<p>My son is interested in participating in crew -- but here in Colorado, we don't do crew (no water!).</p>
<p>Can anyone fill me in on the sport? What kind of kids do well? How competitive is it? Do college recruit for crew? What schools are known for crew? What exactly does the kids do when they crew?</p>
<p>any info would be good to know.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Crew's good if you don't mind getting up at the crack of dawn to practice on cold spring mornings. Lots of kids have a tough time making that commitment after studying all night.</p>
<p>Really? Isn't training and practice done primarily after class, during the afternoon athletic block?</p>
<p>I'd have to say Exeter has one of the strongest Crew Programs. Six boats for both Girls and Boys.</p>
<p>I can see that waking up early would be a bummer, but I have heard the practices are always early. Just wondering -- is there a reason they can't row in the afternoon? I always wondered. Lucky for my son, he is a morning person.</p>
<p>At some schools the novice team may practice in the afternoons, but typically not the varsity team. I've heard of kids throwing in the towel junior year because the practice schedule and meets are just too much when they're trying to do their best academically. Just what I've heard generally speaking.</p>
<p>hsmomstef, what school does your son attend?</p>
<p>The kids who do well are tall and fairly big, especially among boys. Unlike a lot of sports, there are some physical qualities that just can't be made up for in other ways. People who are capable of periods of long concentration tend to do well too. </p>
<p>Andover, Exeter, St. Paul's, Kent, etc all compete in eights. They are all part of NEIRA, which is one of the strongest leagues in the nation. They are also the four prep schools that historically have the strongest crew programs. The programs are extremely competitive, even among team members. </p>
<p>Crew itself consists of rowing. However, much of the winter and fall is spent by rowers training which consists of erging, running, circuits, and lifting. </p>
<p>From the top crew programs, nearly everybody on varsity is recruited. From what I've seen, first boat tends to go to DI (HYP, stanford, etc) and some of second boat goes to DI, some to DIII.</p>
<p>Don't forget the need for some smaller kids for the coxswain positions in the eights. I started out as a cox at my Ivy, but didn't feel I had enough time to pursue practices (in the afternoon for us), as I was a science major and also had labs in the afternoon. Wish I had stuck with it.....Now, my high school in upstate NY has crew (they practice on the Erie Canal), and my niece may start it. So, perhaps I will get the joy of watching, instead of participating.</p>
<p>Also, at the Ivies, there is the lightweight mens and heavyweight mens (I forget what the dividing line for weight is), plus freshman crew, so there are a lot of opportunities. Don't know if they have weight divisions at boarding schools though.</p>
<p>It's a tough sport -- badly blistered hands, throwing up after extreme exertion... I've heard that good rowers are recruitable because not that many schools have crew. At my son's school the top rower was being recruited by almost all the ivies. </p>
<p>Your son can try the novice team and see how he likes it. Crew teams do miss classes because of travel to competitions. My son is leaving for South Carolina for pre-season training, so I get a shorter March break with him. At his school, practice is in the afternoons. However, he did have to get up in the wee hours to go to a regatta with an 8am event. </p>
<p>Read the "Why row" section Blair</a> Academy - Athletics</p>
<p>The larger schools (Andover, Exeter, St. Pauls, Kent, Salisbury, NMH, Choate) row almost exclusively eights. They row against each other and some of the large NE public and parochial schools (who are pretty darn good). </p>
<p>The smaller schools row fours and among the best consistently are Groton, Brooks, Middlesex, Nobles and Gunnery. Blair and Peddie are pretty good too.
Deerfield and Taft are relatively new to the sport and I would expect them to eventually move up to eights. </p>
<p>Height is a natural advantage, but doesn't preclude a good rower from success, at least in high school.</p>
<p>The two biggest spring events are the Founders Cup at Lake Waramaug in CT, hosted by Gunnery (fours) and the NEIRA championships at Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, MA for fours and eights.</p>
<p>Crew is a "glamour" sport at these schools and taken very seriously. Some schools offer the sport in the fall when regatta racing ( longer "Head" type racing) takes place. In the spring, crews race head to head on 1500 meter straight courses. </p>
<p>A good rower must be totally committed to the sport and he or she will pay a price -- blisters, long practices on cold lakes or rivers, and hour after hour lifting, running or rowing on an erg. And all for the pleasure of killing yourself in a 5 or 6 minute race. On the other hand, nothing beats the feeling of victory.</p>
<p>Incidentally, I know of no schools that practice in the morning. College, yes.</p>
<p>Deerfield probably won't move up to eights anytime soon, as the coaches feel that fours, which require greater technical precision to row well, better prepare athletes for college. I'm pretty sure the story is the same at Choate, gunnery, and all the other fours schools.
Almost no school practices in the morning, and most schools have less boats the interested students, so it's very hard to get into the sport after freshman or sophomore year, when you still have potential to mature as an athlete.
Of my graduating class, all but one of the people on varsity were recruited to top colleges, and this seems to be typical of the sport.
The dominant crews changes drastically over time, though the Philip's school tend to do well, and BHS is always the team to beat in the fours division. Several NE teams have placed high nationally in fours over the past 5 years.
The blisters/throwing up/lifestyle concerns tend to come from people familiar but not participating in the sport. Most rowers I know who reach the point where their hands toughen and their lifestyle changes do so voluntarily, and as a rule rowers tend to do better than usual academically.
Another aspect of the sport is summer training. Often the best rowers in the league wind up at the same training camp (junior nationals, ect.), so the entire league gets to know each other, which translates as most rowers wind up attending colleges that compete with one another, and see the same faces over almost their entire rowing careers.</p>
<p>At my child's school, they practice mostly in the afternoon for novice, but also have am practices for varsity. The am practices are not every day.</p>
<p>I would LOVE to try crew next year, are there beggining levels? it doesn't seem like most kids going to these schools will have done crew before.</p>
<p>The tall lanky kid tends to do well at this sport. My S2 rowed for a local club for a year and enjoyed it a lot. This year he is away on a year abroad and rowing a little in Europe.
When we took S1 to Cornell, the crew team was out on the freshmen quad looking for recruits. First they approached Cornell freshman S1, obviously an athlete and muscled up. Then, they asked S2 to come out for crew -- 15 years old, just started the sport, tall and lanky. Disappointed to find he was the wrong kind of freshman!</p>
<p>I row, and it's a great sport. I don't have morning practices, but I may next year. I'm not sure, at the school I go to. However, it is intense. I love it though. Rowers have a running joke- we're proud of our blisters! Even girls, like me, get upset when we DON'T have them because we feel as though we haven't pulled hard enough. Erging is, well, not fun, but it helps your rowing a lot and it is so worth it when you get out on the water.</p>
<p>This has been some really good information! Right now, he is interested in either Lacrosse or Crew -- but hasn't done either. (our local school only offers wrestling and track).</p>
<p>He is a sports type kid -- very team oriented, willing to attend every practice (he is the kid who never misses a track meet or practice). </p>
<p>He is a big kid -- 14 years old right now and 6', 190# -- so not every sport is for him (as you can imagine, he does shot put for track -- not sprinting).</p>
<p>He is a social kid -- not the quiet type, loves the team camraderie, loves to win but not obessive about it (he can lose gracefully). Very supportive of teammates. </p>
<p>We are going to meet with the Lacrosse Coach and the Crew Coach and hopefully watch practices when we go to revisit days.</p>
<p>At 6feet and 190lb. for a freshman, the coaches are going to be all over him. BS coaches are notorious for "recruiting" kids to their team. Your child sounds like he will be popular with many of the coaches.</p>
<p>My sons rowed for 4 years at a public high school in New Jersey. The sport is becoming more popular in the publics but most of the very competitive programs are out of the private schools. In our area, St. Josephs Prep, St. Augustines Prep, Chaminade (Long Island), Thomas Jefferson (No. Virginia) and Mainland (my sons' alma mater) are always contenders at the Stotesbury Regatta in Philadelphia ( largest high school regatta in the nation), as are some public schools in Florida.</p>
<p>The sport demands an incredible committment from the athlete and the athlete's family, both in time and money. At our high school, practices are after school during the week and two-a-days on the weekends in season. Our school does not provide transportation to practices, so until our sons got their drivers' licenses, we were driving back and forth to the boathouse twice a day, four times on weekends. Forget vacations, if you go away over Spring Break, your child will likely lose his/her seat on the boat.</p>
<p>Most colleges have practices in the morning before classes, but I have heard that some schools work around the athletes' schedules ( Yale, I think).</p>
<p>The positives-- your child will develop a physical and mental toughness that is worth every gut-wrenching moment (literally and figuratively). Time management is a lesson learned early on. Despite coming out of a public school program, my sons' boats won bronze medals at Stotesbury, silver medals in Nationals (SRAA) and were New Jersey State Champions.</p>
<p>They received interest from HYP, but did not want to row as lightweights ( which would have meant dropping about 10-15 pounds) and ultimately decided that they did not want to row in college. However, H and I are convinced that their passion for the sport was evident in their college applications and essays and was instrumental in their being admitted ED to their first choice, which does not have a men's varsity crew program!</p>
<p>I am a huge advocate for this sport. Many students who may not have the physical abilities to participate in other sports may find success on the water.</p>
<p>If your child's school does not have a program, see if there are any rowing clubs in your area. Clubs and schools row on rivers, lakes, reservoirs and in our case, back bays.</p>
<p>Wisconsin, Univ. of Washington, Univ. of Colorado at Boulder have all taken rowers from our high school. Boston College, Northeastern, Boston University have great programs in addition to the Ivies.</p>
<p>In addition to the erg, any cardiovascular training is critical. Our sons swam in the off season. Yoga and pilates classes are also making their way into the training programs around here!</p>