rowing

[Anonymous]

You have no choice if rowing isn't offered at DC's school and your hope is to get her into a recruited spot at a DI or DIII--you'll have to go with the local club. Assuming that the local club has a healthy schedule of year around regattas and your child is able to build her erg times to be a competitive recruit, it really should not matter. My earlier point was to not rely just on a local public school program. Most kids from local public schools supplement their winter/spring with their public school by adding fall/summer with a club.



OP: it would help if you identified your DC's school or school district, as this post reveals how so many posters are providing info based on their own experience, which doesn't reflect experiences everywhere. More info about where your DC will go to HS will generate better info and advice. For example, both Jackson-Reid and the Bethesda-area MCPS schools (perhaps all MCPS schools) with club rowing are 3 season clubs -- they row all school year. My understanding is that the NoVa publics and many of the privates do not row in the Fall as school-based teams. Also note also that when posters opine about which schools are the tops, they are often looking at it from the narrow view point of the types of boats their kids or schools race. As prior posters pointed out, DC-area public schools place incredibly highly at Stotesberry (Spring race) in the 8s, and you'll see decent, if not dominant, results at the Head of the Charles (Fall) from those same schools, as well as the clubs on which NoVa kids race in the Fall.

[Anonymous]

Beyond Ivy League, might want to look at Holy Cross men’s team is usually ranked in top 20. Their home water is the site of ECAC sprints.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people posting here have no idea what they're talking about. My daughter was recruited for lightweight rowing to Princeton. That means she had to weigh in at under 130 pounds...for boy lightweights 160 pounds. Heavy weight boys have no weight limit nor do "open weight" girls.

Mine started rowing after 7th grade in a summer program. She went to a private school here. There were some kids on her summer team from BCC and Whitman who were recruited...one was a cox recruit at Harvard. When daughter was being recruited, we bought some books about recruiting from Amazon. They were very helpful. I just googled to find some free information about the recruitment process for rowing:
https://crewconnection.squarespace.com/recruiting-101/college-recruiting-101. In addition to summer rowing for club team, daughter rowed for HS team. Not for the faint of heart, but she loved it. It is true that it is easier for girls to be recruited than boys. That is because of Title 9. Schools have to balance numbers of girl sport recruits to boys. So since there are bigger boy teams such as football, baseball, etc., that doesn't leave slots for boy rowers.

AMA - daughter loved HS + college rowing. She left college rowing after 2 years because of injuries from other sports.

How tall are lightweight rowers, usually? Did you or she worry about weight gain in college? I’d hate to have a kid focusing on maintaining weight for any sport.

Bummer she got injured, what else did she play?

Was she always a morning person?

My daughter is 5'7" " inches. It was hard to weigh in below 130 because rowers are very muscular. She got injured doing a marathon. She was also recruited for D1 Ivy Field Hockey. But rowing is a 2 season sport fall & summer, so she couldn't do FH. She preferred rowing. She was never a morning person to answer your question, so luckily most of her practices were after classes. Rowing is very hard work and people LOVE it!

Then she does not have an ideal body type for rowing. It is comparatively much harder for a 6’1 man to be under 160 (I think it is 165 as the limit), but they do it. They have to have the right body type though.

My point was only that is should be 120-160 or 130-170. Perhaps even 135-175 - not sure.

You don't seem to understand lightweight rowers vs. " heavyweight men" + "open weight" women. People have "ideal" weights for whatever their weight class... Like different weight classes for wrestling. * Note they don't call women " heavyweights" like they do men..they call women rowing over 130 pound lights " openweights" so they don't think they're fat.

What are you even talking about? I think the 160 lightweight cutoff for men is a little too low.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have a friend who is rowing recruit for a NESCAC school. Had other D3 options that people on this forum would kill for. He knew early on where he was going.

the only D3 option that people on this forum would kill for is Williams -

Totally not true. I had dinner last night with 4 girls who all turned down Williams for a different NESCAC. Williams is no better than at least three and more accurately 4 other NESCACs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not too late. Kids at our public get into HYP for rowing, and started in 8th/9th. Being tall helps!

So this doesn't happen.

Most rowers are from top privates with few from public schools. There are a few public school exceptions for kids from some wealthy NY/CT (or CA) suburbs who rowed at elite clubs. Rowing is the ultimate white DEI sport.
Most recruited rowers at HYP are European and competitive at the national level.
Being tall doesn't just help, it is a prerequisite. 6'2" for men and 5'10" for women except for coxswains (who typically do not receive recruiting support).

Overall rowing is not by any means a easier path to admittance to a top school.

Most recruited HYP rowers are American, being tall is not a prerequisite (but it helps), no idea what 'white DEI sport' means', coxswains absolutely receive recruiting support, elite programs recruit more rowers from DC public schools than DC privates.

Apart from that, absolutely spot on.

Princetons heavyweight roster has 17 internationals
Harvard’s has 26
Yales has 27

I’ll stop there, you should get the picture.

Coxes virtually never get recruiting support at the top D1s. I know kids currently rowing at multiple T10 programs. I have a friend with. Cox who worked the recruiting hard but everyone was “love to have you but we don’t support coxswains” including multiple ivies. She ended up as a cox in boat 1 at Washington so she was more than good enough.

For your last point you once again might want to check rosters. Maybe more pub kids from the DMV but if that’s the case it’s the exception to the rule.

Three strikes, you’re out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not too late. Kids at our public get into HYP for rowing, and started in 8th/9th. Being tall helps!

So this doesn't happen.

Most rowers are from top privates with few from public schools. There are a few public school exceptions for kids from some wealthy NY/CT (or CA) suburbs who rowed at elite clubs. Rowing is the ultimate white DEI sport.
Most recruited rowers at HYP are European and competitive at the national level.
Being tall doesn't just help, it is a prerequisite. 6'2" for men and 5'10" for women except for coxswains (who typically do not receive recruiting support).

Overall rowing is not by any means a easier path to admittance to a top school.

Most recruited HYP rowers are American, being tall is not a prerequisite (but it helps), no idea what 'white DEI sport' means', coxswains absolutely receive recruiting support, elite programs recruit more rowers from DC public schools than DC privates.

Apart from that, absolutely spot on.

Princetons heavyweight roster has 17 internationals
Harvard’s has 26
Yales has 27

I’ll stop there, you should get the picture.

Coxes virtually never get recruiting support at the top D1s. I know kids currently rowing at multiple T10 programs. I have a friend with. Cox who worked the recruiting hard but everyone was “love to have you but we don’t support coxswains” including multiple ivies. She ended up as a cox in boat 1 at Washington so she was more than good enough.

For your last point you once again might want to check rosters. Maybe more pub kids from the DMV but if that’s the case it’s the exception to the rule.

Three strikes, you’re out.

Unfortunately it's true that generally college coaches won't give one of their precious recruiting spots to a coxswain. However, being a coxswain still looks very good on a college application. It also can help a coxswain get into a good school that they're qualified for but the spot could have gone to someone else.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not too late. Kids at our public get into HYP for rowing, and started in 8th/9th. Being tall helps!

So this doesn't happen.

Most rowers are from top privates with few from public schools. There are a few public school exceptions for kids from some wealthy NY/CT (or CA) suburbs who rowed at elite clubs. Rowing is the ultimate white DEI sport.
Most recruited rowers at HYP are European and competitive at the national level.
Being tall doesn't just help, it is a prerequisite. 6'2" for men and 5'10" for women except for coxswains (who typically do not receive recruiting support).

Overall rowing is not by any means a easier path to admittance to a top school.

Most recruited HYP rowers are American, being tall is not a prerequisite (but it helps), no idea what 'white DEI sport' means', coxswains absolutely receive recruiting support, elite programs recruit more rowers from DC public schools than DC privates.

Apart from that, absolutely spot on.

Princetons heavyweight roster has 17 internationals
Harvard’s has 26
Yales has 27

I’ll stop there, you should get the picture.

Coxes virtually never get recruiting support at the top D1s. I know kids currently rowing at multiple T10 programs. I have a friend with. Cox who worked the recruiting hard but everyone was “love to have you but we don’t support coxswains” including multiple ivies. She ended up as a cox in boat 1 at Washington so she was more than good enough.

For your last point you once again might want to check rosters. Maybe more pub kids from the DMV but if that’s the case it’s the exception to the rule.

Three strikes, you’re out.

Unfortunately it's true that generally college coaches won't give one of their precious recruiting spots to a coxswain. However, being a coxswain still looks very good on a college application. It also can help a coxswain get into a good school that they're qualified for but the spot could have gone to someone else.

Not true. We know several who coxed club team at the Thompson Boat Club in Georgetown.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people posting here have no idea what they're talking about. My daughter was recruited for lightweight rowing to Princeton. That means she had to weigh in at under 130 pounds...for boy lightweights 160 pounds. Heavy weight boys have no weight limit nor do "open weight" girls.

Mine started rowing after 7th grade in a summer program. She went to a private school here. There were some kids on her summer team from BCC and Whitman who were recruited...one was a cox recruit at Harvard. When daughter was being recruited, we bought some books about recruiting from Amazon. They were very helpful. I just googled to find some free information about the recruitment process for rowing:
https://crewconnection.squarespace.com/recruiting-101/college-recruiting-101. In addition to summer rowing for club team, daughter rowed for HS team. Not for the faint of heart, but she loved it. It is true that it is easier for girls to be recruited than boys. That is because of Title 9. Schools have to balance numbers of girl sport recruits to boys. So since there are bigger boy teams such as football, baseball, etc., that doesn't leave slots for boy rowers.

AMA - daughter loved HS + college rowing. She left college rowing after 2 years because of injuries from other sports.

How tall are lightweight rowers, usually? Did you or she worry about weight gain in college? I’d hate to have a kid focusing on maintaining weight for any sport.

Bummer she got injured, what else did she play?

Was she always a morning person?

My daughter is 5'7" " inches. It was hard to weigh in below 130 because rowers are very muscular. She got injured doing a marathon. She was also recruited for D1 Ivy Field Hockey. But rowing is a 2 season sport fall & summer, so she couldn't do FH. She preferred rowing. She was never a morning person to answer your question, so luckily most of her practices were after classes. Rowing is very hard work and people LOVE it!

Then she does not have an ideal body type for rowing. It is comparatively much harder for a 6’1 man to be under 160 (I think it is 165 as the limit), but they do it. They have to have the right body type though.

My point was only that is should be 120-160 or 130-170. Perhaps even 135-175 - not sure.

You don't seem to understand lightweight rowers vs. " heavyweight men" + "open weight" women. People have "ideal" weights for whatever their weight class... Like different weight classes for wrestling. * Note they don't call women " heavyweights" like they do men..they call women rowing over 130 pound lights " openweights" so they don't think they're fat.

What are you even talking about? I think the 160 lightweight cutoff for men is a little too low.

No one cares what you think. You know nothing about rowing.

[Anonymous]

Read this, written by a former D1 rower

https://www.amazon.com/Special-Admission-Recruitment-Suburban-Athletes/dp/1978821212#averageCustomerReviewsAnchor

She was ncaa champ too. The Amazon rating is low but the book is really great and eye opening on how race and class shape recruitment, esp in rowing and similar less equal sports.

[Anonymous]

Great experience with DC National. No drama, excellent coaching. Numerous college commitments to impressive schools. Happy kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not too late. Kids at our public get into HYP for rowing, and started in 8th/9th. Being tall helps!

So this doesn't happen.

Most rowers are from top privates with few from public schools. There are a few public school exceptions for kids from some wealthy NY/CT (or CA) suburbs who rowed at elite clubs. Rowing is the ultimate white DEI sport.
Most recruited rowers at HYP are European and competitive at the national level.
Being tall doesn't just help, it is a prerequisite. 6'2" for men and 5'10" for women except for coxswains (who typically do not receive recruiting support).

Overall rowing is not by any means a easier path to admittance to a top school.

Most recruited HYP rowers are American, being tall is not a prerequisite (but it helps), no idea what 'white DEI sport' means', coxswains absolutely receive recruiting support, elite programs recruit more rowers from DC public schools than DC privates.

Apart from that, absolutely spot on.

Princetons heavyweight roster has 17 internationals
Harvard’s has 26
Yales has 27

I’ll stop there, you should get the picture.

Coxes virtually never get recruiting support at the top D1s. I know kids currently rowing at multiple T10 programs. I have a friend with. Cox who worked the recruiting hard but everyone was “love to have you but we don’t support coxswains” including multiple ivies. She ended up as a cox in boat 1 at Washington so she was more than good enough.

For your last point you once again might want to check rosters. Maybe more pub kids from the DMV but if that’s the case it’s the exception to the rule.

Three strikes, you’re out.

Unfortunately it's true that generally college coaches won't give one of their precious recruiting spots to a coxswain. However, being a coxswain still looks very good on a college application. It also can help a coxswain get into a good school that they're qualified for but the spot could have gone to someone else.

Not true. We know several who coxed club team at the Thompson Boat Club in Georgetown.

It’s true, the previous posters are correct in that coaches at top schools will not waste a slot on a cox. They might get soft support but they will not get a slot. There is a thread from a couple of years ago on CC about a DMV cox trying to get recruited by top schools.

[Anonymous]

Coxswains can absolutely be recruited to top programs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not too late. Kids at our public get into HYP for rowing, and started in 8th/9th. Being tall helps!

So this doesn't happen.

Most rowers are from top privates with few from public schools. There are a few public school exceptions for kids from some wealthy NY/CT (or CA) suburbs who rowed at elite clubs. Rowing is the ultimate white DEI sport.
Most recruited rowers at HYP are European and competitive at the national level.
Being tall doesn't just help, it is a prerequisite. 6'2" for men and 5'10" for women except for coxswains (who typically do not receive recruiting support).

Overall rowing is not by any means a easier path to admittance to a top school.

Most recruited HYP rowers are American, being tall is not a prerequisite (but it helps), no idea what 'white DEI sport' means', coxswains absolutely receive recruiting support, elite programs recruit more rowers from DC public schools than DC privates.

Apart from that, absolutely spot on.

Princetons heavyweight roster has 17 internationals
Harvard’s has 26
Yales has 27

I’ll stop there, you should get the picture.

Coxes virtually never get recruiting support at the top D1s. I know kids currently rowing at multiple T10 programs. I have a friend with. Cox who worked the recruiting hard but everyone was “love to have you but we don’t support coxswains” including multiple ivies. She ended up as a cox in boat 1 at Washington so she was more than good enough.

For your last point you once again might want to check rosters. Maybe more pub kids from the DMV but if that’s the case it’s the exception to the rule.

Three strikes, you’re out.

Unfortunately it's true that generally college coaches won't give one of their precious recruiting spots to a coxswain. However, being a coxswain still looks very good on a college application. It also can help a coxswain get into a good school that they're qualified for but the spot could have gone to someone else.

Not true. We know several who coxed club team at the Thompson Boat Club in Georgetown.

Have they actually gotten recruited anywhere though? I don’t think so. I see many of their rowers getting recruited but virtually never a coxswain. I also agree that most coaches don’t want to give that spot away from a rowing recruit …

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:A lot of people posting here have no idea what they're talking about. My daughter was recruited for lightweight rowing to Princeton. That means she had to weigh in at under 130 pounds...for boy lightweights 160 pounds. Heavy weight boys have no weight limit nor do "open weight" girls.

Mine started rowing after 7th grade in a summer program. She went to a private school here. There were some kids on her summer team from BCC and Whitman who were recruited...one was a cox recruit at Harvard. When daughter was being recruited, we bought some books about recruiting from Amazon. They were very helpful. I just googled to find some free information about the recruitment process for rowing:
https://crewconnection.squarespace.com/recruiting-101/college-recruiting-101. In addition to summer rowing for club team, daughter rowed for HS team. Not for the faint of heart, but she loved it. It is true that it is easier for girls to be recruited than boys. That is because of Title 9. Schools have to balance numbers of girl sport recruits to boys. So since there are bigger boy teams such as football, baseball, etc., that doesn't leave slots for boy rowers.

AMA - daughter loved HS + college rowing. She left college rowing after 2 years because of injuries from other sports.

How tall are lightweight rowers, usually? Did you or she worry about weight gain in college? I’d hate to have a kid focusing on maintaining weight for any sport.

Bummer she got injured, what else did she play?

Was she always a morning person?

My daughter is 5'7" " inches. It was hard to weigh in below 130 because rowers are very muscular. She got injured doing a marathon. She was also recruited for D1 Ivy Field Hockey. But rowing is a 2 season sport fall & summer, so she couldn't do FH. She preferred rowing. She was never a morning person to answer your question, so luckily most of her practices were after classes. Rowing is very hard work and people LOVE it!

Then she does not have an ideal body type for rowing. It is comparatively much harder for a 6’1 man to be under 160 (I think it is 165 as the limit), but they do it. They have to have the right body type though.

My point was only that is should be 120-160 or 130-170. Perhaps even 135-175 - not sure.

You don't seem to understand lightweight rowers vs. " heavyweight men" + "open weight" women. People have "ideal" weights for whatever their weight class... Like different weight classes for wrestling. * Note they don't call women " heavyweights" like they do men..they call women rowing over 130 pound lights " openweights" so they don't think they're fat.

What are you even talking about? I think the 160 lightweight cutoff for men is a little too low.

No one cares what you think. You know nothing about rowing.

I know that a 160 pound man and 130 pound woman is not proportionate. These weight cutoffs were established in a different age. I also know (yes, from experience rowing) that it is far easier for women to be under 130 than men to be under 160.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not too late. Kids at our public get into HYP for rowing, and started in 8th/9th. Being tall helps!

So this doesn't happen.

Most rowers are from top privates with few from public schools. There are a few public school exceptions for kids from some wealthy NY/CT (or CA) suburbs who rowed at elite clubs. Rowing is the ultimate white DEI sport.
Most recruited rowers at HYP are European and competitive at the national level.
Being tall doesn't just help, it is a prerequisite. 6'2" for men and 5'10" for women except for coxswains (who typically do not receive recruiting support).

Overall rowing is not by any means a easier path to admittance to a top school.

Most recruited HYP rowers are American, being tall is not a prerequisite (but it helps), no idea what 'white DEI sport' means', coxswains absolutely receive recruiting support, elite programs recruit more rowers from DC public schools than DC privates.

Apart from that, absolutely spot on.

Princetons heavyweight roster has 17 internationals
Harvard’s has 26
Yales has 27

I’ll stop there, you should get the picture.

Coxes virtually never get recruiting support at the top D1s. I know kids currently rowing at multiple T10 programs. I have a friend with. Cox who worked the recruiting hard but everyone was “love to have you but we don’t support coxswains” including multiple ivies. She ended up as a cox in boat 1 at Washington so she was more than good enough.

For your last point you once again might want to check rosters. Maybe more pub kids from the DMV but if that’s the case it’s the exception to the rule.

Three strikes, you’re out.

Unfortunately it's true that generally college coaches won't give one of their precious recruiting spots to a coxswain. However, being a coxswain still looks very good on a college application. It also can help a coxswain get into a good school that they're qualified for but the spot could have gone to someone else.

Not true. We know several who coxed club team at the Thompson Boat Club in Georgetown.

One of these have a giant donation to the college crew team in exchange for coach support for a spot.