Northwestern Fencing Coach Named Conference Coach of the Year

Zach Moss takes home the award for the fifth straight season.

Moss coaching at the NCAA Championships | Photo: Kylie Barton/Northwestern Athletics

Winning any coach of the year award once is commendable. Winning five straight times is difficult to fathom. That's what women's coach Zach Moss just accomplished at Northwestern in the Central Collegiate Fencing Conference.

𝐒𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐝 🫡

For the fifth straight season, Zach Moss has been named the Central Collegiate Fencing Conference Women's Team Coach of the Year! pic.twitter.com/7csKylFGgn

— Northwestern Fencing (@NUWFencing) April 7, 2025

The award comes after Moss's team finished 31-8 and placed fifth at the NCAA Championships. Northwestern was ranked as high as No. 3 in the United States Fencing Coaches Association poll.

Moss also stewarded three Wildcats to All-American honors in Amanda Pirkowski, Daphne Chan Nok Sze and Natalie Shearer. Pirkowski made the Second Team while Chan Nok Sze and Shearer were both Honorable Mentions.

Moss started at Northwestern as an assistant in 2014. He was promoted to head coach prior to the 2016-17 season when Laurie Schiller retired. Since then, Northwestern has consistently had good teams, and the personal honors have rolled in for Moss.

Back when the Wildcats played in the Midwest Fencing Conference, Moss won his first Coach of the Year following the 2017-18 season. His string of five in the CCFC began following the 2020-21 season.

In college, Moss fenced at Duke for four seasons and was a letter winner in all of them. He then studied under fencing-great Ro Sobalvarro at the Twin Cities Fencing Club in Minnesota. Sobalvarro coached the U.S. Olympic team and is a member of U.S. Fencing Hall of Fame.

Moss has achieved sustained excellence in Evanston. He's molded his program into a consistent winner that competes both in conference and on the national stage. As if there was any need after four straight, this award is further proof of that.