I was paged, so here I am.
As people have noted, the usual window for the boarding school application process has passed. But, as I have stated elsewhere, I don’t think boarding school is necessarily the best route for a high-level fencer with D1 aspirations. For several reasons…one of which is that boarding schools, generally speaking, are fairly restrictive about letting kids off campus — especially for the frequency and duration that competitive fencers require. Just look at the roster of any of the better D1 schools and you’ll see that few are boarding school graduates.
Additionally, to your point about costs….most financial aid for boarding schools is in the form of need-based aid, not merit or athletic “scholarships”. And AFAIK, FA for internationals is rather limited. There are certainly no FULL scholarships based on fencing (or any sport) — that I am aware of. At least not that a school would actually admit (they’d say it was need or merit or geographically based or something else).
One more thought…you cite a heavy travel schedule as being detrimental to his grades. Frankly, I don’t think your son’s travel/competition schedule is that unique…and yet lots of US-based fencers seem to be able to keep their grades up sufficiently to be admittable to Ivies and other very selective schools. At her peak, in season, my kid probably had competitions 3 out of 4 weekends a month…with at least one being a NAC (national competition) in another state (requiring flight OR 6-8 hour drive one-way) PLUS 1 or 2 international events a season. If he’s struggling now, what makes you think he won’t struggle with college-level courses? And an athlete who struggles academically is not an asset to a coach/program.
FWIW, I see more recruits from international schools than I see from U.S. boarding schools. I don’t see why that approach isn’t appealing to you (meaning, just keep him in Germany). Look at rosters to see what colleges might be more open to an international recruit.
If you are committed to a US high school, I think going to a NYC-area day school (or even a public school?) could work. Many of the top men’s epee fencers are based in NYC (affiliated with Fencers Club, Peter Westbrook Foundation, or the NYAC), plus of course the various colleges in/around NYC.
In addition to Hackley, which someone already mentioned, I would suggest looking into The Masters School…which has a dedicated fencing salle at the school and whose long-time coach (now retired) was Francisco Martin, once the captain (administrative/leadership role) of the US team. Masters also has a boarding program, and in our experience with the school was very flexible about not only my daughter going to NYC to train (there is a Dobbs Ferry train directly to/from NYC) a few times a week but also her travel schedule in season.
One last thing. You state, “From what I hear training outside of a Varsity situation is extremely expensive in the US and that is just not an option for us.” In the US, high-level fencing is ALL club based. It CAN be expensive (coaching fees on top of club/group class fees — not to mention all the travel for competitions). There are high school varsity teams (at private as well as public schools), but none, IMO are that strong nor is the training all that rigorous. EVERY top US fencer trains at a club. To give you some indication, my daughter, who while a very good, nationally ranked fencer was still not in top 5 of her recruiting year…yet as a skinny freshman in HS went nearly undefeated and won both the scholastic league’s individual season title as well as the one-day individual title and anchored her epee squad to an undefeated season and championship title. My point here is that “Varsity” HS fencing is not that strong…even at an elite school like Lawrenceville.