The White Building is known by students as one of several recreational gyms at Penn State. What many students may not know is that located in the quiet basement of the White Building is the home of Penn State fencing; home to a program that was redefined into one of the greatest and most underrated dynasties in collegiate athletics.
When Mitch Horwat stepped foot into the fencing gym in the White Building, he was joined by about a dozen other guys looking to be walk-on members of the fencing team. Horwat had transferred from the Fayette campus where he fenced foil, but what he didn’t realize was the moment he walked into the White Building on main campus, he would be a part of a legacy that was just beginning to take shape.
Horwat has been a lifelong athlete and a gym rat, partaking in activities such as cycling and long-distance running. From 1978-1980, Horwat attended Penn State Fayette where he was a member of the fencing team that only fenced foil. It wasn’t until Horwat got to main campus where he made the switch to saber.
“It wasn’t a full-fledged team,” Horwat said. “There was an instructor, there were a handful of young men and women who made the team. We traveled to California and the University of Pennsylvania; we fenced other Penn State campuses that had teams.”
Horwat spent weeks fighting and competing as hard as he could every day to earn a spot on the team. After the walk on period ended, Horwat became a member of the team in 1981 under head coach Mac Garret, who was coaching in his final season at Penn State.
The search for a new fencing coach began in 1982, and Penn State hired Emmanuil Kaidanov to lead the team.
“He [Kaidanov] came in, and he gave everybody, including the guys at the bottom of the roster, a real opportunity to compete, find your space and be a contributing member of the team,” Horwat said. “It was really impressive how he came in, clearly he was going to build something special and let everybody find a niche in the fencing room.”
From Kaidanov’s first season in 1983 as Penn State’s head coach, he brought a legacy and championship feat that not many other head coaches in the NCAA have ever been able to achieve. Kaidanov won 12 NCAA combined championships, 28 NCAA individual titles, coached 10 Olympians, 188 All-Americans and a four-time NCAA champion in Olga Kalinovskaya.
“He totally let me be me,” Horwat emphasized when describing the culture that Kaidanov brought to the fencing team from the minute that he arrived in Happy Valley.
It didn’t matter if you were one of the All-Americans whose picture was framed on the wall, or on the bottom of the roster making sure fencers played as hard as they could and pushed themselves.
“I think he really did a great job of letting all of those guys be as great as they wanted to be...” Horwat said. “Kaidanov brought a level of toughness that most people don’t have in their lives.”
Now after the recent passing of Kaidanov, the Penn State fencing gym was renovated in the fall of 2025 and was renamed in his honor. The Penn State fencing teams recently concluded their season in the new state-of-the-art facilities, competing in honor of the former head coach who transformed the future of fencing at Penn State.
The legacy that Kaidanov created is an experience that Horwat will forever be grateful that he got to experience, even though it was only for a season. To be able to fight for a place on the team and become an integral member is an accomplishment he will never forget.
No matter how small of a role he played for Kadainov in the last season of his collegiate career, the impact that he left on Horwat is one that he’s carried with him ever since, “Mitch Horwat: you can do anything.”