When Schick Civil Construction were confirmed as our Gold Sponsor last season, Scott Brownlee and Pat Peoples visited the crew to speak to them about their experiences rowing for St Bede’s and their subsequent selection as Olympic Rowers. Their meeting with the crew had the rowers on the edge of their seats. Head Coach, Dale Maher regularly hears from Scott and Pat and shares this with the crew, who take real pride that these former Bedeans are genuinely interested in how they are progressing. This gives the rowers a real sense of just how much their development and success is shared and celebrated by those that went before them.

With that in mind, this week our Rowing Captains, Luke Hickling, Sam Woodgate and Matthew Glen made a visit to Nazareth House to meet Father Earl Crotty, a former staff member of St Bede’s College and a key figure of SBC Rowing, as Director of Rowing in the 1960s. Father Crotty was noted in the centennial book, The Faith of Our Fathers ‘for his dedication, organisation and coaching ability’.

As a crew we have been interested to learn about the success of previous SBC Rowing crews. The 1960s is an era that really sticks out, the 1962 season when SBC won four of the six finals in the Schools Pennant Regatta held at Kerrs Reach and then the selection of Mark Brownlee and Tony Popplewell for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics, after just three years rowing, were notable achievements.

On their visit to meet Father Crotty the lads enjoyed hearing about the training regime and selection methods used in the 1960s and were proud to share with Father Crotty the experience they were having in rowing and the results that they were achieving. As Father Crotty spoke about that time, it was not lost on the boys just how many boats that they train and race in today that are named after men whom Father Crotty had trained or worked with.

Fostering links between present and past rowers and supporters has come about, in part as a result of the number of people who have taken time to express how proud they are to see SBC Rowing back on the winners dais and hearing discussions about the crew, for all the right reasons. Our catch phrase of ‘New Culture, New Program, New Crew, New Era’ is something that I am pleased to see the rowers are not simply paying lip service to, but are living by.

A big thanks to Father Allan Jones for arranging our visit, it had been in the pipeline for some time and the lads were keen to meet and hear from Father Crotty. For Sam Woodgate the takeaway from the visit had to be just how much knowledge is held by Father Crotty and what a true curator for the sport he actually is. We were lucky enough to be shown a picture of a rower on the Wanganui River in a book written about the Union Rowing Club, the picture was from 1896 which must make it one of the first of a rower in New Zealand.

We look forward to keeping Father Crotty in the loop about our progress and ensuring he is part of our celebrations as we set to meet our goals for the season.

Kerry Sullivan

TIC Rowing