Christian Rivera is entering his third season as head coach of the Fairleigh Dickinson women’s fencing team after having served as assistant coach on the FDU staff for the previous two seasons.
A former team captain and member of two national championship fencing teams at Ohio State University, Rivera brings NCAA and international experience as an athlete as well as a wealth of coaching experience to the Knights’ program.
During his two seasons as an assistant at FDU, Rivera helped organize and manage all aspects of the program from the training and preparation of the student-athletes to the recruiting and travel of the team.
For the 2009-10 and 2010-11 school years, Rivera served as head coach of the boy’s fencing team at Don Bosco Preparatory High School in Ramsey, NJ. In addition to his coaching duties, he taught pre-calculus and advanced placement statistics.
Rivera is currently the co-owner/ head coach of the Espada Training Center, a private fencing studio in Bloomfield, NJ that was established in Oct. 2009.
In July 2011, he served as the Commissioner of Fencing at the World Scholar-Athlete Games where he was responsible for training fencers and supervising the student-athletes during a series of lectures and workshops geared toward the development of individuals into peace advocates.
As an All-American fencer under head coach Vladimir Nazlymov, Rivera helped Ohio State win the 2004 and 2008 NCAA Team Championships. He was part of the 2005 and 2007 World University Games National Team, which competed in Izmir, Turkey and Bangkok, Thailand, and competed for the US Junior National Team in 2005.
Rivera earned bronze medals at the 2008 US Senior Summer National Championships in Atlanta, GA and the 2012 US Senior National Championships in Virginia Beach, VA.
A graduate of nearby Bloomfield High School, Rivera was the 2003 New Jersey High School State Epee Champion.
Rivera graduated from Ohio State in 2008 with a bachelor’s degree in Nursing.
