The crowd was electric inside Millburn High School’s gymnasium.

Students and parents stood in unison as they cheered on their Millburn Millers.

But basketballs weren’t clanging off rims or swishing through nets. Instead, there was the sound of swords clanking against each other as Millburn High School’s fencing team was battling its arch-nemesis, Columbia High School, in an early season encounter.

Fencing, an unknown sport to many, is one of the more competitive high school sports in New Jersey. Millburn’s program is among New Jersey’s finest, including a quarterfinals appearance by the girls’ squad in last year’s playoffs. The boys squad made it to the state finals where they lost to Bernards High School.

The girls’ squad is currently ranked No. 2 in The Star-Ledger rankings and is headed to the state tournament. The boys were ranked earlier in the season. One fencer, junior Mike Mills, is also ranked nationally and came in third in the district championships.

“It’s often a cliché with fencers, but our sport is often referred to as ‘Physical Chess,’” said girls coach Gus de la Llave. “You’re on a strip (the area where the fencers compete on) and it’s you and your opponent.

“You have to be ready at moment’s notice to change your tactics because you have to be able to read what your opponent is doing and make a counter move. In other words, counterintelligence is highly required.”

Robert Baum, 54, who’s in his eighth season coaching the boys, said “fencing requires a great combination of high speed, power and intelligence and the smarter fencer always wins.”

Fencing, which has been featured at every Summer Olympics, is separated into three sword-fighting categories: Foil, Épée, and Sabre. Foil is the lightest weapon and the target area is the torso.

Senior fencer Zoe Messenger, 17, said “foil is all about poking people.”

Messenger, who plans to fence at Brandeis University, prefers a sabre. The specialty features a light cutting weapon and “targets are from the waist and up,” said Messenger. Points are scored with different areas of the blade—edges, surfaces and point—touching the opponent.

The heaviest weapon out of the three, the épée’s target area is the entire body.

“Everything pretty much goes in épée,” said senior fencer Evan Leichter, 18.

The Millburn boys and girls teams have 35 “dedicated souls” on each squad, according to Messenger. Not only do all of the fencers compete as a team for team titles, they also compete for themselves in their respective classifications.

“It’s a team sport but people don’t think of it that way,” said senior captain Emily Bick, 17, who competes in foil. “But at the same time, it’s also individualistic. We’re out there by ourselves on the strip and it’s just you and the other fencer.”

What makes the Millburn teams unique is how several of them got started fencing. Bick began fencing four years ago. Her uncle, who fenced at Columbia University, would tell her stories about fencing.

“What other sports allows you to poke people and get points for it,” Bick said with a laugh, who added “we also get to use swords!”

Senior foil Brianna Martin, 18, who competes at The Fencers Club in New York City, began fencing when she was nine years old. Martin, who plans to fence in college, has competed internationally, including in Hungary, Germany and Slovakia.

Martin’s background in ballet and figure skating was a reason why fencing became intriguing to her.

“Fencing is graceful because it combines strategy and movement,” Martin said. “This sport requires complete concentration and, unlike figure skating, you have another opponent who’s trying to outmaneuver you.”

For Messenger and Leichter, fencing became an outlet.

“When I was growing up, I was a quiet kid,” Messenger said. “I tried other sports. Well, honestly, I tried karate for five minutes, but it wasn’t until I started fencing that I began to break out of my shell. It helped to get the individual out of me.”

Leichter's dad, Andrew, 53, a Long Island native, is responsible for his interest in the sport.

“I didn’t know anything about the sport growing up,” Leichter said. “My dad heard about a few classes at the local YMCA and suggested I try it out. I wanted it to give it up a few times but I persevered and it’s helped me maintain that sense of commitment in other aspects of my life.”

Judging by the crowd noise during Millburn’s matches with Columbia—the boys lost but the girls won in thrilling fashion when they defeated CHS 14-13—fencing has become an institution in Millburn.

“What’s amazing about fencing here is even though we are competing against rivals like Columbia and other schools, we’re all friends with each other and Facebook one another,” Bick said. “It’s truly a unique fencing community we have here in New Jersey.”