The school finished the season ranked fourth at the national secondary schools competition, the Aon Maadi Cup, in March.
The crew has a busy few weeks ahead of them - competing in four consecutive weekend events; with the Bridge-to-Bridge 10km race last weekend, John’s trophy, Jury Cup and the Christmas Regatta, respectively.
The recent success has resulted in an abundance of interest being shown in the sport from other students, which has required the coaching team to limit how much the programme can grow.
Whanganui High School’s director of rowing and head coach, Axel Dickinson, said there were “tough decisions to be made” when selecting the athletes to continue the season with.
“We had 47 [students] sign up to the learn-to-row programme and have only been able to select 24.
“We are finding that handling around 60 athletes is on par.
“It is tricky growing it beyond that point with our current resourcing, but we are really excited with the group that we’ve got,” Dickinson said.
Rowing is now considered to be the top sport available at the school based on performance.
“It’s definitely getting more recognition, there’s a lot more interest in rowing at the school and it’s become a sport that you have to be selected into the programme,” Dickinson said.
“We want to become the top school in New Zealand - we’ve got an exceptional group of kids in the building right now.”
Whanganui High School’s female captain of boats, Lauren Davies, echoed Dickinson’s goal.
“We would love to make top school at Maadi, that would be the ultimate goal,” she said.
The Bridge-to-Bridge is a 10km race down the Whanganui River and was held on Saturday. Photo / NZME
Meanwhile, master in charge/manager of rowing for Whanganui Collegiate, Gus Scott, has also handled an influx of interest in the sport.
“Our numbers are up, we’re probably running with at least a fifth of the school.
Next term we pick up a bunch of newbies into the academy so we’ll go past 100 rowers out of 440 total students - it takes a fair bit of scheduling, but we make it work,” Scott said.
Scott echoes Dickinson’s notion that results are great, but the process and enjoyment is the most important.
“We target having lots of kids rowing and it’s not all about the results - fast boats is our mantra, if the kids make a fast boat, hopefully, they’ll be where they want to be.”
Cullinane College has returned to the rowing arena this season after nearly five years out of action.
“We have a few junior crews with a view to develop them over the next few years and build from the bottom up. Every single one of the kids involved have just started,” Cullinane headmaster Tony McBride said.
“We’re just excited as to get the rowing back up and running again because it’s something we haven’t had in so long.
“It’s a very little step this year and hopefully we’ll be able to make bigger and bigger steps over time.”
Similarly, Whanganui Girls’ College (WGC) has returned to rowing after several years away since Covid-19.
“As a school, we are really hopeful that we’ll have a showing again in school competitions this season,” WGC sports co-ordinator Faith McGregor said.
“We are trying to work closely and build a good relationship with the Union Boat Club because they have gone out of their way to encourage us back and implement a great programme for our school.”
WGC had eight new girls join the rowing programme; adding to the two girls from the school who had been rowing with the Union Boat Club.
Union Boat Club’s captain, Hamish Peters, is excited for the school to return to rowing and hopes from the club’s perspective, to encourage the kids to continue rowing past high school for the club and get parents involved too.
“They are a little bit of a feeder into the rowing club. Some of their parents join the club and committee - we find that once the kids are older, some parents get back into rowing again after a prolonged time out,” Peters said.
It is looking like the Christmas Regatta, on December 13-15, at Lake Karapiro will be the first opportunity for all four schools to feature at once.
