THERE might not be as many crews overall at Ballarat High School this year, but the firsts still believe they are right in contention.Injury and illness have torn through the Ballarat High crews, particularly the boys’, meaning the amount of boats in the water will be somewhat decreased this year.However the senior crews remain focused on one goal – taking home the elusive first crew title.And judging by some of their performances this year, they are certainly in contention.It has been a long time between firsts victories at the school.The boys have not won for more than a decade and the girls more than two decades.But this year both crews believe they have as good a shot as any at Boat Race glory.Today The Courier takes a close look at the Ballarat High School campaign.THE FIRSTSJack Brown returns for his second Boat Race firsts crew appearance, joined by Ben Jones.The pair have rowed together in year 9 and 10 division one and were both in the firsts last year.This year they are joined by Cam Swanson and Mark Nikolic, who have also rowed with each other throughout their career.The latter pair have stepped up from the year 10 division one ranks this year to join the firsts crew.Year 9 student Emma Day steps up as cox and for her girls’ crew counterpart Hayley Jarvis, it will actually be her first Boat Race appearance.The girls go into the big race with relatively limited experience in the firsts, with captain of boats Sarah Hawkes the only rower to compete in the corresponding race on Geelong’s Barwon River last year.She is joined by fellow year 12 students Natasha Day and Jarvis, while Shannon Simpson and Caitlin Morshead gain promotion from the year 10 crews of last year.Watch Lachlan Bence's footage of last year's event on the Barwon River at GeelongTHE RIVALSFOR both crews it is simple – every school is their rival.Both say there is no particular school they are going out there to beat, they want to beat everyone.“Every school out there is your rival, you don’t go out there to beat just one of them,” Brown said.Hawkes echoed Brown’s sentiments.“You can’t focus on one school, you can’t really work that way,” she said. “We are in with just as much of a shot as any school.”THE TRAININGTHERE has been no time to relax this year.Senior crews have been on the water six days a week and say they are reaping the rewards of an increase in training workload.“We’ve trained a lot more this time around so that will definitely help,” Brown said.Both captains said being able to train on Lake Wendouree had improved their rowing immensely, but were more than aware that all other schools had access to the same sort of improvement.THE FLEETTHERE is a strong sense of unity across all the crews this year.Overall numbers remain steady with 15 crews, with an increase in junior numbers counteracting a shortage in the senior boys.Gone are the days where crews would be forced to travel to train, therefore making it almost impossible to train as one group.They are settled in the boat shed, in their rightful home on Lake Wendouree.“It makes it so much easier for everyone,” Brown said.“All the crews can feed off each other, pretty much every night of the week. It makes it far easier than only being able to actually row together once a week at Geelong or Nagambie.” THE SUPPORTERSThe High School Army is expected to be out on the Lake Wendouree spit on Sunday, waging a chanting war with rival cheer squads.Brown said the anticipation around the school was already growing and had almost reached fever pitch.“Everyone is pretty damn excited,” he said.“The week leading up is always massive but no one can wait for Sunday.”