Following an outstanding collegiate and international career, Daria Schneider was named the head coach of the Harvard men’s and women’s fencing programs in September of 2019. Schneider enters her sixth season as the leader of the Crimson in the 2024-25 academic year. A trailblazer in collegiate coaching, Schneider is the first female coach to lead their program to an NCAA Fecning National Championship.
The 2023-24 season was a historic year for the Crimson, as Schneider led Harvard to the 2024 NCAA Division I National Championship, the second national title in program history, as the program qualified a full team for the NCAA Championships for the fifth time in school history. Under Schneider's leadership, first-year Jessica Guo and junior Emily Vermeule won individual national championships, as 10 Crimson fencers earned All-American recognition. In Ivy League competition, the men won their 13th Ivy League title.
In 2022-23, Schneider coached both the men and the women to fourth-place finishes at the NCAA Championships. Harvard qualified a total of 14 fencers, seven men and seven women. Schneider led both Lauren Scruggs and Jonas Hansen to individual national championship titles. She also helped the Crimson men win their 12th Ivy League Championship, where she coached Filip Dolegiewicz and James Chen to individual Ivy League titles. Five crimson fencers received first-team All-Ivy selections and three received second-team All-Ivy selections. With the aid of Schneider, the men wrapped up a very successful season with a 23-2 record and the women posted a 19-9 record.
In 2021-22, Schneider led Harvard to its second-best finish in program history with a second-place performance at the NCAA Championships with 11 fencers in competition. Schneider coached two individual sabre national champions (Elizabeth Tartakovsky, Filip Dolegiewicz), a first for the program. She also helped Mitchell Saron win the Ivy League individual title in the sabre and tutored five first-team and six second-team All-Ivy selections. At the regional level, Schneider aided three women to Northeast championships in each weapon, as well as one on the men's side. All told, the women finished with a 15-4 record, while the men posted a 13-4 mark and was named the 2022 USFCA Men's Team of the Year.
In her first season with the Crimson, Schneider helped the men's fencing team win the 2019-20 Ivy League Championship outright. The men notched two wins over No. 1 ranked Columbia on the year and finished a final record of 20-3, marking the most dual wins in a season in program history. Under Schneider, the Crimson tabbed 10 All-Ivy selections including two individual champions in foil and sabre. Schneider also helped 11 Crimson fencers qualify for the NCAA Championships.
Harvard did not compete during the 2020-21 academic year due to COVID-19.
Schneider came to Cambridge after a three-year stint as the head coach at Cornell, where she was named the 2018 Ivy League Co-Coach of the Year. Under her leadership, the Big Red tallied 34 victories in three years, including a program best 19 wins in 2016-17. Schneider’s first class of recruits earned the best finish for Cornell at NCAA Championships since 1984.
Excelling on the strip herself, Schneider was a five-time national team member for the United States, and a two-time medalist at the world championships in 2011 and 2012. She was also the U.S. Fencing national champion in 2011, and was ranked as high as second in the country and 13th in the world.
Raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, Schneider enjoyed a record-breaking collegiate career at Columbia, where she won the NCAA sabre championship in 2007, followed by a bronze finish in 2009, as she earned her second NCAA All-American honors. A three-time first team All-Ivy League honoree and two-time CoSIDA Academic All-American, Schneider was elected to the Columbia Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014. She also began her collegiate coaching career at Columbia, where she was an assistant coach from 2010-14, including a stint as the interim head coach in 2011.
Schneider was appointed to the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Committee Board of Directors as a Olympic & Paralympic Committee Board of Directors as an Athletes' Advisory Council representative in 2021. A member of the USA Fencing Board of Directors and the U.S. Olympic Committee Athlete Advisory Council, Schneider becomes the eighth head coach of the men’s team at Harvard, and the third of the women’s program.
