Kenji Kaihatsu turns three months old today. The son of Northwestern assistant fencing coach Ed Kaihatsu may not be walking and talking yet, but his father is still finding something to celebrate.

Two years ago, Kaihatsu’s wife Jean gave birth to a baby daughter. She lived 23 days before succumbing to complications from heart surgery.

“We thought a lot about giving up,” Ed Kaihatsu said of the couple’s desire to raise children. “But I always take the hard way. It seems to have paid off.”

Now with a healthy baby boy, his own business, two national championships and a job coaching one of the top fencing squads in the country, things really do seem to be going Kaihatsu’s way.

The reigning United States Fencing Association Veteran (over 40) national champion in both foil and sabre, Kaihatsu handles strength and conditioning for the team and one-on-one training for the Wildcats’ top fencers.

Kaihatsu is notorious for his grueling workout regimens, and the NU fencers said he instructs them in all aspects of the sport, physical as well as mental.

Kaihatsu makes his physical demands Tuesday night – known by the NU fencers as “Ed night” – when he puts the team through intensive workouts.

The typical “Ed night” consists of warm-ups, sprints, relays, pushups, situps and “green-beret-type stuff,” foil captain Maggie Kebrdle said.

Tuesday nights are “torturous,” according to freshman sabreist Lauren Dunn. “Everyone hates it, but it gets us into shape.”

If the fencers start slacking off, former NU sabreist Carly Wells said, Kaihatsu often resorts to not-so-subtle tactics of persuasion.

Last year, Wells said, Kaihatsu got on her case for not working out regularly. He eventually talked her into lifting weights with him in the morning, to ensure that she completed her strength training.

“He was able to make me push myself and stick to a routine, and the benefits were so great. I improved so much as an athlete.”

But Wells was quick to say that Kaihatsu contributes much more than grueling workouts.

“One of his biggest assets as a coach is … he’s really knowledgeable about the mental aspects: how to prepare for a competition, knowing what to focus on during practice, knowing how to put time in practicing technical aspects, and knowing how to approach competition, as far as attitude,” Wells said.

Kaihatsu stands strip-side guiding his fencers while they compete. He said coaching his fencers during bouts is one of his favorite parts of his job.

“During the competition I like to be coaching on the strip,” Kaihatsu said. “A lot of time they forget to think like their opponents. They think about what they’re going to do without seeing what their opponent is doing.”

Originally from the Chicago area, Kaihatsu attended Maine South High School in Park Ridge, where he began fencing his freshman year.

“I was too small for basketball and football, so I began fencing,” he said.

As a senior, he finished second in the state in foil.

Kaihatsu’s fencing career has taken him across the country and around the world. An All-American at Illinois, an assistant coach at Pennsylvania, and a spot on the U.S. national team for two world championships kept him occupied throughout the 1980s. He returned to Chicago with his wife in 1989.

Thanks to the urging of then-NU fencer Janel Obenchain, he came on board as an assistant coach for the Cats a year later.

In his 12 years at NU, Kaihatsu says he’s seen many changes.

“The team evolved from almost a recreational team to a contender with some serious career fencers,” he said. “It’s a big change.”

Kaihatsu now finds himself juggling a full slate of activities: coaching one of the top fencing programs in the country, managing his own insurance agency – and taking care of Kenji.

“It’s a lot of balls in the air, but so far they’re still up in the air,” he said.

In the meantime, he’s not thinking of giving up fencing or coaching anytime soon.

“I’d do it for fun,” he said. “I didn’t think there’d be any money in it. It’s something I would choose to do if I was a lottery winner.”