Dayn DeRose is in his fourth season as the head coach of the Lafayette fencing program, taking over in Oct. 17, 2022.
In the 2024-25 season, The Maroon and White sent 16 fencers to the NCAA Mid-Atlantic/South Regional and senior Antoine Mannes won the MACFA epee Championship.
DeRose makes his second stop on College Hill. He most recently was an assistant at Lafayette for two seasons (2015-17), where he coached all three weapons, but specialized in sabre and epee.
Prior to coming to Lafayette, DeRose spent 20 seasons (1995-2015) as the head fencing coach for Drew University, where he led the Rangers during the most successful period in their program history. His men’s team captured four MACFA team titles, while the women’s team won six straight EWFC titles and finished multiple times as runner-up in the NIWFA. During his tenure, the Rangers qualified for the NCAA Regional Championships in 19 straight seasons, and in addition he sent nine individual fencers to the National Championships during his tenure. DeRose was named the MACFA Coach of the Year in 2000, and EWFC Coach of the Year six times.
DeRose began his coaching career at Millburn (N.J.) High School, where he worked for seven seasons (1984-91) coaching the boy's and the girl's varsity teams, including coaching the 1989 state champion epee team, the 1989 Junior Olympic epee champion and two 1990 National Junior Olympic sabre finalists.
He is a member of the U.S. Fencing Association and the U.S. Fencing Coaches Association (Prevost d'Armes) in foil, epee and sabre.
A graduate of Clark University, DeRose earned a master's degree in counseling psychology from Seton Hall University in 1986.
In addition to coaching fencing, he is also the chief instructor at South Mountain Martial Arts, where he teaches judo, sambo, jujitsu and fencing. He was a two-time medalist in the USSA National and Pan-American sambo wrestling tournaments and served on the national staff for USASambo. DeRose is the Chairman of the Standards Committee for the North American Combat Jujitsu Federation (NACJJF), U.S. representative for the Zensyokan (8 th dan, Karate-Kempo) and was inducted into the USA Karate Hall of Fame for coaching in 2022.
Updated 6/25
