From little acorns, mighty oak trees grow. This is exactly what has happened at Tyne Amateur Rowing Club in recent years. While the successes of its senior performance squad are well-documented – notably a semi-final finish in the Wyfold Challenge Cup at Henley Royal Regatta last month, and the same conclusion in the Wargrave Challenge Cup in 2023 – the junior section has also managed to cultivate a squad with equal quantities of depth and panache to compete alongside the most prestigious programmes on the circuit.
A decorated coaching contingent
Behind such a successful section are four main stakeholders: Club Captain and junior coach, Thomas Jackson, and junior coaches Beth Laidlaw, John Mulholland and Jess Rickleton. The aim is clear: to develop cohorts of useful individual athletes that come together and feel confident in their skillset, both within and outside of rowing. As Beth put it when chatting, “not every athlete at Tyne is going to go on to become an Olympian, but every athlete will bring something to the squad and leave with even more.”
For the eagle-eyed among you, these coaches may sound familiar; they picked up the 2023 British Rowing Coaching Team of the Year award, an accolade testament to the hours of voluntary commitment that all four dedicate to the club day in, day out. Touching modestly on the group’s reception of this award, Thomas explained, “we’re just so fortunate to coach such a dedicated group of kids. Without them being so adaptable and self-motivated, we wouldn’t have been able to build our program.”
Stronger together
This unwavering community spirit among Tyne’s juniors and their coaches shone particularly brightly during one of the darker, stranger times for the world and our sport within it – the Covid-19 pandemic.
For John, a real sense of pride came from experiencing first-hand how much the juniors were willing to keep giving up their evenings and weekends, even if just to spend it on Zoom for a virtual circuits session. “Thankfully, we suffered [losses in membership] much less than other clubs because of all the work that went in behind the scenes to keep the kids engaged,” he outlined, “when they could finally train together again, it was far more important to us that they took the time to rebuild their social circles alongside training hard to achieve their goals.”
Shining stars
In any junior contingent, having role models within and associated with a club are key to spurring on the current crop of athletes, not least during a pandemic. Two former Tyne juniors in particular – Isaac Hillicks-Tulip and Isabel Johnson – were awarded scholarships to St. Edward’s School (Teddies), rowing in the boys’ and girls’ first eights in 2023 and 2024 respectively. “We’re enormously proud of what Isaac and Isabel have gone on to achieve, especially the Henley Royal P.E. win for Isaac in 2023 and the Coupe de la Jeunesse selections for both of them,” Thomas shared. Whether it’s UK scholarships, university offers, or recruitment to US collegiate programs, Tyne now boasts several examples of juniors at the top of their game, which trickles down into the drive of the younger athletes. Beth put it perfectly, “because the younger ones can see it, they feel they can be it.”
Even at the regional level, Tyne’s junior alumni clearly carry their legacy with them. “We had another junior who went to Liverpool University, who then brought the Boat Club to Rutherford Head for the first time ever,” John shared. “It’s fantastic for the scope of clubs that travel up to Tyne for some great racing, thanks to the former juniors that bring them up here.”
More work to be done
The success of Tyne’s junior and senior sections are all the more impressive when we consider the ongoing disparity in the funding and accessibility of rowing between the north and south, and all three coaches acknowledged these challenges. “The funding gap is not going to go away overnight, and we’re very aware of that,” Thomas stated. “We tend to buy boats for people’s needs. For the recreational squads, we typically source second-hand equipment, and prioritise the newer stuff for the performance squads. We’re so pleased to have received funding from Love Rowing and other organisations in the past, but it’s a constant balancing act.”
However, where some may see this as an unmovable disadvantage, Tyne is proving time and time again that fast boats are as much about the irrepressible dedication to this sport as the shells keeping the athletes afloat. “We’ve seen a great uptick in kids coming to our learn-to-row courses in recent years through our outreach to the community,” Beth shared, smiling. “We have current juniors run the sessions, so it’s mutually-beneficial.”
For Beth, the next step is to make junior recruitment into Tyne even more accessible. “We run courses for pupil premium athletes from local state schools, and we’ve done a lot of work with the Young Lives charity project, which was actually founded by Tyne junior alumna Bridget Stratford MBE,” Beth explained. “Now, we’re ready to take things to the next level, so hopefully the recent success stories will help to propel that.”
No place like the north
Community spirit really is the golden thread that connects all of Tyne’s athletes, coaches, support staff, friends, and parents, which is reflected across the northern rowing circuit. “In junior rowing nationally, we’re seeing less and less volunteer coaches, which is understandable when everyone wants to make a living,” Beth acknowledged. “However, in the north, we’re always helping each other out, so much so that bumping into coaches from competing clubs feels like catching up with old friends!”
John built on this and took me right back to my own junior days at Durham ARC, “although geographically we’re a lot further apart than the Thames Valley clubs, we come together when we know our region needs it most. Every time a northern crew goes past at National Schools’, JIRR, or GB trials, everyone – no matter the club – cheers everyone else down the course.”
Now that Tyne have cemented themselves as a truly disruptive force, one thing is certain – we will be eagerly awaiting the inevitable successes to come.
Image credit: Tyne ARC
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