While the fencing team has a designated place to store their equipment, the Nordic team doesn’t, leading to lines of ski bags propped up against walls throughout the school, an annoyance to security, skiers, and students.
Luca Racciatti ‘27, a fencer, says that he “store[s] [his] equipment in the fencing locker room, and the racks right outside of the gym.” The racks, which are the main topic of discussion, are located where the vending machines used to be, and are labeled “Fencing Equipment” on an orange sign. The Nordic team’s gear is not far away from these racks: Nordic skier Hazel Alexander says the Nordic team stores their equipment “in a hallway down by the gym next to the lost and found.” Alexander also says that they “absolutely” would like a more official place to store the equipment. Alexander said that besides just being an inconvenience, it also can become a hassle if you take the bus back to the middle school.
There were many different answers when it came to possible reasons behind it. Racciatti said that it “probably [is] because we practice at the high school,” and as the Nordic skiers do not, it is more beneficial for their team to have a place to store equipment. Fencing captain Sarah Hasday Erbsen ‘24 mentioned that it may have to do with the shape of the equipment, as it is a lot easier to store taller, skinnier bags like skis against a wall than it is for bigger bags like the fencing ones. One idea was that it didn’t have anything to do with a specific reason between the teams, just instead because of specific circumstances in the past. Hasday Erbsen said that in the years she has been on the fencing team, they’ve had to move from different places, and she says from experience that who gets storage is “mostly [based on] how much it bothers security.”
While there was consensus on the general problem and that both teams should have a storage location among students, Upper School Assistant Director Sarah Warren had not heard of the situation. She said that it was a “non-issue” and “not something that [she] investigated.” Warren also said that, while she hasn’t been specifically focused on it, she has “not seen it well utilized” the times she has walked past it, calling it “empty space.” This is especially true on Tuesdays and Thursdays, when the fencing team doesn’t practice, leaving the shelves completely empty.
