<p>that sounds great – now to figure out my son’s summer plans! (hard to get much rowing practice in Colorado)</p>
<p>A friendd of our student is heavily into this–and looks at the Jr National times for a baseline. Try their site at USRowing for more info. They divide the kids into heavyweights and lightweights–I believe 190 makes your student a heavyweight–and shooting fo 6:20 is reasonable for Jr Nationals and top recruiting…
Check the stats for more info
Hope that helps.</p>
<p>Thanks fogfog! I will take a look at the Jr National times – my son is getting very “psyched” about crew. He has big plans – hope it comes together for him. I only wish he hadn’t been injured last year and lost the freshman season. He seems to be coming in a bit late to the game. He is definitely a heavyweight – think the build of a linebacker (football was the cause of the shoulder injury). He wouldn’t be healthy at the weight of a lightweight.</p>
<p>We located a coach in Colorado that he can work with this summer – I hope it helps.</p>
<p>Do keep in mind - JRNT times are exceptionally strong. You don’t need those times to be recruited! I know a lot of people that get recruited at they are 8+ seconds above those minimums. For most rowers, if you just ask the coach they can give you the erg scores they generally recruit, and where they want you to be. (However, being at the JRNT Dev. times or lower is a huge plus and you are that much more attractive.)</p>
<p>Edit: Also! I didn’t go to CRASH-B’s and am being recruited - its not an end-all be all. Most people don’t PR there anyway. With the online forms, I sent personal emails first then filled the forms out. In some cases, the coaches didn’t want me to fill them out because they already had all of my information.</p>
<p>frosty6 - -good info, thanks! My son goes to school just a couple of hours from Boston, so I think he can make Crash B’s without too many issues.</p>
<p>Are you a junior or senior? When does the recruiting begin for crew? He should do regatta this fall, but i am not certain what info you give coaches and when.</p>
<p>for top tier recruits in most sports recruiting starts early their junior year, and is in full swing by May of their junior year. this is true for the rowers we know as well. and my understanding is anyone (any weight) can row open-weight, and height and leg strength is most important for rowers</p>
<p>^^^pacheight is correct. Our student started her recruiting process around October of her junior year - she is close to ending her junior year now, and the process is going quickly for her…and of course, will change in more ways after 1st July (when coaches can actually phone her). She is receiving Official Invites for the autumn now. Height, weight and erg scores appear to be the trifecta … Good luck hsmomstef! It is great that your son is so revved up for this sport - driving passion for the sport seems to be the common bond for rowers!</p>
<p>if recruiting starts early in junior year, where do we begin?</p>
<p>He just started crew this spring (sophomore year) – so he rowed in the novice boat. Obviously we know his height and weight (6’1", 190#). He has an erg score (6:56).</p>
<p>If all goes well, he will row this fall (regatta) on varsity and he will hopefully have a solid erg score (~6:45). </p>
<p>Should he contact coaches/fill out online forms in the fall? If so, when? Should he wait until he has a certain erg score or has competed in certain races? </p>
<p>It seems to me like he isn’t really “recruitable” in the fall – aren’t his scores, etc pretty standard? </p>
<p>He plans to work hard and continue to improve all next year – hopefully getting the erg score to a sub 6:30 by spring. Do we just update coaches as the year goes on?</p>
<p>We are going to start exploring school possibilities this summer – right now he has Cornell, Dartmouth, Georgetown, US Merchant Marine Academy, US Coast Guard and US Naval Academy on his radar.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help so far – you guys have been great!</p>
<p>p.s. – if height, weight and erg scores are the “Trifecta”, what are the coaches looking for? at what point is a kid “recruitable”.</p>
<p>Another question – my son is thinking he wants to attend a school where crew is a varsity sport. How do we figure out what schools have the type of crew program that would interest him? he wants a program that has solid school support, several boats, a serious competitive program, etc. </p>
<p>I know some of the big names (ivies, georgetown) but what other schools are there with similar programs?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>I think there’s a list of men’s D1 rowing schools on the rowing magazine sites. You can figure all the ivy’s andf most of the big football schools will have D1 rowing.</p>
<p>I also, think for men’s open weight division 1 rowing, the erg score is everything. Especially if your son will not have the time to win races before his senior year or his team/club doesn’t win much. A lot of these coaches just want athletes with the speed or strength, they’ll train them with “proper:” technique in college…many college coaches don’t think much of junior coaches, often for good reason.</p>
<p>ok – good info. I thought that alot of D1 schools just had varsity for women? I found a long, long list – but most of the teams seem to just be club sports without the intensity he is looking for.</p>
<p>hsmomstef: I should point out that I know nothing about men’s crew - just women’s, so there may be some big differences that I don’t know of!
First of all, regarding schools - ivies, Georgetown, MIT, Stanford, some big state schools - and then places like Boston College, Duke, U. of Miami, etc. for Div. 1 - but check that these non-ivies have mens crew - not all schools have both mens and women’s programs.</p>
<p>Your son’s SATs and GPA will affect where he is recruitable, along with the aforementioned elements of height, weight, erg score. For the ivies, he will need to meet the Academic Index, and other schools will have their own admissions guidelines that he will have to meet. Pacheight is correct that many coaches are looking for potential. They know where they want/need their recruits to be before they can/will use “slots” for them, but where you are as a junior or senior is nowhere close to where you will be under their coaching as a college junior or senior…Coaches are pretty open about what they need/expect from you to be recruited. Honestly, just ask, and you will likely get candid answers. We haven’t felt that anyone wants to waste anyone else’s time.</p>
<p>My athlete also did not start rowing until her sophomore year. The vast majority of her novice season was spent in first boat - she was so lucky that the coach saw her potential, and had her as a novice in a boat with ivy-recruited senior athletes. The bar was set high for her, and her coach knew how she would respond to that challenge! She wrote letters to coaches of schools she was interested in during October of her junior fall, stating her erg score at that time, her rowing accomplishments at that time, and her academic standings and achievements. Then, as the year has progressed, along with lower erg scores, significant rowing and academic achievements, etc., she has updated coaches - developed rapports with several coaches, unofficial visits, etc.<br>
It is a bit of a natural evolution, we have felt. She is looking for the same things as your son: a D1 with strong academics, solid school support and a serious competitive program.</p>
<p>We are learning it all as we go along - NO experts in our household, but this has been our experience so far - who knows how it will all end? Good luck!!</p>
<p>Thanks – I found a list of the rankings of Men’s 8 Heavyweight (I think that is the term) for this spring. I figured that the top 30 or so schools would have a solid program. does that seem like a reasonable assumption? should we look at top 40?</p>
<p>I am just trying to get a list of schools to start looking at – I can’t research hundreds!</p>
<p>His GPA and test scores aren’t going to get him into Harvard and Princeton – I got a chance to look at the Naviance data from his school to give me an idea. He should be in the general range for Dartmouth, Cornell and several others. </p>
<p>I guess we will see how he does this summer at rowing camp and how the fall season starts off before he contacts coaches. Seems like he needs something to say other than “I really like crew”.</p>
<p>^^^You are at the right place to find information though. This forum offers a wealth of knowledge, with so many participants who have so much personal experience. In so many ways, you will learn so much just asking questions and reading the posts here! It has been an invaluable source for me :)</p>
<p>hsmomstef - I am a junior right now - so in the middle of everything! My process started this fall, though my coach said that anytime from Oct. to Feb. would have been fine.</p>
<p>Your son’s height and weight are the norm for big DI men’s rowers - so that’s a good thing! If you match with a lot of people on the roster, you’re probably what they’re looking for. Erg score wise… It would be great if he could drop it some more. Around a 6:30 would be good for his size… that would be a goal erg score. I’m an openweight, so my erg score should be about a minute slower than a heavyweight boy and I started this process slightly under a 7:40. Now I’m well under 7:30, and, from experience, the lower your erg score the friendlier the coaches. So, you don’t need to start the process with a great erg, but you should keep PRing so the coaches know that you haven’t hit a plateau (no pressure, right?). </p>
<p>With the letters, you do need something other than just that you love the sport. Academic awards, athletics, etc. should go in. Also - my first draft was almost a page long, and my coach cut it down to a little less than half a page. Keep in mind that coaches have nothing invested in you when they get your first email, so short and sweet is the way to go. His passion for rowing should come out in other emails, and in un-offical visits. </p>
<p>Finally - I don’t know about your son, but I wouldn’t count on a school ranked 30th to be super competitive and serious (however, this does vary from program to program. Also, the higher you go the “crazier” the workouts and practice schedules… possibly more hyper-competitive and cutthroat. Ha - you can tell your son about one Ivy where the women ran to the boathouse and did 4x2k on the erg. He’ll understand). Though this is just me, and I wouldn’t be happy at a school where I would loose to so many other teams. I would aim for higher schools and see what the response is, then move down the rank. </p>
<p>Hope it helps!</p>
<p>Go to the US rowing site and there should be a list of colleges that have varsity men’s heavyweight teams. He is going to need to bring that erg score down significantly to get himself in the running. For my older, HW, S, 6:20 was his goal. That is very fast indeed and when he hit it in the winter of his Junior year, the coaches’ level of interest went up a very significant notch. Frosty6 is right that the Jr National Team times are very strong but if you are looking for a likely letter to an Ivy or Stanford, your S will need to get at least sub-6:30. I know a boy who was recruited with a 6:28 (official visits to Brown/Columbia etc) but without super-strong academics, all the Ivies eventually looked the other way and he ended up at Cal. (Note to all those who feel that Official Visits are a guarantee of any sort.)</p>
<p>hsmomstef, if your S wants to be in a truly competitive program, don’t go below Top 20.</p>
<p>ok – I did some research. These are the top 20 (or so) men’s heavyweight crew programs (in no particular order):</p>
<p>Boston University
Brown
Columbia University
Cornell
Dartmouth
Florida Institute of Technology
Georgetown
Harvard
Jacksonville
Marist
Navy
Northeastern University
Oregon State
Princeton
Stanford
Syracuse
Temple
University of California, Berkeley
University of Pennsylvania
University of Wisconsin
Washington State University
Yale</p>
<p>Am I missing any?</p>
<p>My son’s stats are not going to be good enough to get him into Harvard/Princeton/Yale (unless a crew recruit can get by with a low academic index – from what I have read, this isn’t the case for crew).</p>
<p>I have access to the Naviance data (median GPA and SAT scores for accepted students) for his school. I will be looking at the data to see which of the schools he would be academically competitive for. I think we have to count out quite a few of the top 20 – can anyone tell me which of the schools on the above list give kids a bump if they are recruited for crew? that would help!</p>
<p>Uh, well University of Washington has the best team in the country, but then again their V8 is over half German or Canadian.</p>
<p>This is the most recent top 20 ranking: [Rowing</a> and Sculling for Rowers and Scullers - row2k.com](<a href=“Washington Tops Men’s Poll; Wisconsin and Princeton Top Lightweight Polls (5/19/2010) | row2k.com”>Washington Tops Men’s Poll; Wisconsin and Princeton Top Lightweight Polls (5/19/2010) | row2k.com)</p>
<p>note: WSU is quite good but they are a club team, bot sure if thats what your looking for.</p>
<p>hsmomstef, don’t throw out the most academically selective schools yet. So much depends on how much the coach wants the athlete. Naviance won’t take athletics into account. If your GC has been there a while, maybe he can look at the data with you, and point to recuited athletes on the Naviance charts. Your son’s GPA is pretty well fixed at this point, but any chance he is motivated enough to take the ACT, or retake the SAT with some prep? That would open some doors…</p>