Row for gold: Greatest rowing school of the century revealed in GPS scorecard

Even within the high stakes world of schoolboy sport, rowing holds a special level of prestige. The Daily Telegraph can reveal the strongest GPS rowing school this century - and how their legacy could soon be toppled.

“It is like the Olympic finals, and nothing else matters.”

Even within the high stakes world of schoolboy sport, rowing holds a special level of prestige. From the hours dedicated to hitting the gym and the open water to the dollars sunk into buying the best boats – and best coaches – young oarsmen and their GPS schools enter each season with as much to gain as lose.

Rowing is viewed by some GPS students as the ‘gap-filler’ of the rugby off-season; but as one former Olympian told this masthead, newcomers had “no idea what they were signing up for”.

Teams live and breathe the legacies of those who came before them – speaking equally as reverently of alumni who won Head of the River as those who have since basked in Olympic glory; men like London 2012 bronze medallist Dan Noonan (St Ignatius’ College, aka ‘Riverview’, class of ‘97) and Tokyo 2020 gold medallist Spencer Turrin (St Joseph’s College aka ‘Joeys’, 2009).

Exclusive analysis by The Daily Telegraph reveals since the turn of the century, Shore and The King’s School have dominated the leaderboard for championship victories with their first eight squads. Shore has scored three hat tricks, undefeated between 2003 and 2005, 2007 and 2010, and 2012 to 2014.

More recently, however, the crown has been anyone’s to take – since 2018, Riverview has won it twice, while Scots and Joeys have each won the title once.

James Fredricson, 20, and his teammate Angus Aitken, 21, were members of the underdog 2020 Scots College team who ended a four-decade drought for the school at the Head of the River regatta – the most highly anticipated event on the schoolboy rowing calendar.

James Fredricson - Scots College old boy and 2020 Head of the River champion.

Fredricson’s crewmate Angus Aitken. Both now row for Sydney Rowing Club. Pictures: Max Mason-Hubers

“We went through that season without really winning a race, but we knew that we had what it took to win,” Fredricson recalled.

“We just needed to prove to everyone else that we had what it took to cross the line, and get it done.”

2020 Head of the River schoolboy rowing regatta champions from Scots College. Back row (left to right) Jack Scott, Jack Charlesworth, Tom Hart, Cooper Mundell, Franco Squillace, Angus Aitken. Bottom row James Fredricson, James Rose, and Jeremy Rush. Picture: Supplied

Having experienced so many “just not quite there moments”, Aitken added, the boys found themselves questioning “where has this been all season?”

The pair are now racing under the banner of the prestigious Sydney Rowing Club. Both agreed that their Head of the River victory was the “defining moment” of their school years – despite graduating in the same year the Covid pandemic first gripped the country.

Scots College students seen celebrating the 2020 victory of their first VIII rowing team at the Head of the River. Picture: Supplied

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic, students had no choice but to watch online from the school grounds. Picture: Supplied

“For us it was a big deal, for the school it was a big deal … I felt a bit like a celebrity walking around for a couple of weeks after that,” Fredricson said.

The boys had also trained relentlessly, out on the water five days a week, on the school oval four times a week, and in the gym three times a week. Even at the weekend, they would spend hours on the water from the early morning to the early afternoon.

Many of Sydney Rowing Club’s members are former students of elite GPS schools. Nick Whalan attended The King’s School. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

The intensity of the training undertaken by schoolboy rowers – and the thirst for victory the GPS competition inspires – are why rowing clubs are extremely competitive in their fight to lure the best athletes.

The efficacy of the pipeline is evident in the dozens of alumni who have gone on to represent Australia on the world stage.

Schoolboy rowers gain ‘celebrity status’ as Head of the River winners, remembered decades later. Max Mason-Hubers

Olympian and two-time bronze medallist Sam Loch once belonged to one of King’s most successful crews; in the early 2000s, he said, the school’s sporting culture meant being selected for championship teams was extremely competitive – you were enlisted in the “highest level of the best athletes”.

2008: Australian Olympic Men's Coxed Eight, from left to right cox Marty Rabjohns, stroke Steven Stewart, Sam Conrad, James Tomkins, Jeremy Stevenson, Tom Laurich, James Chapman, Sam Loch and bow David Dennis. Picture: Darren Edwards

“Toughness was held in high esteem, and certain sports were held in high regard like rowing and rugby,” he said.

“There is nothing comparable that I can think of.

“It happened to be for me that the culture and my personal aspirations are very well aligned, but looking back, it was probably pretty abnormal.”

Sam Loch in 2008, training at Penrith Lakes before heading over to the Beijing Olympic Games. Picture: Darren Edwards

Each year, two or three oarsmen from the top teams join Sydney Rowing Club’s ranks. Around 60 per cent of the club’s current crop of athletes are alumni of GPS schools. Years after graduating and now rowing together as one team, the young men still rib each other over schoolboy rivalries.

Greatest of all time: King’s School old boys Nick Whalan and Mac Bucknell, and Scots College graduates James Fredricson and Angus Aitken are among the schoolboy rowers pushing for Olympic glory. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

“When they race The Head of the River, to them it is like the Olympic finals and nothing else matters,” SRC development coach Lachlan Carter said.

Carter himself is a GPS old boy, having graduated from The King’s School in 2006.

“That was my experience. We thought we were like Olympic athletes – even though we didn’t do half the amount of training that they do,” he said.

“It’s only when you finish school and join a club that you realise there is so much more to the sport than The Head of the River.”

Sydney Rowing Club member and St Jospeh’s College old boy Nick Mirow. Picture: Max Mason-Hubers

For 22-year-old Joey’s graduate Nick Mirow, transitioning into club rowing from the GPS system was a huge wake-up call, forcing him to improve his technique and up his training commitments to be in with a chance of heading to the actual Olympics one day.

“Having to jump from being top gun at the school to one of the high-performing clubs, I was like ‘damn, I’m pretty bad’, compared to the big bad world,” he said.

Sam Loch is now a fitness coach living in Mullumbimby with partner Frances Abbott and their young family. Picture: Supplied

Rowing is one of the few sports in the AAGPS program where schools such as Riverview that have traditionally resisted hiring professional coaches - and instead employed coaches who also teach or run other school activities - have in recent years changed tack to remain competitive.

Loch, who later coached rowing at Newington College and rugby at Joeys and Scots, said the secret to success in the schoolboy comp was the level of commitment to victory at all costs, among not only the rowers themselves, but their families and the headmaster.

“I’ve seen at least three different GPS programs and structures. The talent’s not the point of difference, and it’s not the program – I think it’s the work ethic that makes the difference,” he said.

“At Christmas, if half the squad is going on skiing trips with their families to Japan, that’s really not going to help.”

As for who the next Head of the River will be? It’s anyone’s race.