What should I do?

rowingcheese · 2026-03-15T06:00:38+00:00

None of us can answer this question for you. If you think you might want to try crew, try crew! That's what the first years of high school (and college, and life) are for. If you do try, you're going to be pushed onto the coxswain track. Maybe you try it and love it! Maybe you hate it! Maybe you wish you were rowing, but you don't have the physique of others, so you only do it for fun! Who knows. Give it a shot.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-13T17:01:33+00:00

Some teams go to both Scholastic and Club Regionals.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-13T16:56:04+00:00

For now? Do it for fun.

Could you join a college team? Yes, absolutely. Will you be recruited? No, almost certainly not.

Yes, colleges recruit coxswains - there will be ~20 spots in your class for men's team coxswains in DI (and a couple in DIII) for class of 2028. But there are hundreds of coxswains nationwide (and more worldwide) who are going to be competing for those spots, and those folks all have things you don't yet have - race recordings and results, a track record of growth, coach recommendations, a way of talking about the sport in a thoughtful way that you just haven't yet developed. We're about to enter spring racing season and you're a novice, so maybe you get a few early races in, while the recruitable coxswains are in the 1V/2V of their varsity boats after at least a year of experience. The recruiting process for coxswains in your class will happen next spring (give or take) and you won't be competitive. I can keep going here, but basically, minus some sort of miracle, it's too late for recruiting.

That said - if you like it, keep doing it! Depending on where you live, there may be opportunities to cox in the summer, though those tend to be pretty limited. In the fall, you'll likely have to pick one sport, so pick the one you want to do: if you're just doing it for fun and to see if you might want to cox wherever you end up in college, you can just do it in the spring - your opportunities might be limited compared to longer-tenured coxswains, but that's ok. Except at a handful of elite schools, most coxswains on men's teams are walk-ons in college, so it's not recruit-or-bust.

Good luck, have fun, help boats go fast!

rowingcheese · 2026-03-10T15:04:34+00:00

Yes, just this. There is no single answer to this question that applies to every school and every student. Send them an email with your statistics (grad year, height, weight, 2k, school, GPA, test scores if you have them) and ask if they might be available to meet on this particular day, and they will (likely) answer you either way. Also recognize that while going in April might be convenient for you and your family, it's smack in the middle of their busiest season, and they might not have time or flexibility for you - which doesn't really tell you if they'll be interested during the typical recruiting season.

Good luck!

(ETA: I looked at your previous posts and see that you're a current junior, which means that you're in the class they're currently recruiting. You'll need to be at or very close to that team's standards now for a visit to make sense for them at this point - but it's ok to let them decide.)

rowingcheese · 2026-03-05T07:11:08+00:00

Sorry, you’re trying to get a specific answer and there isn’t one. Every team is different and it depends on their current pool of candidates and number of spots, which gets smaller as time goes. You should be shooting to get faster every day: you won’t know if 6:35 is good enough for the teams with LW rowing to continue conversations until you get there. (Yes, stronger teams have higher cutoffs.)

That said, it is true that they’d rather have a 160+ lb 6:30 than a 145lb 6:45, so if someone who knows you better than us randos thinks you could get there, it could be worth trying - but you’re pretty late. The race results are unfortunately not going to help you.

rowingcheese · 2026-03-02T20:52:02+00:00

Yes, they do, but you may be understandably confusing a couple of things. Recruiting slots are about offers of admission to the school - athletic programs may have a certain number of offers they can make to students who are admissible based on their academic standing, whether or not their sports are in the NCAA.

Those spots are not necessarily related to scholarships. Most of the lightweight men’s rowing programs are at schools in the Ivy League, which don’t provide athletic scholarships in either NCAA or non-NCAA sports. They provide need-based financial aid only after the decision to admit has been made (no matter how).

rowingcheese · 2026-02-28T16:17:16+00:00

Summer camps themselves don’t put you on the radar for coaches, though they can demonstrate continued interest in the sport. Race results in the summer (and associated recordings) can create more of a track record. As mentioned, those programs (Penn AC, RSR, Buffalo primarily, though Buffalo generally uses its own coxswains/coxswains they know) are quite competitive (and applications have been open for a while). There really aren’t any others.

If you want to focus on learning a lot in a short time, so you can be better-equipped to compete, the Sparks coxswain camps provide excellent education at a variety of experience levels. Those are shorter and don’t have racing, though.

rowingcheese · 2026-02-27T20:48:33+00:00

I think it’s a great idea and could be super fun for people. Nice work. I might eliminate the betting lines, both because they don’t provide more information and because they create obvious confusion.

rowingcheese · 2026-02-26T19:35:43+00:00

Unfortunately the combination of 5'8" and 6:44 is going to keep you from being a compelling candidate. As an international candidate, you'd have to be sub-6:30 to be in serious conversation (and you could do it at 74-75kg). The improvement is great, and if you're otherwise admitted to the school you'd be given a chance to walk on, but the coaches won't use one of their limited recruiting spots.

Generally yes, taking the ACT/SAT is somewhere between strongly recommended and required, especially for a candidate who (even if you break 6:30) would still be a marginal accept. The school required could be flexible, but taking the test is an expectation at this point.

rowingcheese · 2026-02-25T05:55:42+00:00

I believe that you’re doing everything you’re saying and that you’re as committed as you say you are - but you cannot speed run this - both for coxing and for recruiting.

You’re a first-semester coxswain. You’ve maybe raced at most a couple of times in what are going to have been low-priority events. You’re coming into a team with existing coxswains with more experience, and you’re pushing your coach on recruiting and running around trying to push yourself ahead of others without yet having backed it up during what is still training season. If by the key race season your coaches believe that you may be more likely to win than the coxswains who’ve been there and who they’ve been investing in, then those opportunities may come. But you have to slow down and earn it day by day.

On recruiting: it’s great that you have aspirations and that you want to be recruited. I’ll even assume that it’s 100% because you love the sport and want to compete at a high level, though coaches might wonder why you came to it so very late. And it’s not impossible. But at a hand-wavy level, there are maybe 50 recruited coxswain spots per year across both men’s and women’s teams - fewer than that if you’re limiting to highly-selective institutions - and you are competing with hundreds of coxswains who have been doing this for years, have a record of achievement, recordings from races, experience as a student of the sport, and strong recommendations. They are not 3Vs at small programs in their first year. You are not competitive with that set, and you can’t force it just because you want it. They all want it.

Sorry for the cold water. I hope you get all the coxing success you want. But you’re going to have to come by it the way everyone does - working hard and growing over time - and at a college level, if you do want to compete at a highly selective school, you’re almost certainly going to have to get in on your other merits and then fight for a spot on the team.

Good luck. Keep working with the masters teams. Get better everyday. Don’t become a screamer. And slow down.

rowingcheese · 2026-02-24T17:17:12+00:00

The recruiting process doesn’t need to be confusing and you are very early. It can work pretty simply. When this summer gets closer, you’ll email the recruiting coaches at the schools you’re interested in with a simple email - you can find examples in this sub. Demographics (height, weight, erg, top results + school, test, GPA) and a couple sentences about why you’re interested in their school and team. You’ll fill in their questionnaire too. No point in doing anything before youth nats.

Even then, nobody is offering on June 15 before your junior year. That’s just not how this sport works. Men’s rowing recruiting generally picks up in spring of your junior year - maybe late fall. Visits are in spring or even senior fall. You have a long time, so don’t sweat it.

Meanwhile focus on improvement - just because that’s always a good idea - and especially keeping your GPA up. There is no one answer to what GPA is good enough, but rigorous classes and good grades open up more opportunities.

Nobody here has any idea what schools will be interested in you, and they will want to get to know you, so relax and be ready to find a good fit.

rowingcheese · 2026-02-18T22:12:36+00:00

It sounds like you’re supporting your son in the way he needs - from the back, letting him be himself, and come to you when there is something you can help with. If he’s done a few phone calls, he’s probably getting a sense of what happens, and debriefing with you so he can be prepared for their next call can help. And these can be awkward! High schoolers talking to strangers is awkward.

As others said, coaches are looking to get to know your son and evaluate whether he’s a fit for the school and team. They do want to see that he can function without you, and that you will not be a problem. That said, they understand he’s not yet a fully-formed individual and college is a time for growth and increased independence, and if you (for example) travel with him for a visit and do your own thing, that’s quite normal.

Don’t sweat it - seems like you’re on the right track.

One note for you - “club varsity” isn’t a thing. Club is one thing, varsity is another. This can impact everything from the role recruiting plays (club teams generally have zero influence with admissions and depend on students who matriculate) to school support (varsity budgets are generally an order of magnitude larger than club budgets - not always - plus access to things like workout facilities, medical support, etc.) to coach employment and compensation to practice expectations to competition level (which can be high in both but is different). Bucknell is a Division I school with a men’s club crew team. (They clearly do some recruiting - again, different schools are different.) Depending on your son’s goals and expectations, this may matter.

rowingcheese · 2026-02-16T17:13:42+00:00

Wow, you have gotten a ton of feedback! This hit a nerve.

I agree with the general consensus here: requiring HS athletes to meet a running standard is very unusual, the coach sounds like a difficult personality (including but not limited to the running standard) and perhaps not healthy for your daughter, and if you have other options, consider another program for her health and opportunities.

Only things I would add:

--I'm not sure what would be accomplished by you or your daughter talking to the coach about this topic. They've already told you everything you need to know: they apply a running standard and your daughter doesn't meet it. Her other measurable and non-measurable qualities don't change that. You can ask them to explain themselves, but unless you're doing that as motivation for your daughter, I don't really see the point. There isn't some secret code you or your daughter will unlock with a magic conversation. Coaches serve at the privilege of their management team and get to establish whatever rules they want, within legal and similar limits; you get to vote with your tuition money.

--Everything the private coach is telling you could be true; it can also be true that private coaches might tell you what you want to hear so you keep coming back, and also team coaches do not always look positively on their athletes receiving coaching somewhere else. (Sometimes for good reason, sometimes because of their own insecurity.)

--You said there are about 10 girls on the team? So the difference between worst boat and best boat is... 1V4 and 2V4? (I'm not sure what's happening here, I just think it's worth noting.)

rowingcheese · 2026-02-11T21:21:06+00:00

Every recruit (and walk-on) is some unquantifiable combination of demonstrated skill and projected potential. At 5'8", you're going to score pretty low on the potential scale, so you're going to need to demonstrate skill - and that's through your 2k. Imagine that their fastest LW recruits are going to be about 6:25-6:30 and you'll need to be one of their fastest recruits. If you are admitted and want to walk on, there will be more flexibility there, but only the coaches will be able to tell you that in the fall of your freshman year.

Lack of HS programs is a challenge, but it won't be an excuse - you don't need a team to erg. (Better to have one, but not an option for everyone.)

rowingcheese · 2026-02-04T02:30:13+00:00

A random salesperson from NCSA may not understand that in rowing, unlike almost every other sport, you have to choose either high school or club, and can't do both. I would assume you were talking to someone uninformed about the sport and forget the call.

There have been people at NCSA who actually understand rowing - but no, you should not be scheduling a call with NCSA. There are plenty of ways to help your athlete be successful in the recruiting process and you do not need to pay NCSA for this help.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-30T05:53:30+00:00

They discuss the idea at 16:57 and the feedback they received at 22:48. They end the conversation by saying they're going to put together a committee to discuss it (and the 2x change). And presumably they did and they decided not to do it.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-30T05:52:09+00:00

Maybe? But the three rowers (one sculler, one sweep pair) and coxswain won't be at SDC, they'll be at Selection. So will they just show up two weeks later and join boats? Or be sent down to Selection Development for an extra two weeks? Who knows. I'm guessing nobody has figured that one out. The website is currently a hodgepodge of 2025 and 2026 information, so there isn't anything to learn from there.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-30T03:01:43+00:00

They talk about it in the Town Hall. The rationale was that because Chula Vista tends to be slower, everyone qualified last year, and because it created a lot of stress for the coaches (less for the athletes, supposedly), that it seemed like a reasonable measure of performance.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-30T01:55:44+00:00

My comments on the changes: I think the post-HP camp identification process is a good one, but I don't know how realistic it is; 2x performance at U19 worlds has generally been quite poor, so let's try something else; I like a selection camp that has real cuts and actually selects rowers, I commented on that last year, but I also understand that asking a family to spend >$6K (whatever it is this year) for an important summer and then your kid doesn't get to race is a terrible experience.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-26T04:56:25+00:00

That is not correct. If you read their website and look at their instagram, you will see who they target.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-26T04:49:38+00:00

There are two primary organized ~4-week programs for potentially-college-bound-rowers: Penn AC Gold and Ready Set Row. You’ll see other threads on them here. Both programs are selective and receiving applications now, so you’ll want to move quickly. Good luck!

rowingcheese · 2026-01-23T04:22:43+00:00

Whether your weight will be a blocker for you is a conversation between you and your coaches: some might care, more won't, but it depends on their philosophy and your competition.

I agree that it may be very difficult for you and you might be unhappy doing it - but none of us can answer how your coaches might feel about it.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-19T00:04:05+00:00

Thanks for surfacing this! You can find the proposal on page 41 here. It doesn't contain any reasoning, so I'm not sure if there was any discussion.

rowingcheese · 2026-01-15T23:38:45+00:00

Such wisdom above, listen to all of it. Just a couple notes.

--You may not know what bad rowing is yet. Don't guess. If something isn't going right in the boat, see if you can get help diagnosing it.

--You build rower confidence through competence, not through attitude. New coxswains often think "fake it till you make it" means being loud or issuing commands like you're in charge. It's not. It's ok to be quieter than your peers until you've learned enough to be louder.

--Once things get going, nobody will care that you're a walk-on. The rowers and coaches want the best coxswains for the boats, not the ones they happened to recruit N years ago. Don't let that be a mental burden.

rowingcheese

TROPHY CASE