St Benedict’s unbeaten for 29 years in rowing

St Benedict’s College celebrated back-to-back wins when their winning streak continued at the National Schools Rowing Championships for 29 consecutive years.

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They also scooped an award at the South African Sports Awards for school team of the year on March 25.

The annual regatta at Roodeplaat Dam in Pretoria saw St Benedict’s College claim first in the U14, U15 and open events, raced over 2000m.

They narrowly yielded the first eight race to St Stithians College, took gold in the second eight and, after all the scores were tallied, they were recognised as South Africa’s top rowing school.

About 1 130 athletes from 25 schools participated in the championships.

The team is led by former learner Darryn Roff, who took over as the master in charge of rowing at the beginning of 2015.

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“The fundamental principle to our continuous success is underlying standards. We try to work hard, stay humble and out of the limelight.

“With the support of good coaches, we make the right decisions, meaning we don’t allow the logistics to dictate our process,” he explained.

He described the team as goal-oriented and driven by the process. They travel an hour to and from training and train for two hours.

“The more you practice and put in the effort, there’s a high probability of success, and that’s been our formula for years.”

He admitted to feeling pressure to retain the title for three decades.

“Meantime, we have to keep our focus on ensuring our rowers still get to enjoy the sport. Our training programme is so difficult our coaches and mentors need to be excellent mentors,” he added.

Almost 99% of their coaches were former learners at the school. He said they train hard yet facilitate a fun and enriching programme.

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“We don’t always get it right because there are some rowers who struggle, so we intervene and help whenever necessary.

“The challenge is that everyone expects us to continue winning but doesn’t realise how much effort goes into every year.

“This includes money, time and sacrifices.

“For me, when we win, it is more relief than excitement,” said Roff.

The win at the SA Sports Awards marks their fourth win so far.

They also give back to the rowing community to help grow the sport across the country and help develop schools whenever possible with the help of Rowing South Africa.

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Roff said the sport is often deemed a white person’s supreme sport because of the finances that go into it. However, over the past decade, rowing has been far more accessible.

In the past, they had four Olympians in four different Olympics, with one boy participating in the Paralympics.

He hopes that in 2028 some of their rowers will make the squad for the Olympics.

“Everyone thinks that there’s some magic formula. At the end of the day, our learners work hard, contribute and commit to their process. They enjoy what they do.

“When you row, you are in your lane. Everything that happens in your lane is a direct reflection of your and your team’s input. You get to measure yourself against yourself,” said Roff.

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Ethan Pritchard, the St Benedict’s College rowing captain, shared Warren Buffett’s quote: “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”

“I think this quote fits the past 29 years quite well because someone planted the seed 29 years ago, and we keep watering it every year and continue to grow it for our legacy ‘shade’ to grow more with each year and leave the next generations with more knowledge than they had the previous years which allows us to continue to do as well as we have been doing.”

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