2017 Commits

Athletic Recruits
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<p>imafan,</p>

<p>I’ve always marvelled at rowing (the precision, strength and teamwork), but I don’t know much about it other than what I’ve heard through sons college friends. You’ve told me everything I need to know about the sport in the context of this topic. Those supply and demand numbers are staggering. Thanks for straightening this out for me.</p>

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<p>Imafan,
First of all I do not want you feel offended. I still believe that rowing is not a highly technical sport but it does not mean that it is easy or anyone can become a successfull rower. My daughter, for example, cannot be a successful rower as she does not have size, strengths and work ethic and would be bored easily. Different sports require different mental and physical traits.
From your experience if the coach selected a rowing walk-on - how much time it will take him to teach this newbie everything he needs to know about how to row? How many actual races this walk-on would need to participate in to become a competent rower? Are there many different situations in the races this walk-on needs to experience for himself in order to reach the Ivy level?</p>

<p>Let’s derail ths thread completely for now. It will go back to normal on Dec. 15 I hope.</p>

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<p>For reference 55.5% of women rowers get scholarships, equestrian is next with 11.92#, hockey with 4.89%, all the way down to basketball .8%, soccer, .85%, and swimming 1.18%.</p>

<p>Take swimming, only 1.18% get scholarships out of 160,881 swimmers. Female rowers 55% out of 2,144 get scholarships.</p>

<p>Chart here <a href=“https://www.ecollegefinder.org/images/infographics/sportsinfographic_full_final.jpg[/url]”>https://www.ecollegefinder.org/images/infographics/sportsinfographic_full_final.jpg&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>

</a></p>

<p>And, according to that page, only just over 1% of Div. I male football players get scholarships!?</p>

<p>No offense, but I don’t think I have ever heard anything so absurd in my life on this subject (on many levels).</p>

<p>I wasn’t going to comment anymore on this line of discussion, but what the heck, I’ll take a bite.</p>

<p>The stated source of that graphic is this report …</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/PR2013.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/PR2013.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>… which lists how many students participate in each sport.</p>

<p>Do a search, the word “scholarship” doesn’t appear in the report … not even once!
So, how in the world, can “ecollegefinder” state what percentage receive athletic scholarships?</p>

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<p>Golffather - the ecollegefinder chart refers to the percentage of hs participants that get college scholarships. If I read your response correctly, you were thinking of the percentage of college athletes that get scholarships. Clearly, that number is higher.</p>

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<p>That ecollegefinder graphic looks completely bogus to me. Men’s rowing - 17.88% receive athletic financial aid? They call it “the best bet for men to earn an athletic scholarship” ???
Uh…last I heard there were zero NCAA D1 men’s rowing scholarships…did I miss something?</p>

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<p>From the NCAA report cited above:</p>

<p>“For the purposes of this report, a participant at an NCAA member
institution is defined as a student who, as of the day of the varsity team’s
first scheduled contest: (a) is listed as a team member; (b) practices with
the varsity team and receives coaching from one or more varsity coaches;
or (c) received athletically-related student aid. Any student who satisfies
one or more of the above criteria is a participant, including a student on
a team the institution designates or defines as junior varsity, freshman, or
novice, or a student who does not play in a scheduled contest, whether for
medical reasons or to preserve eligibility (i.e., a redshirt).”</p>

<p>Thus a student does not need a scholarship to be counted as a participant.</p>

88

<p>I also have to question the rowing numbers of 2,144. Is that scholastic teams only? Or have they counted Junior teams as well? (for non-rowing folks: there are club teams that pull from multiple high schools and there are single high school only teams. Two different national championships. Given the size of the sport, cost, etc, I believe there are more junior rowers than there are scholastic.)</p>

<p>Most or maybe all college publish a break down of their scholarships by team. I have noted that few rowers on Big Ten teams, for example, get full scholarship. Whereas the football team of 70+ kids likely all get full scholarship.</p>

<p>CCDD14: College level rowing has a novice level of competition for the rowers with little/no prior experience. So there is a route for those kids to learn to row and compete, albeit not a national championship level. Most girls teams I’ve looked at have a dedicated novice staff; some teams don’t even practice at the same location much of the time with the varsity, depending on facilities available.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the clarification. It was confusing since it is citing that report.
But, unfortunately for ecollegefinder, their numbers are still bogus.</p>

<p>So, the correct intepretation now of the graphic is that “Fiftyfive and half percent of female high school rowers wind up receiving full Division I athletic scholarships.”</p>

<p>I can tell you: that is false. Very false. Not even close.</p>

<p>If I had to guess, I’d say move the decimal one place over. Maybe it’s around five percent.</p>

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<p>I agree with GolfFather on this one. Rowing is an equity sport with large teams and not all teams are fully funded with the allowed 20 NCAA scholarships. The scholarships available are divided amongst the recruits with most getting no where near a full piece of the pie. I won’t even comment on the technical aspect of the sport, willing to chack that up to the ignorance of the poster. Imafan is quite correct here,</p>

<p>“The math is simple. Rowing is not.”</p>

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<p>“I also have to question the rowing numbers of 2,144”. </p>

<p>I 100% agree! In our NYC suburban area, there are MANY, HUGE, STRONG/RENOWN Club rowings programs which draw from several towns around where they are based and it appears they are not counted in this 2144. In fact, there are virtually NO ‘scholastic/individual high school’ programs here to count in that 2144 yet we are a big, big rowing area. Also think of Boston’s CRI – it’s a club that draws from MANY surorunding towns for the best rowers. And there are scores of these huge clubs in Philly, TX, Cali, etc. I’d venture to guess 2144 is undercounting the current high school rower ~ future college potential rowers pool at a factor of like X 10!</p>

<p>And as to college rowing, sure there is a lot of room for walk-ons at many schools. It’s a great sport to learn any time and compete at a Club or Novice level for the dedicated beginner. HOWEVER, when you are talking about rowing as a ‘hook’ or aid into a D1 Ivy, the caliber of THOSE rowers is in a different league than just any ‘semi-fit kids who doesn’t have rowing skills but probably can pick them up in college’. These top coaches are looking for the top rowers (and scholars) IN THE WORLD – with not only a knack for those “technical skills” and a major committment to intense training YEAR ROUND, but also proven insane erg scores and major medalling race results before they use their precious 2 - 8 slots/Likely Letters a year on the athlete with Admissions. Check out Harvard’s men’s roster – many from international locales, a few tippy top pre-Olympians/Worlds’ medallers from the USA.</p>

<p>That said, if you want to row at any point in your life, there is always somewhere to row – somewhere that will welcome you, teach you. Be it on a club team at school or a great community Club program as a junior or master. It’s a great sport!! Make syou very very fit. Try it – see IF you’re a ‘natural’ or can develop the ‘technical skills’ (balance is key, form, stroke rate, oar technique, scull Vs Sweep, small boat Vs 8s, etc) … and the speed, endurance and dedication to go big Varsity! Good luck and have fun – i do :-)</p>

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<p>Back in the day, my roommate was on the crew team “On the Banls of the Old Raritan.” he got up every morning to run/row after being up to all hours completing our studio projects (LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE MAJORS). </p>

<p>LA and athletics don’t mix wel either, though one of my grad. year classmates played football for RU.</p>

93

<p>Thread has been derailed, albeit by interesting and helpful crew talk…I had noticed earlier that there doesn’t appear to be too many commit/results posts. Wonder why? Perhaps everyone waiting for official admit letters. Not unwise but I would still like to hear about results. I know a bunch of recruits to ivies but will post after I hear official results. Good luck to all waiting!</p>

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<p>Daughter will be rowing LW at BU. Thank god the wait is over :)</p>

95

<p>^^^^ Great news! Congrats.</p>

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<p>Congrats Stalkermama, your daughter is going to love BU!</p>

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<p>stalkermama - congratulations!!! What a relief it is to have the process behind oneself!</p>

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<p>Yayayayay!! Congrats on BU! :)</p>

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<p>YAY!!! see everyone next year at the Head of the Charles!!! If anyone has any ideas what my daughter can do this summer to keep in shape and get stronger.She wanted to do some kind of program. She mentioned GMS ?? Open to ideas… Thanks everyone!</p>

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<p>I know of one rower that had to show up at the school the summer before freshman year in order to do just that.
(It was pretty soon after HS graduation too. I think she was pretty bummed.)
I wonder if that is a common practice or not.</p>