On Wednesday, Carrier became the first of seasoned area fencing instructor Kenny Nopens’ proteges to sign with the Irish, home to the defending national champions with 14 all-time titles.

As a junior, Carrier qualified for the U.S. junior national team and competed internationally as his country’s No. 12 swordsman at world events in El Salvador and Hong Kong. He’ll return to the latter over Thanksgiving for his ninth consecutive international competition.

Last year, Carrier visited South Bend, Indiana, where he spent a weekend with Notre Dame coach Gia Kvaratskhelia, an associate of Nopens.

“Initially, I never really thought Notre Dame was a possibility,” Carrier said. “Up until a couple of years ago, I didn’t really have any results or anything that would’ve got me in there. I’ve talked to (Kvaratskhelia), and he’s an amazing person and has the best program in the country, in my opinion, so I’m really excited to train there and develop later.”

Since his seventh birthday, Carrier leapt headfirst into fencing, an evolved form of sword fighting that traces back to ancient Egypt and later became a prominent sport in Europe. He practices five or six days a week, sometimes working as long as 4 hours a day.

Carrier’s mother, Angella, a secondary teacher at Weber, is responsible for first exposing her son to the sport. She’d introduce him to Nopens after overhearing Nopen’s grandson, Wesley, requesting an absence for his own fencing career while a student at Weber.

Both Gabriel and his younger sister, Meredith, have come up within the school’s humble fencing circle.

“She had a student who did fencing, and she just kind of told me about it,” Carrier said. “I actually learned with this guy (pointing to his nearby friend, Luke), who learned from a student from Weber High as well when he was little. She was talking about one of her students, and I was like, ‘I wanna do that.'”

Three of Nopens’ own children (all Weber alums) became Power 4 college swordsmen for respected programs such as Duke and Princeton. But Carrier became the first of his students to commit to the Irish.

As of this year, 45 NCAA member schools sponsor fencing, with 29 Division I programs alone. But the number of high school students even aware of such opportunities is especially low, Nopens said.

“I was talking earlier with another parent, and they were really surprised because their counselors told their kids, ‘Why go to college? If you have to go to college, just go in-state,'” Nopens said.

He continued:

“There’s a national competition almost every month, and at least three to four times a year internationally, so they’re getting a lot of worldly exposure. They meet so many of the other kids, and they stay in touch with them from other countries and all, especially with technology, now it’s easy. It really opens up the world for them on just their perspective.”

Connect with reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker@standard.net and X @ctbecker.