Start of school to end of rowing season

When we got back home from Fiji Rosie and Sophie had 4 days to get ready for the start of the school year and for Sophie this was a big deal as it would be her first day of secondary school at Methodist Ladies' (haha) College where Rosie goes. Jessye was at rowing camp for the week.

On the Saturday after school started I went to Geelong to watch the first regatta of the season, the W. H. Pincott Barwon Regatta. Jessye was in the Lauriston 1st Four and the motley-looking crew that showed up on the podium to collect their winners' medals (note Jessye in socks as usual!) belied the pretty good form they were already showing on the water. Rowing dominated Jessye's and sometimes our lives for the first couple of months when the racing season was in full swing.

Every couple of months I get together with a few Kiwi girls (we still think we are!) for morning tea. This time it was Joy, Mary, Sandra and myself and we lamented that Young-Mee, our Korean pianist friend who had recently returned to Korea after a year in Melbourne, could no longer join us.

On Saturday, Feb 6, I drove to Nagambie, the course an hour and a half from Melbourne where the Nationals would be held in a few weeks to watch Jessye and co rowing. Alex, their stroke, the blonde at the front of the boat who plays a big part in setting their pace, was out with a hamstring injury sustained during the very intense week-long camp at the beginning of the season. This day they were experimenting during the heats alternating Emily and Jessye as stroke and bringing up one of the girls from the second crew to fill the empty seat. They had a rather disastrous day basically racing a brand new formation without having trained together. It did nothing for Jessye's irrational fear of sitting in the stroke seat. They went home to lick their wounds and contemplate the fact that they had to race at the State Championships the following Saturday with this new crew.

After a week of training with their fantastic coach and working on their attitude, the girls were fired up to give it their best shot at States. Jessye accepted with equal parts trepidation and determination the challenge to stroke the crew and on Saturday 13th Feb the whining and hard-luck stories of the previous outing were replaced by tough talk and positivity - bring it on! Parents and coaches near the finish-line watched the little specks of boats become visible and the tension gradually changed to cautious optimism as it began to look like our girls might be in front. Amazingly, they powered away to a convincing victory and their faces on the podium told the whole story - they could hardly believe it themselves. Meg and Jessye went to a friend's 18th party the next day and showed they they could scrub up well when required.

Since Jessye gave up piano, violin and viola, she has really enjoyed life as a percussionist, thanks to her fabulous teacher, Craig Beard, and her natural aptitude for hitting things and making loud noises. A few members of the percussion ensemble performed at the school fete.

During the first week of March I was quite busy with MSO working with the wonderful Vladimir Ashkenazy in a big Debussy La Mer/ Rachmaninov The Bells programme but since some of our rehearsals had to be in the evening to accommodate the choir, I was able to tear up to Nagambie to watch some of Jessye's races at Nationals and make it back with feigned calm for the rehearsal. Alex was only just recovered from her hamstring injury and these races at Nationals were the first time the Four was back together. They didn't win their heat on Friday which was in the end a good thing because they needed more race experience together and this way they would have to do the repechage to try and make the finals rather than get straight through. There was tension in the air as we all hoped Alex's hamstring would be up to the task and that the girls' lack of recent training and racing together wouldn't hold them back. They won their repechage convincingly on Saturday morning at 9:30 and were though to the final the next day. Rowing back up the river they displayed the customary hairdos that made them recognisable on the water, a blonde up front then Jessye's high bushy do followed by two long brunette ponytails/plaits. I waited for them to have the postmortem with their coach then drove back to Melbourne to see Chris and Grant who had arrived for a visit that morning and were coming to the 2pm concert with me. Chris was thrilled to get to meet and shake hands with Ashkenazy, a long-time hero of hers, after the concert.

We took 2 cars and the whole family to Nagambie for the finals day on Sunday. It was nail-biting stuff because although Sam, the coach, was quietly confident the girls had as good a chance as anybody to win, there were still a few variables. The bigger, tough-looking crew that had beaten them in the heat was a real threat, Alex had to do 3 races in 3 days on a delicate hamstring and anything can happen in the boat anyway. Lauriston had the unprecedented honour of having 3 crews in the 6-crew final which was a testament to the superb coaching and the hard work and grit of the girls. We knew their lanes and so were watching for the white tops towards the far side of the course. At least half the race happened out of our view but we hung on the commentators every word until they came into view. The screaming was non-stop when they came close enough to see clearly and we realised they had built up a healthy lead. The fight was really on for 2nd and 3rd, both big, beefy crews from Tasmania and New South Wales but our girls held them off for a winning margin of 5.28 seconds. Yeeha!!! It was great to see the camaraderie afterwards and sharing the love with their coach and other Lauriston crews during the photo opps.

Between regattas we managed to find time to get Will and Elle together for dinner with Chris and Grant.

One more big regatta loomed only a week after Nationals - Head of Schoolgirls on the Barwon River in Geelong. This is Jessye's favourite course partly because it's the most familiar 1500m race course (Nagambie is a 2km course which is why States and Nationals are held there) where they've raced since year 10 and partly because she loves having the bridges along the course as landmarks and to break up the attention on the pain! She also says she uses some of the other schools' banners for motivation during the race - she particularly likes Genezano's "right here, right now, no regrets". The Lauriston banner, "no guts, no glory" occupied the prominent central spot due to the Director of Rowing getting up earlier than anybody else to put it up there. Heats day on Saturday was also Jessye's 17th birthday so I took a cake down and after they won their heat in the morning and were through to the final the next afternoon they had lots of time to buy the merchandise, watch the other girls row and celebrate Jessye's birthday. Her housemates at the motel they were staying in had snuck back and decorated their living room for when I dropped Jessye back there later.

Jessye's final was one of the last of the day on Sunday. It was a beautiful day and Chris, Grant, Will, Elle, Peter, Rosie, Sophie and Sandra made the pilgrimage to the Barwon. Will found Jessye to wish her good luck just before the girls got ready to put the boat in the water for the last time - this was their last race together as a crew. In some ways, although they were the favourite because of having just won at Nationals the week before, it was no less tense watching because the race was theirs to lose and anything can happen! In fact, the commentator told us they were in 2nd place even when they had come into view and it looked like they might be ahead. But they dug deep and stormed ahead with a huge lead down the home straight to the deafening screams of their biggest fans. It was the icing on the cake at the end of a remarkable season and they had every right to beam like cheshire cats and fall into the river for a celebratory splash.

Sam, the amazing, and Tom, his sidekick coach of the 1st and 2nd crews and the other coaches all had reason to feel proud. The Lauriston crews all did exceptionally well in their own divisions this year and the medal ceremony was a fitting end. Jessye and Meg were Co-Captains of Boats so we followed tradition and invited all the girls and their parents over to our place for a pizza party as soon as everybody got back to Melbourne.