Feature photo by Zavian Hailey
Story by Zavian Hailey
An unofficial lightsaber-fencing club emerged this semester by gathering numerous students in front of Middle Tennessee State University’s McCallie Dining Hall once a week.
Throughout this fall, the club steadily grew from a few members to nearly two dozen. At a Sept. 11 gathering, more than 20 people participated in duels, with several lightsabers clashing after dark. Now, club founders Andrew Griffith and Elijah Jenkins plan to keep growing.
“We had six fights prepared,” Griffith said. “There was a line of people.”
The club began last year when Griffith wanted to practice his armored combat hobby with Jenkins. In one of these sessions, they agreed to use Jenkins’ lightsabers. Afterward, they wanted to let other people duel with their glow-in-the-dark blades.
“I am a huge Star Wars fan,” Jenkins said. “I begged Andrew to use lightsabers when I helped him practice. One day, we did it and thought it was cool and fun.”
Adding Griffith under the name “tkraindrop” on online chatroom Discord allows new members to keep track of meetings. On this messaging platform, the founders talked about the lightsaber-fencing club becoming an official MTSU club but decided to keep it unofficial.
“We thought [being an unofficial club] added a sense of whimsy to it,” Griffith said. “We wanted this to be a random occurrence, so the Discord provided a great way of saying ‘hey, let’s meet [at McCallie] this evening.’”
Making the club official raised liability concerns about potential injuries, Griffith said. To reduce serious harm, Griffith and Jenkins provide protective gloves and helmets and clean the equipment after use. They also enforce a “no-stabbing” rule in duels.
“If a ruleset keeps you safe, you are safe,” Griffith said. “Some people will go 100% on their swings, but it’s a hollow piece of plastic hitting you. It may sting and leave some bruises, but that’s the worst you’ll get here.”
The lightsaber-fencing club faced economic challenges. The club owners purchased much of the equipment from their own wallets, so replacing broken gear can be challenging. Earlier this semester, they cancelled a meeting due to broken lightsaber blades.
“Most sabers we own are in the $80-$100 range,” Jenkins said. “Now consider the other pieces of equipment we have. Luckily, Andrew already had some equipment when we started the club.”
“The gear I had cost around $500, if not more,” Griffith said.
Now, Griffith and Jenkins plan to collect donations for easier inventory expansion. They hope to buy additional protective gear to initiate multiple duels simultaneously.
Zavian Hailey is a contributing writer for MTSU Sidelines.
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