"The kids love to swing the blade," says Jennifer Nopens, a referee who described herself as the wife of a fencing coach and the mother of fencers. "They forget the fact that it's just a touch."

Some 50 competitors, including some of the state's highest-ranked swordfighters of all ages, showed up at the Park City Academy on a frosty cold New Year's Day, laden with bags of canned food and winter clothing.

The annual event - and that name - are the brainchild of 16-year-old Robert Malcolm, a junior at Park City High School, who launched the nonprofit Community Donations Inc., for a school assignment when he was in sixth grade. "I didn't have too much direct contact with people who needed coats, but wherever I went in Park City, people had extra coats, which seemed like a wasted resource," says Malcolm, one of the state's best young fencers.

An estimated 200 fencers actively compete in Utah, affiliated with clubs in Park City, Salt Lake City, Orem, Kaysville and Ogden. Outsiders might consider sword play the province of kings or Shakespearean plays, but fencers and their coaches tout the ancient sport's combination of heady intellectualism and aggressive speed as perfect training for the demands of contemporary life.

"It's a pretty interesting sport," says Malcolm, who has been fencing for five years, and is currently ranked 7th nationally. "You need to be patient, and have good reserve. A lot of times, it's not the fastest or the tallest person who wins."

"They're hitting each other with swords," agrees Malcolm's coach, Elaine Aliberti, a former two-time national champion, and head coach of the Park City Fencing Academy. "It doesn't get more basic than that."

Still, there's something anachronistic about watching white-suited, masked male and female duelers parry and riposte in a school gym on a quiet holiday. During matches, each competitor attaches an electric reel to his or her jacket, which is wired to automatically register sword touches landed during the three-minute bout. Parents, siblings and coaches look on from the bleachers, occasionally handing off clipboards as they rotate referee duties.

Malcolm and his parents, Bruce and Maureen, run the event, part of an annual drive to collect 300 pounds of food and 250 coats. Thanks to online preregistration and computerized brackets, Malcolm has enough time to compete in his own tournament, as well as award medals at the end of the competition.

Like its founder, the tournament attracts other multitaskers, fencers who can donate to a good cause while taking advantage of the first opportunity of 2008 to earn their rankings.

That Utah's fencing clubs turn out for an annual charity event like Will Fence for Food is a sign of the health of the sport in the state, says Ron Hendricks, who coaches at Davis County's Wasatch Fencing Club. Inspired by Malcolm's successful tournament, the Kaysville group raised $600 at a December competition, with contributions earmarked to buy protective equipment for young Bulgarian fencers at their newly adopted sister club in Plovdiv.

While watching her young charges compete, Aliberti explained how fencers come to learn life lessons while practicing the etiquette of dueling. "It's not like a team sport, where 50 percent of the competitors win," Aliberti says. "There's a lot of losses in fencing."

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* Reach ELLEN FAGG at 801- 257-8621 or ellenf@sltrib.com.

Learn more about fencing

For more information about Utah's fencing clubs, classes and competitions, visit:

* www.parkcityfencing.org

* www.wasatchfencing.org

* www.schoolhousefencing.com

* www.utahfencing.org

* www.ufencing.com