Men's Lightweight Rowing Recruitment Chances

Athletic Recruits
1

I am a current sophomore in high school who has been rowing for almost a year now, and I am looking for any advice as to whether I have a serious shot at being recruited to on of the Ivies or a similar college in the next few years. I row in the winter and spring for one of the top scholastic programs in the country that is also an elite prep school. I also row all summer for a club team that rows out of the same boathouse as my school team. I am currently 6 feet tall, but will probably grow 1-2 more inches over the next few years. I weigh around 160, but could probably cut a decent amount of weight if needed, and I am on the heavier side right now because my school doesn’t have a lightweight team so I row with the heavies.

Grades: My GPA isn’t amazing, but my school is known as being extremely rigorous. My freshman year I had a B/B+ in all my classes, with a few As scattered around. According to the advice of older students I have talked to, colleges do take the rigor of my school into account when looking at my school’s applications. After taking a few honors classes last year, I am taking AP Economics this year with also a few other honors classes. Next year I will be taking AP English, Precalculus, AP Chemistry, AP US History, and Honors Spanish IV. My senior year I will be taking AP English, AP Biology, AP Spanish, AP Stats, and AP European History.

Test Scores: I haven’t taken any of the SAT I tests yet because I am only a sophomore, but my school has been commended as having the highest boarding school SAT average in the country, with it being around 2160-70. I would expect my score to be around 2250-2280. After taking freshman biology, I took the SAT subject test in biology in June 2015, and scored a 750, even though I only ended up with a B+ in the class. I will probably take it again after I take AP biology my senior year.

Rowing: My 2k PR is currently a 6:54, but that will certainly drop once I get through a good amount of winter training. My 20 minute test PR is currently 5252 meters, which is just below a 1:55 split. I was a state rowing medalist my freshman year and a Stotesbury/SRAA finalist. My school’s freshman teams are usually not great because we can’t row in the fall or winter and have to do another sport. Our varsity boats, however, are SRAA/Stotesbury medalists almost every year. I also have 2 medals from Club Nationals in the U17 division that I won with my club team this summer. I will be attending the rowing camp at Dartmouth next summer after I compete at Canadian Henley. My school also sends a handful of kids to row at Ivies each year, and our top rowers are always highly recruited. As I said before, I am a lightweight who has to compete with heavyweights, so I am usually put at either bow seat or stroke when in an eight. I also have some sculling experience in singles and quads, if that helps. I also have run cross country the last 2 years and have done moderately well, and will probably continue to do so.

EC’s:
-Eagle Scout
-Cultural Heritage Organization VP
-School newspaper co-editor
-Swim team for 2 years
-Played Guitar for 5 years
-Played Cello in band for last 2 years
-Peer Tutor for last 3 years
-Over 100 hours of community service
-Debate club member
-Planning to do an internship in medicine next summer
-Spanish club president

Would love to row lightweight at any one of the Ivies, but really love Dartmouth the most, with Penn being a close second.
I would love any advice as to what my chances are at being recruited in the next few years. Thanks.

2

Since you are still early in the process i’d say the most important elements to focus on are dropping your 2k score, keeping those grades up and keeping an open mind about ltwt versus HW. You are still growing and a ltwt coach is going to want to look at you closer to end of junior year to make sure the bulk of your growing is done.
You sound very committed and focused and already proactive so that’s a great place to be. Once you are in your junior year you can start filling out online questionnaires for different programs.
Good luck!

3

@tonymom is right. The one thing I would emphasize is, it’s too early even to decide heavy vs. light. Lose weight by eating healthy and exercising, but don’t starve yourself (it will only hurt your erg score!). Especially if you end up 6’ 2" or so, you will have real options.

Also, bear in mind - as someone else wrote, coaches generally want the fastest rowers who meet the school’s admissions criteria. If you’re not over a certain threshold, it may be impossible to get the coaches’ attention unless your AI is perfect, and in that case they are recruiting you along with another guy with a much lower AI, who just rowed on the Jr. National Team.

Finally, I have to ask - your first choice is Dartmouth and your second is Penn? Both are great places, to be sure, but quite different. Keep reading up about schools and specific programs they offer, and think about what would work best for you (small vs. large, rural vs. urban).

Good luck!