Four of the girls – Holly Dawson, Caitlin Ritchie, Abby Simpson and Mary Greed – have been part of the school’s rowing program right from the very start.

Now in year 12, they will feel the time has come to secure Phoenix’s first success in the annual Ballarat school regatta.

Phoenix’s top crew – led by head coach Jenn Atchison – will compete in the girls’ open division three event.

And given their preparation, rowing co-ordinator Kiya Eberle is confident of a fairytale result at the February 26 showdown on Lake Wendouree.

“They’ve worked very hard, so we are hoping to really put it all on the water,” Eberle said.

“Four years of hard work, four years of training – they were the start of this program and they are ready to win that race.

“They have competed really well in the last couple of regattas. We’ve come up against mostly senior women, but their times are looking good and they have really worked hard to clean up their technique. I think we can do it.”

Eberle said the fact that the division three race has been reduced from 2000m to 1000m in 2017 will suit the crew.

She said the school’s humble beginnings in rowing stemmed back to a come-and-try program hosted by Wendouree-Ballarat Rowing Club a few years ago.

Phoenix now rows in partnership with that club.

“We had a couple of girls interested and they developed one crew and that built our whole program. Four of the five rowing in our senior threes were our original crew members,” Eberle said.

“For two years they were the only crew we had.”

Now, Phoenix is preparing to send out a total of four boats, all of which will compete in the girls’ divisions.

There is boys in the rowing program at the school, but it doesn’t have male representation at Head of the Lake.

But that probably won’t be the case for long.

“We’re really hoping to put our first boys crew on Head of the Lake next year,” Eberle said.