2003 at the age of 8, and in 2008 Lewis joined Alliance Fencing Academy and began training under Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Team USA Olympic Coach, Andrey Geva. While fencing for Team USA and Alliance Fencing Academy, Lewis represented Team USA at the 2013 and 2014 Junior World Championships and was ranked as the number 1 Junior (U20) fencer in the United States from 2012-2014 and peaking at number 9 in the Junior World Rankings. While fencing for the Alliance team, Lewis won 1 US Senior National and 3 US Junior National Team Championships titles. Additionally, Lewis also won individual bronze medals at the US Fencing Senior, Junior, and Cadet National Championships as well as a bronze medal at the 2014 Junior World Cup in Goteborg, Sweden while fencing for Team USA. In 2014 Lewis was recruited by the Ohio State University where he became a 4-time All-American and won 2 individual NCAA Championship bronze medals in 2015 and 2016. As a coach, Lewis began as an assistant coach at the age of 13 and upon graduation from college in 2018 joined Alliance’s coaching staff full-time. During his time coaching with Alliance Lewis developed multiple US National Champions in the Junior, Cadet, and Youth age categories. Including Lewis’ younger brother Miles who qualified to represent Team USA at the 2020 Cadet World Championships as well as anchored Team USA to the gold medal at the 2019 Cadet World Cup in Grenoble, France.
Eric Hansen
Eric has been involved in fencing for over 30 years. He is a seven-time member of US World Championship Men's Epee team - Cadet, Junior, and Senior. He also represented the US at Pan Am Games, Pan Am Championships, World University Games, and many World Cups, making ten World Cup finals. Eric is a three-time Pacific Coast Champion, and has many National Championship and North American Cup medals, including gold medals at the Junior NAC in 1995, Div IA National Championship in 2000, and Div I NACs in 2001 and 2008. He has coached at LAIFC since 2006. His students have won many medals, including the 2011 Junior Olympic National Champion Men's Epee team, the 2012 Y12 Men's Epee National Champion, the 2016 Junior Olympic Cadet Men's Epee National Champion, and the bronze medal at the 2016 Cadet Men's Epee World Championships. Eric is also a Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS) through the NSCA.