The much-anticipated Head of the Schoolgirls Rowing Regatta (HOSG), commencing on Friday of this week in Geelong, always breathes a burst of excitement and energy into the Senior School. With months of early morning training sessions complete, the annual event cannot come soon enough given the 2020 regatta was ‘COVID cancelled’ much to the disappointment of many last year. This is the pinnacle event on the Schoolgirls Rowing calendar. The girls will be racing across Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with the heats and repechages taking place on the Saturday and the semi-finals and finals on Sunday. With over 1800 competitors entered in the regatta this weekend, the Victorian HOSG remains one of the largest Schoolgirl Regattas in Australia.

The St Catherine’s rowers have enjoyed a very successful season to date under the guidance and expertise of our Director of Rowing, Miss Brigette Carlile and we are greatly anticipating this weekend. The Senior VIIIs have been quietly building momentum across the season with victory for the Division One Crew, The Fearless Girl, at the recent Victorian Championships in Nagambie.

The HOSG Committee has also offered a late reprieve for spectators and recently announced that spectators will be allowed to view the racing on the south riverbank. This is always a highly regarded weekend for our Rowing parent community and I offer my thanks to the President of Heyington Club, Mrs Sophie Cooper and the Heyington Club Committee for their enduring support of all School crews over many months.

Congratulations must go to our Rowing Captains, Chloe Cooper and Claire Gray, and all of the Senior rowers whose leadership, commitment and role modelling to our younger students has been outstanding all season. The exceptional team work, unity and spirit visibly present in the Mercantile Rowing Shed this year is a credit to our Seniors and on behalf of St Catherine’s School, I wish all girls an enjoyable and successful regatta.

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This year, International Women’s Day (IWD) celebrated on Monday, 8 March has given rise to a call to action for women to #Choose to Challenge.

As part of our IWD2021 celebrations, School Captains, Clementine (Cece) Newton-Brown and Lucy Campbell led the Senior School through an inspiring Assembly last week. A keynote Address by Chief Marketing Director for Coles, Lisa Ronson, deepened our understanding of the need for women to have a healthy ego in the workplace and to not shy away from leadership or opportunities to be assertive.

Cece and Lucy shared their insights suggesting that “International Women’s Day is a day for reflecting on and celebrating the accomplishments of all women but most importantly, a day for inspiring girls to strive for greatness regardless of the expectations imposed on them. This is something that aligns with our theme for this year – DARE. The Year 12 cohort are encouraging the girls to be daring in their choices and actions and to take risks that land them outside their comfort zones. This year we want girls to take all opportunities without having any self-doubt and to dare to be bold.”

With this in mind, I encourage our rowers to be inspired by past students in recent years who have utilised their schoolgirl rowing as a vehicle to access some of the Ivy League universities, a clear demonstration of their capacity to #Choose to Challenge.

Our 2016 Rowing Captain, Annie Anezakis, received a well-deserved rowing scholarship after stroking the First VIII to a national title in 2016. Annie commenced a Liberal Arts degree at Princeton University and has enjoyed a stellar career rowing for Princeton. This week, some four years later after commencing at Princeton University, Annie was “excited beyond belief” to now receive an offer to study a Master of Science (Pharmacology) at Oxford University in the UK commencing in August of this year. Annie is, of course, trialling for the Oxford crews in the coming weeks.

Our 2018, School Captain, Stephanie Ferrali, has recently received an offer to study at the University of Miami undertaking a Bachelor of Arts with a major in Psychology. Stephanie is excited about the Rowing Scholarship she has been offered and the extraordinary facilities and resources the University of Miami will provide. She travelled to the States this week and she starts university next week.

Our 2019, Rowing Captain, Emily Sutherland received an outstanding rowing scholarship at UCLA and will pursue her interest in bio-psychology. Emily, currently rowing at Mercantile until she departs for California in August this year, recently won three medals at the State Championships at Nagambie. She remains an influential and inspiring role model as a member of the Mercantile Club working closely alongside our crews.

Most recently, our 2020 First VIII Cox, Ella Carton, has excitedly received a preliminary offer to study Business at Brown University, Rhode Island and pursue her sporting interest as a rowing cox. As the Senior VIII cox last year, this is such a triumph for Ella and we are delighted with this recent recognition of her skill and leadership of crews.

We look forward to following the progress of the four St Catherine’s Old Girls who started these extraordinary post school journeys as a Year 9 rower enjoying the Head of Schoolgirls Regatta, much like many this weekend.