Clubs always appear to be outsiders on the junior rowing circuit, to the extent that even race names are focused on schools despite being open to all junior rowers. National Schools’ Regatta and The Schools’ Head of the river spring to mind immediately, in addition to the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup being exclusively for school clubs. From the outside, many schools seem to have it all, funding, coaching, and equipment, whereas club juniors have to fight to have access to these aspects that are usually withheld for senior rowers. However what the club rowers have that many schools don’t is the freedom of choice, and the opportunity to develop athletes from an early age with fewer athletes per coach. The differences are highlighted by the fact that schools and clubs rarely race each other at the J18 level when compared to senior clubs and universities lining up side by side throughout the summer racing season.
With many of the school programmes, tradition dictates the top crew, with most sweeping following the GBRT Open Trial in November and fielding their 1st VIII from The Schools’ Head of the River Race. A smaller number of schools remain strictly following the sculling path, The Windsor Boys’ School notably having great successes in the discipline. However with the prestige and tradition around the school eights, junior clubs and sculling seems to have taken a back seat. One of the easiest ways to recognise this is simple; if anyone was asked to name the one of the best junior crews of the last decade, almost all would say the St Paul’s School 2018 VIII, winning the Triple is no mean feat and they were an exceptional crew. There were two other junior mens crews from the same season that had almost identical %GMT at Henley Royal Regatta, a Molesey Boat Club J18 4+ that raced the final of The Britannia Challenge Cup, and The Windsor Boy’s School winning the Fawley Challenge Cup against a strong Maidenhead crew. The Molesey crew appeared to go almost under the radar for much of that season, despite setting a record at Schools’ Head and battling at the top of Champ 4- at the National Schools’ Regatta. This shows that club juniors can race at the best levels, but even then it is hard for them to stand out.
The atmosphere in the squads is totally different, schools tend to have larger numbers, particularly in the younger age groups and many are joining the sport in games sessions so they don’t get clobbered on the rugby pitch. Larger schools will have between 30 and 50 J14s which whittles down to around half of that number or even less in the sixth form. Due to this schools are often in bigger boats with a focus on getting everyone competent on the water and safe, where clubs with fewer juniors can have a technical focus in smaller boats and can start with athletes at a younger age. This means that at the J14 and J15 level clubs perform ahead of schools, with the schools tending to catch up by the end of the J15 season. The effect of the numbers to the atmosphere in the clubs is huge, each school squad train separately due to timetabling and issues with accommodating for the large numbers so the top performers in the J18 crews aren’t often visible to the youngsters. Contrastingly the senior squads at clubs are always seen by juniors because of overlapping sessions and often members of the senior squad coaching juniors. This adds a more competitive atmosphere that is not apparent in many of the younger school squads and some J18 squads still struggle to develop one. Arguably the numbers is one of the largest factors in why clubs have not fielded eights, as they make up so many or the entries in the smaller boats.
The most noticeable difference between schools and clubs however is the money aspect and it isn’t that surprising. Schools have large budgets for extra curricular and sport, and the staffing budget is totally separate. This means that if deemed necessary a school could have multiple full time members of staff not taking away from equipment, contrastingly, clubs regularly have to decide between employing a coach or buying equipment. Usually this equipment is for the senior squad, with juniors having to beg, borrow, and steal to get their hands on the top equipment that is ofter too heavy set for them anyway. Schools don’t have senior squads and therefore can buy the best suited equipment for their athletes. Having the top end equipment is not a necessity for success, yet rowing brings many into the schools and the finest equipment can be argued to be making money for the school by enticing in paying students. This cycle of money in schools has been keeping them at the top of competition, with clubs relying on fees, grants, and race income to fund their programmes.
This rift has essentially created two separate factions of junior rowing, with a few crossovers, there is a clubs rowing circuit and a school rowing circuit. All will be at the same races but competing in different events, schools will dominate the entries for eights races with some fielding four J18 eights, whereas smaller boats and sculls will be mainly clubs who don’t have the numbers to fill eights or the money to buy a high-end eight shell. This is not to say that their programmes aren’t exemplary, and club juniors have had great successes and will continue too. However, all of this means that school rowing will remain at the forefront of the junior scene unless changes can be made.
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