Who rows in college?

If you love rowing and want to row through college, there’s a good chance you’ll find a place where you can be happy and fulfill yourself academically, athletically, and personally. As a student-athlete, you have many options, including NCAA Division I, II, and III rowing schools, plus many club programs. If you’re a gifted athlete, you may be recruited to row in college, even if you never rowed in high school. There are also opportunities for light rowers and helmsmen, although their options are more limited.

Choose between Division I, II and III schools

There are many university rowing programs of different abilities. You may want top level competition with the chance to compete for a National Championship or compete in England’s Women’s Henley Regatta, or you may be content to train less frequently and compete at a lower level. Whatever your ability, size or shape, there is a program for you.

There are approximately 140 women’s rowing programs that are supported by the intercollegiate athletic departments of member institutions of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). These are further divided into NCAA Division I, Division II, and Division III programs.

• If you want to compete at the top level, you should start by looking at Division I schools. Competition in Division I is higher than Division II and III, and so are the demands on the athletes.
• Division II and III schools are typically smaller, have a different environment, and offer a different college experience than many Division I colleges.
• Training time in Division II and III schools is much less than in Division I.
• Only Division I and II schools offer rowing scholarships.

Each school is different and has its individual advantages and disadvantages. It is important that you do your research and take a close look at all that a prospective school has to offer you.

light rowers
Much varsity lightweight rowing is done only at the club level, but there are some varsity light programs that are supported by their respective athletic departments. Talented lightweight rowers may be recruited to row at the openweight level at colleges that may not have a supported lightweight team.

Currently the main supported programs are:

• Wisconsin
• Princeton
• stanford
• Harvard (Radcliffe)
• georgetown
• Bucknell has had some good success at the lightweight level recently, but unlike the others listed here, he doesn’t specialize in lightweight rowing, instead recruiting athletes who can also be lightweights.
• Women’s lightweight rowing is not an NCAA sponsored sport, and its annual national championships are held in conjunction with the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) men’s championships, rather than the NCAA women’s championships.

the electronic book Row in College: A Recruiting Guide for Female Student-Athletes contains a neat way to see which college teams compete at lightweight and how they stack up against not only each other, but openweight teams as well.

Lightweight rowers must be under 7:40 for the standard 2k ergometer test to be recruited by one of the top lightweight programs. You still have a very good chance if you have 7:50 with good racing experience and big studios.

During your senior year in high school, you need to make sure your weight is consistently 132 pounds or less, otherwise the best lightweight programs won’t be interested in recruiting you.

coxes
There are opportunities to recruit good helmsmen. Obviously, coaches recruit more rowers than coxswains for their teams, but they are always looking for coxswains with the potential to make a positive impact on their team.

• You must proactively market your skills and demonstrate your assertiveness and leadership qualities as you search for a place at your chosen university.
• Send college coaches your audiotapes, which should demonstrate how you run a practice and how you call both head runs and sprints.
• You should include information from your team’s formal coaching evaluations to help showcase what you can offer a potential college coach.
• Ask your high school coach to recommend coaches at colleges that interest you.
• Make sure your weight is consistently under 115 pounds.

Walkers and not rowers

You don’t have to have rowed in high school to be able to row in college. There are plenty of opportunities for tall, athletic women to participate in most college rowing programs. Good high school athletes can be recruited to row despite having no previous rowing experience. the electronic book Row in College: A Recruiting Guide for Female Student-Athletes contains a link for more information on “college prep” coaching services for non-rowers to be recruited for college rowing.

Row in College: A Recruiting Guide for Female Student-Athletes is a comprehensive guide to the college rank recruiting process for women. It contains most of what you will need to know and the actions you will need to take to be successfully recruited for college rowing.