My daughter is a HS junior interested in rowing in college, so she has a recruiting profile online and has filled out recruiting questionnaires at several schools.
How intense does the process get over the course of the junior year? I understand coaches are allowed to contact athletes starting today (Sep. 1) - should she be preparing to field calls yet?
Thanks!
She should not wait for them to call her, but should contact them or work through her coaches for good leads.
Thanks. I assumed filling out the recruiting questionnaires was sufficient to start a conversation - I will let her know she needs to do more.
Followup question: what are the recruiting questionnaires for, then, if they don’t get a rower on a coach’s radar?
Should my daughter bother to fill them out? (Some are kind of long.)
She should certainly fill them out. Coaches use them to gain basic knowledge of a rower similar to the BeRecruited site but as mentioned your daughter needs to be proactive and email coaches with updates in erg times and race results.
Thank you!
And about the original question: how intense is the process over the course of junior year?
I realize a certain level of PR may generate more interest, and she will update when appropriate, but apart from that, do things just gradually ramp up as the year goes by?
The 3 female rowers from D’s high school (no high school team, all were on club teams in the area) all signed NLI in Nov of senior year, so I have to assume they all worked on recruiting in junior year and summer of senior year. All went D1, and all to big schools not in our area (Kansas, Kentucky were 2 schools).
It isn’t that the questionnaires aren’t helpful to coaches, but the coach may get a hundred and your daughter wants to stand out. There are some athletes who don’t even have to fill out a questionnaire but are known to the coaches through hs or club coaches, who have won at national competitions, but most kids are just another Sarah from Washington or Emily from Michigan. You want to be THE Sarah or Emily that the coach remembers.
True. She’s from a small scholastic team so she probably will have to work at getting her name out there, so to speak.
Good to know this process could be over by fall of senior year! If she sticks with her current plan to go DI, that is.
What are her stats? The rowing community is very close…small so many junior coaches know their collegiate equivalents and can help get the process going if the athlete is recruitable.
My son’s HS coach started talking to a coach he knew at Brown about my son mid sophomore year. I thought that seemed early but it really isn’t…
Has she approached her coach for advice?
Sub-7:30 for the 2k, around 24:30 for 6k. She hasn’t taken the SAT yet; her PSAT scores are in the 96th-99th percentile.
I believe her coach has talked to a few college coaches on her behalf. All the team’s coaches are volunteers, so I hesitate to ask a lot of them, but he does seem willing to help with recruiting. Come to think of it, it’s probably time to send him the list of schools she’s interested in, in case he has contacts at any of them. Thanks for the suggestion!
If he’s a volunteer then he’s doing it because he loves the sport. I’m sure he’d be happy to help your daughter. Good luck!
My son works with several volunteer coaches and coaches who are only paid a token amount. I am amazed at how eager many of them are to take time to help him beyond their regular coaching duties.
They do it for the love of the sport. Plus if your daughter is looking at doing it in college, she is probably talented, hard working, and shares the passion for her sport that her coaches have. I am guessing they would be thrilled to help her.
They certainly have been so far. One of them said once that he has found the rowing community in general to be welcoming and generous, whether in volunteering to coach or in lending equipment etc., both at regattas and for practice. We are seeing that attitude benefit our daughter, and are really grateful.