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25-Year Passion Play Concludes for PU Fencing Coach Sebastiani

By Bill Alden

Crystal Palace manager Roy Hodgson says he was 'dumbfounded' by how passive his side were in the first half of their 1-1 draw with Leicester City in the Premier League. The history of sports extends back to the Ancient world. The physical activity that developed into sports had early links with ritual, warfare and entertainment. This was the day when the BBC broadcast live sports commentary for the first time and introduced a novel way of involving listeners in the action. January 15, 1927; 1st Winter Olympics Einar Landvik, Nordic skier from Norway, competes in the first-ever Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France, 1924 January 25.

It doesn't take one more than a minute or two in Michel Sebastani's Canal Pointe townhouse to figure out two of the passions that have ruled his life.

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On a table in the front hallway sits a bronze statue of a fencer thrusting forward. The coffee table in the living room is stacked with French fencing magazines.

Hanging on an adjacent wall is a photograph of Sebastiani playing clarinet with the famed Preservation Hall Jazz Band in New Orleans. There are clarinets sitting on the floor with a bust of Louis Armstrong in the corner.

Sebastiani sees a direct interrelationship between his two pursuits. 'I use music in my teaching fencing all the time, the timing, the change of rhythm,' said Sebastiani, in his French accent with his eyes lighting up. 'In playing jazz you learn how to improvise and adapt.'

Applying rhythm and adaptability to the disciplined sport of fencing, Sebastiani has spent the last quarter century building the Princeton University fencing program into a national power.

The French national has led the men's team to a 213-89 record. He founded the Tiger women's program, transforming it into a force having gone 141-88. His fencers have won nine Ivy League titles and four NCAA individual titles.

Tiring of the growing administrative duties that now come with college coaching and looking to devote more time to his Princeton-based Sebastiani Fencing Academy, Sebastiani is wrapping up his distinguished Princeton tenure this month.

The road to Princeton was circuitous for Sebastiani, who fell in love with fencing and music as a young boy growing up in Algeria in the 1940s.

After being exposed to America through the magic of the silver screen, a captivated Sebastiani decided that he wanted to bring his talents to the U.S.

His dream of someday relocating in the U.S. met with resistance from his French mates. 'When I would tell people I wanted to come here, they would say America doesn't need you,' recalled Sebastiani, 68, who served as a French officer in the West Algeria war in 1960 and retains the straight posture and muscular physique of a soldier. 'They have officers, doctors, and pilots. You don't know the language; you can't speak like an American.'

Sebastiani, who trained under some of the great French fencing masters during his college years in Paris, realized that the sport could be his ticket to the U.S.

'I oriented all my studies in Paris to the U.S.,' recalled Sebastiani, who graduated in 1957 from the National Institute of Sports of France in 1957 with an MS in Health, Physical Education and Sports and later earned a masters degree from the country's top fencing school. 'I decided to become a professor in sport. The Americans are lousy in fencing; they didn't know anything about the sport.'

The tenacious Sebastiani wasn't lousy at fencing, making the 1959 French modern pentathlon national team and then getting selected for the 1960 French Olympic squad.

It was through one of his fencing coaches making connections at the World Fencing Championships in Philadelphia in 1958 that Sebastiani landed a coaching position with Cornell starting in 1963.

Sebastiani's introduction to the U.S. and his startling coaching success reads like a script from the Hollywood movies he adored as a child.

He landed in Idlewood Airport (now Kennedy) in 1963 believing his destination of Ithaca was somewhere near Manhattan. Once he got his bearings, Sebsatiani turned the Cornell fencing program into a power.

His fencers earned two NCAA individual titles. Sebastiani revitalized a Big Red women's program which had last competed in the 1940s and transformed it into a force, coaching it to national team titles in 1967, 1968, and 1969.

Sebastiani went on to NYU and then Brooklyn College and the titles kept coming. One of his most notable coaching achievements was taking Brooklyn's Matt Israel from a fencing neophyte to the semifinals of the 1973 Junior World Championships in a matter of 18 months.

In 1982, Sebastiani took over the Princeton program upon the death of coach Stanley Sieja, a move that was ironic considering a conversation Sebastiani had in his first months in the U.S.

'In 1963 I was at a match at Yale and I met Stan Sieja and his wife,' said Sebastiani, who came to Princeton after a stint in Houston coaching at Rice and running a fencing academy.

'Stan told me 'you're a young professor why don't you come to Princeton, I'm going to retire soon.' At the time, I was of a mind that if you left a place it meant you weren't reliable. I learned that in this country if you stay too long at a place, it means you aren't too good.'

Things were good at Princeton for Sebastiani right from the start. 'The captain of the team, Paul Schmidt, had been training with me for a year,' said Sebastiani, who was the coach of the U.S. fencing team at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. 'He had taken a year off from Princeton to train with me in Houston. There was an instant connection with the team.'

That connection yielded one strong team after another as Sebastiani guided the men's program to 21 winning seasons with no losing seasons since 1985-86.

Sebastiani founded the Princeton women's program, which has produced 13 winning seasons in the last 14 years and national team titles in 1993 and 1994.

In order to push his fencers to such heights, Sebastiani pushed himself to the limit. 'I spent more time in Jadwin Gym than my own home,' said Sebastiani with a laugh. 'I would go in a 6:00 a.m. and I would start training fencers at 6:30. I would close the building at night.'

Sebastiani ended his Princeton tenure with a bang this spring, as Ben Solomon placed third nationally with Jacqueline Leahy taking second. As a team, combining the men's and women's scores, Princeton placed eighth overall in the NCAA.

The U.S. Fencing Coaches Association recognized Sebastiani's efforts, selecting him for the Schreff Award, given yearly to the collegiate fencing coach of the year.

In reflecting on ending his Princeton tenure, Sebastiani shows his characteristic passion. 'I will miss the school; I will miss the students; I will miss the alumni who I'm in contact with all the time,' said Sebastiani, who will be replaced by Zoltan Dudas, a former fencing coach at Notre Dame. 'It's very simple. If you love something and someone asks you why, if you can answer, you don't love it, you just like it.'

Sebastiani has certainly exhibited a deep love for Princeton fencing over the last quarter century.

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The calendar has turned to July 1, and that means one thing: It's time for Mets fans everywhere to wish each other a Happy Bobby Bonilla Day! Why? On Wednesday, 57-year-old Bobby Bonilla will collect a check for $1,193,248.20 from the New York Mets, as he has and will every July 1 from 2011 through 2035.

Because of baseball's salary structure, Bonilla's annual payday is often more than some of the game's current stars in a given year. Thanks to the shortened season and prorated salaries for players in 2020, that list has grown even longer.

So why does Bonilla get this payday?

In 2000, the Mets agreed to buy out the remaining $5.9 million on Bonilla's contract.

However, instead of paying Bonilla the $5.9 million at the time, the Mets agreed to make annual payments of nearly $1.2 million for 25 years starting July 1, 2011, including a negotiated 8% interest.

At the time, Mets ownership was invested in a Bernie Madoff account that promised double-digit returns, and the Mets were poised to make a significant profit if the Madoff account delivered -- but that did not work out.

How rare is this arrangement?

Bonilla last played for the Mets in 1999 and last played in the majors for the Cardinals in 2001, but he will be paid through 2035 (when he'll be 72).

Here are some other notable deferred-money contracts:

• Bobby Bonilla (again): A second deferred-contract plan with the Mets and Orioles pays him $500,000 a year for 25 years. Those payments began in 2004.

• Bret Saberhagen: Saberhagen will receive $250,000 a year from the Mets for 25 years (payments also began in 2004; this was the inspiration for Bonilla's deal).

• Max Scherzer: Will receive $105 million total from the Nationals that will be paid out through 2028.

• Manny Ramírez: Will collect $24.2 million total from the Red Sox through 2026.

• Bruce Sutter: Signed a deal with the Braves before the 1985 season with deferred money. He was to be paid $750,000 per year while with the Braves, then for 30 years after he retired, he'd receive at least $1.12 million per year. The Braves will be paying him through 2020. He received the $750,000 figure in 1989 and 1990 because he retired with two years left on the six-year deal, so his 30 years of the other installments didn't begin until 1991.

How this compares to 2020 shortened-season salaries

Besides young players who start their careers earning about half of Bonilla's annual $1.19 million, here are some notable players who will be making less than Bonilla's $1.19 million strictly because the season is only 60 games in 2020 because of prorated salaries, courtesy of ESPN Stats & Information's Harrison Marder.

• Dansby Swanson -- $3.15 million prior to prorated salaries. Will make approximately $1,165,500

• Kenta Maeda -- $3.125 million prior to prorated salaries. Will make approximately $1,156,250

• Byron Buxton -- $3.075 million prior to prorated salaries. Will make approximately $1,137,750

• Mitch Moreland -- $3 million prior to prorated salaries. Will make approximately $1,110,000

• Michael Wacha -- $3 million prior to prorated salaries. Will make approximately $1,110,000

• Hunter Pence -- $3 million prior to prorated salaries. Will make approximately $1,110,000

• Michael Fulmer -- $2.8 million prior to prorated salaries. Will make approximately $1,036,000

• Tommy Kahnle -- $2.65 million prior to prorated salaries. Will make approximately $980,500

• Gio Urshela -- $2.475 million prior to prorated salaries. Will make approximately $915,750

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And these players are losing the closest amount to Bonilla's $1.19 million payday because of the shortened season:

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• Luke Jackson ($1.825 million prior to prorated salaries). Will make approximately $675,250 in 2020 and will lose approximately $1,149,750

• Pedro Strop ($1.825 million prior to prorated salaries). Will make approximately $675,250 and will lose approximately $1,149,750

• Tony Wolters ($1.9 million prior to prorated salaries). Will make approximately $703,000 and will lose approximately $1,197,000

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Figures from ESPN Stats & Information were used throughout this story.