My son is going into his junior year at our local public school. He is 6’7" and only just started learning to row at Community Rowing on the Charles River. He runs the 400m and 400m hurdles at a high level and loves track. He has a 3.9 gpa while taking tough classes. He can do 2000m sub-6 minutes on our Concept2 here at home. My question is: is this competitive with what Harvard or Cornell other strong rowing programs at strong academic schools are looking for?
If he is competitive, then how do coaches identify and recruit rowers?
Sorry, his best 2000m time was 6:12.
I would think you’d get a lot of interest with those stats (erg, GPA & height). 6:12 would have been top five for juniors at the CRASH-Bs erg competition, and is below the 6:20 standard for invitation to the US Junior rowing sweep selection camp. (I know for a fact that sub 6:00 will get you into Yale and Harvard with less than stellar academic stats.) College coaches get tipped by high school and club coaches, and do go to junior regattas, but generally you have to be proactive. Fill out recruiting forms for the top schools on their web sites and you will get on their coaches’ radar screens.
The only thing I would add to the detailed information that rennie17 mentioned is that I think it’s smart to look into rowing for college.
The college rowers I’ve known have generally been very tall, like your son, whereas in track 6’7" is more like a thrower than a typical 400m runner . . . not saying your son can’t excel in 400m, just that he seems to fit the physical type of a rower more than a 400m runner.
Rennie and Bluewater, thank you very much for your feedback. He definitely has a rower’s body (but loves the 400m and wants to compete in hept and decathlons this Winter and Spring.) So far, he really likes rowing and if that keeps up then we will fill out those forms and cross our fingers! Thanks again.