Here’s what Temple fencing coach Jennie Salmon discovered in replacing legend Nikki Franke
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Former Temple fencing coach Nikki Franke held a meeting with her fencers to discuss the upcoming season this past August.
The outcome of this conversation changed the direction of the program.
To the surprise of her athletes, Franke announced her retirement after 50 years of coaching at Temple. Shortly after, Franke’s replacement, Jennie Salmon, opened the door and walked into a room in disarray.
“We were flabbergasted and a lot of people cried,” said senior Margherita Calderaro. “I felt kind of bad for Jennie [Salmon] because she walked into that room moments after they announced that Coach Franke was retiring. So not only did we get the news that she was retiring, but we also got the news instantly that we had a new coach.”
Franke handpicked Salmon to lead her beloved program because she developed successful programs elsewhere.
Salmon returned to Temple after competing for Franke from 1992-95, contributing to the Owls’ 1992 national championship. In 2001, she cofounded Mission Fencing Club and was responsible for the development of various collegiate and U.S. national team fencers. In 2018, she was hired as the head fencing coach at Brandeis University in Massachusetts, leading three fencers to NCAA championship appearances in 2020.
Top-10 appearances have become not just an aspiration but a standard for Temple fencing.
The task of succeeding Franke — the program’s founder and only coach before she retired — is not an easy one. Especially since Franke is the all-time winningest women’s athletic coach in school history with 898 victories.
Temple finished 24-14, ranking 10th in the nation at the conclusion of the 2021-22 season. The Owls also grabbed the No. 5 spot in 2019-20, the highest ranking in program history.
“Truly following greatness and such consistent greatness is pressure because the expectation I have for this program is it doesn’t skip a beat,” Salmon said. “Pressure is good, that’s my job. It drives me, for sure. But at the end of the day, if we [are] doing things the way they should be done, we are going to be successful.”
Franke inspired Salmon to get into coaching, so she models a good bit of her style after Franke’s. Also, with Franke still hanging around the team, it has helped Salmon and the team transition smoothly into the new era of Temple fencing. It also helps that a few of Salmon’s former club fencers were recruited by the Owls.
Salmon made her Temple coaching debut on Oct. 29 at the 42nd annual Temple Open, helping four fencers land in the top eight. From the stands, Franke watched her protégé take the reins of the program.
“I was just there cheering and supporting,” Franke said. “She and I had a couple of conversations, but she really was in charge, and I just tried to stay out of her way.”
Salmon coached both the men’s and women’s fencing teams while at Brandeis. Now that she’s working with a smaller group of just women at Temple, Salmon can be more hands-on, and potentially enhance her coaching.
She knows she has big shoes to fill, and it helps that the person who first wore those shoes is still around to help. However, it’s Salmon’s team now, and both the credit and the blame will fall squarely on her shoulders.
“We want to find ourselves, by the end of the season, back in the top 10,” Salmon said. “A conference championship, the traditions that we’ve had for the 26 years Temple’s won the conference championship … For me, the goal is to qualify multiple athletes for championships and then push them to be All-Americans this year.”
Now, at a high-profile program with bigger resources, Salmon will have all she needs to recruit to those needs. With her being part of the wave of coaching hires that new athletic director Arthur Johnson made, she says she is well aware of the expectations to get all of Temple’s varsity teams back to the top. Only time will tell if she is up for the challenge.
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