Robson House Rowing
On Saturday 31st October, 2020 at 6.00am, I walked around the boarding house to check the roll as I was on duty and had to be at the boatshed at 7.00am to coach the Year 7/8 new rowers with the Deputy Headmaster Mr Morrison and Patrick Bloore, an old boy. As you all would remember it was raining in Sydney and rather cold, so I had a quick breakfast, cup of tea and walked to the car park. On the way I noticed Mr Ticehurst’s office light on, we had a brief chat about sport and so then headed to the car; this was all before 6.45am.
At 7.30am, myself and the other coaches were on the water heading to Hen and Chicken Bay, with 6 crews and 3 speed boats and the clouds opened up. As you would imagine, there are raincoats, hats, megaphones, two reserve rowers, no umbrellas and it is pelting down and this is all before 9.30am.
You may ask yourself what am I doing? Well, I am coaching a sport that I have enjoyed for over 30 years. In fact, Mr Morrison and I have a total of over 60 years’ experience so it is not surprising that this is a fair reason why Shore do well at rowing. In fact, within the Shore boatshed there are many staff who coach. Mr Jennings is the only teacher coaching in the GPS 1st Eight (who has been involved with boarding) and Mr Koster coaching the 2nd Eight as well and the list goes on. There are so many teachers involved with sport each Saturday at Shore and it is a different way of connecting with teenagers. It is so nice to walk through the school and boys who you have had no contact with yell “hello Sir”!
In the boarding side, Kim took over from me on duty, walked around the house and checked in on the boys, making sure they were happy with a smile on their face (even though some sport was cancelled). When I arrived to the boarding house and the rain continued it was my turn to take over, watching the rugby union grand final and then the test, whilst the boys enjoyed the gym, the rugby, pizzas and relaxation.
