Head fencing coach Dayn DeRose received flowers prior to the women’s team’s final meet of the semester. (Photo courtesy of @GoLeopards on X)

Head fencing coach Dayn DeRose resigned on Dec. 8, one day after the team’s final contest of the fall semester. He cited financial concerns as the reason for ending his three-year tenure. 

Lafayette College has yet to name a replacement, leaving the team with a coaching vacancy as it heads into the spring season. The fencing team is slated to compete on Saturday at the Philadelphia Invite hosted by the University of Pennsylvania.

DeRose’s exit from the team marked the college’s fourth head coach resignation in 2025 — the highest total departures in the Patriot League — with softball coach Karavin Dew, volleyball coach Christian Kiselica and tennis coach Ralph Van Ormer resigning earlier in the year.

DeRose noted the fencing program’s low funding and difficulties balancing the job with his small business as driving forces behind his resignation.

“I wish I could stay, but it’s not something that is doable,” DeRose said.

Lafayette’s fencing program received roughly $75,000 in college funding in 2023 — the seventh lowest in NCAA fencing, per NCAA data. $19,500 went toward DeRose’s salary.

Lafayette’s per-team fencing expenditures outrank only one Division I school in the NCAA; the other five are Division III. Thirty-four schools, nine of which are Division III, outspend Lafayette.

Lafayette’s fencing team receives the lowest amount of funding of its Division I sports. The second-lowest funded team — the men’s tennis team — received double the funding of the fencing team in 2023. The school’s football and basketball programs each received millions.

“I understand there are major sports and minor sports,” DeRose said. “Fencing is one of the minor sports. I’ve never argued with that. It’s just, I wish that there were more money available, certainly.”

DeRose said he spoke with members of the athletics division about receiving more funding — “they don’t have it,” he said.

Director of Athletics Sherryta Freeman declined to comment on conversations between DeRose and the athletics division. Athletics spokesman Phil LaBella declined comment, directing The Lafayette questions to a press release on DeRose’s departure.

DeRose, also a martial arts instructor, cited the time commitment as another reason for his resignation. He said waking up at 4 a.m. to attend morning practice on campus and recruiting during the off-season while also running his New Jersey-based dojo, South Mountain Martial Arts, was “unsustainable.”

DeRose said the “first glimmerings” of his resignation came over the summer, though the team became aware of the possibility during the fall semester.

“We all wish he could keep going, and were hoping that it could happen at a slightly better time than in the middle of semesters,” senior epee Tyler Morse said.

The team had an end-of-year celebration with DeRose prior to the women’s team’s final meet against Fairleigh Dickinson University on Dec. 7. There, the women’s captains gifted him with flowers. DeRose said the gesture brought him to tears and that he displayed the flowers in a vase at his dojo.

“The old saying is men don’t usually get flowers until after they’re dead, so here we are,” DeRose said. “I smiled for the camera, but inside, it was like, it’s already hard to take leave of you guys.”

“Definitely over the semester, he became someone that I was looking forward to seeing every day,” freshman epee Helen Broikos said. “I learned a lot of really valuable lessons from him both as a fencer and as a person.”

The search for DeRose’s successor is underway, and DeRose said he provided recommendations for potential coaching hires.

According to Broikos, the athletics division communicated to the team that it would be scouting candidates over winter break and that it would notify the team when it had candidates. Broikos said she had not heard any updates as of early January.