The swim team has been a close-knit team since the beginning of Mercy sports. The time that the team members spend together extends past normal practice time. The girls, dedicated student-athletes, spend many off hours in the media center together, and sometimes on specific couches.

With both the media center staff and the Mercy swimmers, the issue over these beloved couches has sparked much controversy. The couches, which normally sat on the left side of the media center, were removed during the week of Sep. 11, only 3 weeks into the 2023-24 school year. However, the reasons for the removal of these couches is what started much resentment and worry.

Mercy’s media center tech, Mrs. Missy Kreucher has started a dawn of change in the media center. “The couches were moved because of the fact that perpetually throughout the day no matter who was sitting there, was eating.”

She stresses the fact that eating has become a big problem in the media center. The food scraps left behind have attracted ants and rodents that have greatly ruined the carpet and media center as a whole. She also expresses the cost that the irresponsibility of students’ food scraps have caused in the media center. 

“The moving of the furniture had nothing to do with the swim team,” Kreucher said. “We have had to endure the cost of hiring exterminators over the summer, so this year we must have tighter regulations here.”

After coming back this school year and making the food rules clear, Kreucher reports that some behaviors of students changed and the disrespect increased.

“People chose to ignore the rules. People chose to be disobedient,” Kreucher said. “People chose to be very disrespectful, and when we moved the green furniture I found a ridiculous amount of food and scraps on the floor.” 

For all of these reasons regarding the cleanliness of the media center, Kreucher says she had no choice but to take away the privilege of the couches. 

Three Mercy swimmers remain confused and sad about the removal of the couches in the media center.

“The swim team should be able to keep the space because it has been a tradition and the girls that came before us dedicated those couches for the rest of their team,” junior swimmer Cailyn Sherwin said.

“The couches are important to us because we bond when we sit there during off hours,” junior swimmer Caroline Lee said. “We are already awake for most of the day, so sitting on the comfy couches in our own free time is just something I think we should have the right to do.”

While Mrs. Kreucher says that the termination of the couches had nothing to do with the swimmers that usually sit there, members of the swim team disagree and strongly desire to have their space back. 

Olivia Engquist, a four year Mercy swimmer and senior captain this year, delivers a sentiment that explains the luxury of the couches for the swimmers

“The couches were a really nice thing to have and we all took advantage of them. It was a close place with all my friends that I really enjoyed,” Engquist said. “Yes, we did cause some disruption, but it was other people too.”

Some students have known to stay away from the couches if they are not “in” with the swimmers.

“I definitely think that all other Mercy students knew the green couches were reserved for the swim team,” junior swimmer Penelope Livermore said. 

She loves to sit on the “swim couches,” as she calls them, during unscheduled time. 

While Mrs. Kreucher will claim absolutely nothing belonged to a certain group of students, other students notice the flocking of swim team members to the couches and stay away. So do the couches really belong to the swimmers? How will the disappearance of “the swim team couches” affect the team that would have carried on the legacy of them for many years in the future?