A group of four under-17 boys represented the club, and won the C grade four and placed second in the C grade quad.

The boys are also the club’s first junior male quad ever and first non masters men’s quad. 

Ballarat City rowing coach Jordan O’Keefe said the club had not competed with crews after falling membership with the drought and a concentration on masters rowing. 

“It’s quite a significant feat for the club ... It’s been a long time coming,” O’Keefe said. 

“It’s a great start to rebuild a proud club, and to see the younger generation wanting to be so involved and showing how they’re committed to the club is great.”

As school rowing doesn’t offer sculling, where the individual rowers use two oars and practice in quad crews, O’Keefe taught the boys sculling from scratch this year. 

“They all only rowed in sweeps before with no experience in sculling, so it was a fantastic opportunity for them to learn something new,” he said.

“I told the boys before they raced there are no expectations, but they’ve done an amazing job.”

O’Keefe said he thought it was good for the crew to start at a regional regatta rather than something larger. 

“It’s important that we’re attracting juniors and moving the club forward,” he said. 

“It’s great to see the kids that are getting involved now - that they’re becoming as passionate and patriotic as members of the club that have been there forever.”