Jacob started his fencing career when he was eleven, attending classes in a church basement along the main line of Philadelphia’s western suburbs. He developed a passion for the sport which carried him through middle school, past high school, and into college. At Drew University he became captain of the Varsity Fencing team where he crushed their regional rivals Haverford. After graduating, he got offered a position as assistant coach at Haverford, and from there he started on his coaching path. Jacob spent three years at Haverford and six years at Fencing Academy of Philadelphia North, where he learned the foundation of Youth Development. An opportunity to work with International level coaches and referees brought him down to Washington DC for 3 years, where he could learn from some of the best in the world and train with several members of the National Women’s sabre team. Philadelphia has always been Coach Jacob’s home, and its gravitational pull has brought him back to Fencing Academy of Philadelphia.

Jacob started Refereeing Nationally in 2016, and is working hard to break into the International Refereeing Cadre. Three summers ago he earned his “4” in Sabre and is looking forwards to refereeing the International circuit soon. In his off times, Jacob spends time writing creative fiction. He has a few projects bubbling underneath the surface, and if you see him staring off into space, it means he’s either thinking about a fencing drill or a new idea to write about.