Rowing / crew hook

[Anonymous]

DC National Rowing Club - the top boats all have rowers getting recruited to top schools. Stanford, Duke, MIT, Michigan, Georgetown, Notre Dame, UCLA, Rutgers - not to mention early admission to other schools to row. We are neighbors with a high school boy that rows for them, and they told us that the girls are ranked in the top 10 in the nation. If you look at the early acceptances from the local high schools many of the girls are rowers getting into the top schools.

[Anonymous]

Definitely for women's rowing - not a hook for mens. The girls still need to meet specific benchmarks and do well in races, but there's definitely numerous DMV girls finding this match.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, rowing is a massive hook because all the top universities have programs and yet very few high schools do (as most are not located near a body of water that will allow for training and the boats, etc are expensive).

That said, rowing recruiting has become more competitive and by-in-large the kids getting recruited to the elite colleges these days won the genetic lottery: the 3 girls i know this year (Princeton, Duke, Stanford) are 6'+ and the boys (Stanford, Princeton) are 6'5"+.

Both of my kids have rowed crew for all 4 years of high school, and I can tell you with all confidence, that almost ALL of the high schools around here have a crew team -- although, it's usually not considered a "school sport". Rather it's a "club sport".

Almost all of the schools in MoCo (both public and private) row out of either the Bladensburg Boathouse, in Bladensburg, MD and row on the Anacostia River, or row out of The Anacostia Boathouse and also row on the Anacostia River or the Thompson Boat Center and row on the Potomac.

My kids go to/went to WJ and row/rowed out of the Bladensburg Boathouse, which is only about 30 minutes by bus.
The kids leave on the busses right after school and we pick them up back at the school when the bus returns at 7:30pm.

It's an amazing sport, and it becomes like a really tight family (a very big family, as we have 80-100 rowers on the team every single year at WJ). They train 6 days a week together, all year-round (it's a year-round sport if you chose it to be, but my kids don't train in the winter). Every Friday night, a different parent will hosts the Friday night pasta "carb-up" at their house, and everyone brings something, plus we travel for regattas together almost every weekend, and we have a whole team of parents who travel to the regattas exclusively to feed the kids breakfast and lunch every weekend -- it's super impressive.

You don't have to have THE most athletic kid to row crew, as it's truly a team sport.
They want hard work, dedication and team spirit. Contrary to what people believe, it's actually a leg sport, but an arm sport. So it's OK if your kid has skinny arms, lol.

If your kid wants to play a sport, but doesn't know where to start, but they know they want a team/family environment where they will totally find their tribe (all kinds of kids row crew, they don't fall into one particular demographic) then crew might be for them!

Every school has a "learn to row" week at the beginning of each season (they also invite the incoming 8th graders).
Send your kid to that and let them try it out for a week for free!

They'll make lifelong friends and memories, and I know I don't have to tell you how great it looks on a college application. 😉

PP meant very few schools OVERALL in the whole of the US, not in the DC area where obviously we have multiple rivers. Plus Baltimore. PP's point is still true. And you are rambling.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:By the way, how does one get recruited as a coxswain? Do erg times still matter if you're not going to be rowing?

You should be small and smart and hopefully mouthy/loud.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As an adult, I’d love to learn crew.

Check out Capital Rowing Club on the Anacostia.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't always have to be 6' or even decent athletes....a few petite kids get recruited to be coxswain.

How petite for boys/ men’s crew is petite enough for coxswain?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't always have to be 6' or even decent athletes....a few petite kids get recruited to be coxswain.

How petite for boys/ men’s crew is petite enough for coxswain?

Actually I think girls are more likely to cox for a boys boat than a boy cox for a boys boat. At least it seems that way at the high school level. It’s awesome to see a tiny girl absolutely bossing around 8 huge boys.

[Anonymous]

Word of advice to anyone whose kid is recruited by MIT…do NOT let them drop down to AP Calc AB from AP Calc BC in their senior year. I know someone whose kid did this, and their consultant did not warn them that it would be a deal breaker. He was deferred and just kept thinking he’d get in so did not apply to Ivies either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:A couple nomenclature issues that drive people nuts when it comes to rowing (even parents get some of these wrong):

The sport is rowing. The crew is the team. So your kid does not "row crew" and it is not a "crew team."

Instead, you can say that your kid "rows" or your kid "is a rower." You can also say that your kid is a member of the crew or a member of the rowing team.

THANK YOU!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't always have to be 6' or even decent athletes....a few petite kids get recruited to be coxswain.

How petite for boys/ men’s crew is petite enough for coxswain?

Actually I think girls are more likely to cox for a boys boat than a boy cox for a boys boat. At least it seems that way at the high school level. It’s awesome to see a tiny girl absolutely bossing around 8 huge boys.

High school: A cox can be of either gender for either boat. But there are minimums.

For girls, if you weigh under 110, they will give you a sandbag of the difference.

For boys, it’s 125, also sandbagged if under.

You can weigh more, but coaches really don’t want extra weight that can be avoided.

This info is a few years old. Curious if the rules have changed recently?

[Anonymous]

Do some of the kids in local clubs row in college? Yes, but not all at top schools. Some are admitted to those schools on other merits but do not row at all anymore. I rowed in college and my son rowed at a local club - 6 boys were "recruited" and 4 row now, 2 do not - they decided it was not worth the time and energy at the next level. And of course other boys stopped after graduation and just went off to college.

It also depends what level - if you want to row at a smaller D3, it is more possible than an Ivy or some of the state flagships. Everything is measured - height, weight, 2k erg time, 6k erg time, etc. Two boys row in an ivy program, they are on like the #3 or #4 boat. At the top program, these men and women are physical units - they could have erg times at 5:15-5:30 for a 2k, most high school boys are over 6 minutes to 6:30.

Time in the gym, time on the water, good grades, getting on the radar of the coaches, having the high school club coach advocate - a lot of moving pieces. But the erg times, size and strength don't lie. There are some boats out there with kids who are 5'9" and 160lbs - but the bell curve is pretty clear that over 6' and serious strength that result in a long stroke and low erg times are the trend.

P.S. Don't forget, these schools also have international recruits. You are not just competing locally or from a region. Not in rowing, but Univ of Vermont just won the NCAA soccer title over Marshall - of the 22 players who started the final match, 17 were international.

[Anonymous]

The D1 rowers I know in heavyweight are almost all 6”5+ (closer to a 6”7 average), while lightweight was closer to 6”-6”3. But those lightweight boys were encouraged to do crazy things / starved themselves for weigh in and that always seemed so rough. They spent so much time rowing, I had no idea how they had the energy for classes.

[Anonymous]

How about high stat/top ranked students who row but are middle of the road and not recruited? Does it add any bump at all as an EC? Our DC loves rowing, wouldn’t give it up, it’s taking so much of her time and she wont be recruited. She is top of her class in a top private and I’d rather she skips it or just row at a club once a week (instead of now 5-6 days a week in season) to get more rest. Varsity sport is not mandatory at her school. I understand she loves it but don’t think it’s worth getting less sleep to row so much if there’s no admission upside.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DC National Rowing Club - the top boats all have rowers getting recruited to top schools. Stanford, Duke, MIT, Michigan, Georgetown, Notre Dame, UCLA, Rutgers - not to mention early admission to other schools to row. We are neighbors with a high school boy that rows for them, and they told us that the girls are ranked in the top 10 in the nation. If you look at the early acceptances from the local high schools many of the girls are rowers getting into the top schools.

Yep. Gonzaga HS has had some Olympic rowers. They send many to Ivies

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You don't always have to be 6' or even decent athletes....a few petite kids get recruited to be coxswain.

How petite for boys/ men’s crew is petite enough for coxswain?

Actually I think girls are more likely to cox for a boys boat than a boy cox for a boys boat. At least it seems that way at the high school level. It’s awesome to see a tiny girl absolutely bossing around 8 huge boys.

I'm the PP whose niece was recruited as a cox. This was exactly her. She was the cox on several boys boats during the summer rowing season, and of course on the top boats in her HS. She's super smart, was a great cox, and had several college crew coaches approach her during recruiting season. She had committed to her Ivy by October of her senior year.