As they run out of the locker room before every home game, Notre Dame football players touch the iconic sign above their locker room doors: “Play like a champion today.” Over the sign hangs a list of the team’s NCAA record 11 national championships. But as of last year, there is one team at Notre Dame with even more success. And it hangs a different slogan on its locker room exit: “Excellence is a habit.”
With its second consecutive NCAA title last year, Notre Dame fencing secured its 12th national championship, becoming the most decorated program in school history. Coach Gia Kvaratskhelia has led the Fighting Irish to four national championships in the past five years, a feat not even Knute Rockne or Frank Leahy could accomplish. Since 2015, Kvarastkhelia has nine ACC Coach of the Year awards, more than double any other coach in the conference. This season he will have the chance to make history again: With a national title, the Irish would be the first team in school history to win three straight championships.
A second slogan hangs on the walls of the fencing gym, and it’s just as important as the first: “One team, one heartbeat.”
