Category: Recruiting

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

I am a senior in high school and have only been rowing for about 8 months. I was wondering if I should fill out the recruiting questionnaires if I plan on walking on to a rowing team next year.

I wouldn’t. You haven’t been rowing for that long and unless your erg times are holy-shit-unbelievable then there’s not much to be gained from it. If you’re planning on walking on then just wait until you get to campus and find out when the walk-on meeting is or email the coach some time during the spring/summer and say that you’re an incoming freshman, you’ve rowed for a year, and are interested in walking on, can they give you some details about the program, etc.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

Hi! So I live in New Zealand and I’ve had an email from a coach in the US saying she’s coming to NZ next week and wants to come and see me row. Any tips for what to talk about? I don’t really know much about the whole process and I don’t want to come off too eager/not interested. How will I tell if she is interested in recruiting me? Thanks so much!!

That’s pretty awesome, congrats! Check out the list of questions to ask prospective coaches in the post linked below. There’s some good ones in there that pretty much cover all your bases as far as recruiting, academics, the program itself, etc. goes. Obviously you don’t have to ask them all of those questions but pick out maybe 5-7 or so and keep them on hand for whenever you’ve actually got some time to talk one-on-one. If you don’t have much time to talk with one another ask if it’s OK if you send an email within the next couple of days with some questions that you have and then just write out whatever they are in a brief, bullet-pointed email maybe a day or two later.

Related: What questions should you ask during the recruiting process?

Also check out the post linked below on how to respond to a coach that asks “what should I know about you”, “tell me about yourself”, etc. That’d be one of the first questions that I’d ask a recruit (and it’s something I’ve been asked on nearly every worthwhile job interview I’ve had) so it’s always good to have something prepared just in case.

Related: When a coach asks “What should I know about you?” or “Tell me what me about yourself.”, what should you say? I was asked this question and completely froze because I had no idea how to respond. Please help! I want to be prepared next time.

As far as coming off too eager or not interested … just be cool. She’s a coach, not a foreign dignitary. Just be polite and act like you always do (aka a normal person). I imagine that if she’s interested in you then she’ll let you know at some point in the future but if it’s really bugging you to know then I don’t see why it’d be a big deal to ask where you stand next to the other rowers she’s looked at. I would probably save that for your follow-up email though just to give her some time to actually process what she saw in practice.

Related: I went on an official visit about two weeks ago. I am very interested in this school but I am still looking at some other schools (that don’t have rowing). I want to keep up a relationship with this school but I’m not sure what to say in an email to them. Thanks!

There are a lot of really great questions in the recruiting tag that cover pretty much everything you’d wanna know and some things you didn’t know you wanted to know so if/when you’ve got time, definitely try to spend some time reading through them.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

I chose not to go through the recruiting process but I am interested in walking on to a team next fall. I am still deciding between a couple schools and I was wondering if it would it be worth it to email the coaches about walking on? Thanks for everything you do!

It’s always worth it to email the coaches ahead of time but don’t feel like you have to if you’ve got a lot going on right now and don’t have time. The teams almost always have a table at the student activities fair at the beginning of the year where they sign people up who are interested in walking on so if you just want to wait until you get to campus, that’s an option too.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

Hi! I’m a high school junior and I’m fairly certain I want to row DIII in college. When does it make sense to fill out recruitment forms? I’m going to visit a college I’m potentially interested in in about a month and I was thinking of filling out their form and maybe sending the coach an email but I’m not sure if I’m serious about the school yet and I don’t want to waste their time. Thank you!

Now would definitely be a great time to fill out the recruiting forms, especially since you’re going to visit some schools soon. I would also send an email to the coaches at the schools you’re looking at, just indicating your interest and that you’ll be on campus, would it be possible to connect while you’re in town, etc. That way you can get some information on the program while looking at the school and save yourself some time down the road (when you’ll likely be busier with school, SATs/ACTs, etc.) if you decide that you actually are interested in applying here. I only applied to a small handful of schools (like, three I think…) but I emailed several coaches beforehand just to get info on their programs so that I could look at all of the athletics and academics at the same time. I did this while I was still considering a larger range of schools and like I said, ultimately it just saved me a lot of time in the end.

Related: I’m a junior starting to look into the recruiting process. What would a good first email to a coach be formatted as? What should I include? How long should it be?

It’s not really a waste of anyone’s time unless you’re leading them on by saying you’re interested when you’re really not (that goes for coaches when talking to prospective athletes too). You’re not at that point yet though so there’s nothing wrong with reaching out and introducing yourself, especially since you’re just at the beginning of the wonderful process that is applying to college. If you decide the school’s not for you, that’s cool –  as coaches I think we’d all rather you come to that conclusion sooner rather than later anyways (more for your benefit than ours too, to be honest).

How to recruit coxswains

College Coxing How To Recruiting

How to recruit coxswains

It’s that time of year again when teams are looking to recruit new walk-on rowers and coxswains. Advertising rowing itself tends to be fairly easy but coxing? Well, not so much. The simplest way to explain how to approach advertising coxswains is that you kinda have to have a “live by the sword, die by the sword” mentality going into it – the type of flier you create and the way you describe the team and the roles you’re looking to fill is going to dictate the type of people that show up to the meeting and that can either be a great thing or a really bad thing.

Trust me, I love a humorous advertisement as much as the next person but with coxing I feel like there’s a fine line that you have to avoid crossing if you don’t want to attract the wrong type of people (you know who I mean). For example, don’t say this:

“Are you small? Do you like telling people what to do? Are you obstinate, arrogant, and ruthless? Join us and we’ll treat you like a god.”

We all joke about coxswains having Napoleon complexes but have you ever actually met a coxswain that acts like that? If you have then you know it’s not a good thing so why would you create fliers asking for that kind of person to join your team, even if you’re just trying to be witty and humorous?

Here’s a couple tips for attracting coxswains to your program (and keeping them there):

Don’t try to reel people in just because you win a lot of races or anticipate winning a lot this year.

Winning isn’t everything. I mean yea, it’s cool, yaaay medals, but hopefully you’ve got a lot more to draw people in than just “we won more races this year than last year”. If that was the only thing you could offer me as to why I should join or continue I’d probably say “pass” and join something else.

Treat them like an athlete rather than part of the furniture

A Redditor said this and I cannot stress it enough. You’re likely pointing out all the things the rowers will get out of this (i.e. getting in shape, receiving stellar coaching from Coach McAwesome, etc.) but what can the coxswains expect to get?

Advertise something that gets to the core of what coxing is (such as leadership training, for example) and note that they too will receive excellent one-on-one coaching from whoever on your team is most well-versed in all things coxing (if you don’t have someone, a) hello get or train someone and b) come on, we’ve talked about this). Things like opportunities to learn about coaching via weekly rides in the launch with your coach or something like that could also be enticing.

Basically you want to make sure the people interested in coxing feel like they’re going to given the same amount of attention as the rowers, in addition to being valued just as much as the rowers.

Say what a coxswain is without being cliche or dumb

Things like “loud”, “short”, “like telling people what to do”, “chief motivator” (yea, I actually saw that once…), etc. are pretty “blech”. Most of you are in college so your vocabulary should be a bit more expansive than that. Consider getting a coxswain’s input on what they feel the most important qualities are for someone who wants to try it out and go from there. You can definitely say that a coxswain is someone who is a leader or wants to develop better leadership skills but be prepared to detail what kind of leader they are and the expectations your team has for anyone considering undertaking that role.

Follow through with what you advertise

This is probably the most important thing you can do if you want to retain the people you get to come out this fall. At your first interest meeting, make sure you spend an equal amount of time talking to the prospective coxswains as you do the prospective rowers. If you’re going to advertise that coxswains are equally important members of the crew, make sure you stand by that right from the start.

Here’s an example of a flier I made last week when I was talking with someone who asked for feedback on one they were making to try and attract new coxswains. I’m not saying its perfect or what every poster has to look like but it’s an example of something you could do if you’re struggling to get people to consider trying coxing.

Remember, the key to a good flyer is to have just enough white space to keep it from looking too crowded but not so much that the page is practically empty. Keep everything concise and to the point (just like a coxswain would!) but make sure you get across the important details too. You also want to have something that’s visually appealing so that it’ll catch their eye and make them want to read the rest of what’s on the page, hence the text on the photo.

When it comes to posting them around campus or handing them out, consider putting them up in strategic places rather than randomly up on a board in the student center where they’ll just blend in with all the other club sport, “roommates wanted”, off-campus bookstore, and 2-for-1 beer crawl posters. For example, think of the majors that require the students to possess strong leadership qualities or that aim to enhance them (business, political science, etc.) and post some near that department’s office.

If you know of any leadership organizations on campus, email their president and see if you could make a quick presentation at the beginning of their next meeting. Let them know the type of student you’re looking for and why you think their members might also be interested in coxing. Make it mutually beneficial and invite them to give one at your first team meeting too. At the beginning of the year I remember always having team and club presidents pitch their activities at the start of class and the ones that I was always the most interested in were the ones that actually put effort into learning/knowing who their audience was.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

I am going on an official visit in the next couple months. The only thing I’m worried about is my guide. I am a really shy person and I have heard of people being taken to parties and I really don’t want to end up in that situation.

Eh, just be up front and say you’re not really into partying, what other cool things around campus can they show you? If you get a weird vibe from whoever you’re staying with just because you said you don’t want to go out then that should probably tell you something about what the people on the team are like. The key though is to not be a prude about it, regardless of your personal feelings/upbringing, and act like you’re above going out or whatever. I and I’m sure plenty of other people would be totally cool with someone saying they don’t want to go to a party but if you act like you’re better than us just because you said no then that’s not exactly going to put you in a favorable light.

Bottom line, it’s up to you to speak up and say “no thanks” if you don’t want to do something. You’re a big kid now so use your words. Do some research ahead of time and see if there’s anything happening on campus or around town while you’re there that you could go check out. Then you can either suggest that immediately or propose it as an alternative if going to a party gets brought up first.

Personally, this is what I think: I’m not going to begrudge anyone who wants to go out and have a good time while they’re on campus (and away from their parents) but this official visit is your chance to see the school through the eyes of someone who actually goes there. You might as well take advantage of that while you can. There will be plenty of opportunities to drink shitty beer in dingy frat house basements once you’re actually in school.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

My coach mentioned that the NCAA recently changed its rules about when you could contact college coaches from after your junior year to after your sophomore year. Do you know anything about this? All I could find was about basketball. Anyways, any information would be great. Thanks!

The NCAA did change their rules but on the men’s side, the IRA coaches voted to stick with the original rules that said no calls before July 1st of your senior year. You can read about that here. As far as what the women’s side is doing, I’m going to assume that they’re following the new rules since I haven’t seen anything that says otherwise. The men opted out because they’re not part of the NCAA even though the IRA has adopted and follows the majority of their rules.

Also, just to clarify from what you said, it’s when they can contact you, not the other way around.

Here’s what the proposal says. This was taken from the NCAA’s PowerPoint since it’s more concise but if you want to read it in full legalese click here and scroll down to page 18, towards the bottom of the page where it says “No. 2013-26 RECRUITING”.

From what I can gather, for you guys it means you’ll probably need to decide earlier than usual whether or not you want to pursue rowing in college, in addition to having an idea of where you want to go.

For the most part though I can’t imagine that that many programs are going to drastically change how they do things. Smaller programs might try to go after potential recruits a little earlier to try and get ahead of the game but that’s about it. The fall is most likely still gonna be about getting early-decision seniors to sign their NLIs during the early-signing period but where things might start to change going forward is in the spring. If you show a lot of potential as a junior then you might get a call whereas you otherwise wouldn’t have gotten one for a few more months but for the majority of people things will probably stay the same as they are now.

College Q&A Recruiting Teammates & Coaches

Question of the Day

How involved should my coach be in the recruiting process? I know it sounds bad but I haven’t really talked to him at all about this.

Eh, I think they should be as involved as you want them to be. In theory they’d at least know that you’re looking to row in college since a lot of the initial recruiting questionnaires will ask for their contact info. It’s also helpful to have them know what your plans are so that they aren’t totally blindsided if/when you ask them to write you a letter of recommendation.

Related: Letters of Recommendation

If you have a good relationship with your coach then involving them in the process can only help you, especially if they’ve been coaching for awhile or happen to know people in the rowing community. I was pretty close with my two coaches in high school and they were both really helpful when I was looking at colleges. Both knew all the coaches at the schools I was applying to, which was a huge help because they were able to tell me a bit about them before I actually met them, in addition to talking to them on my behalf.

Related: So I’ve noticed that most recruiting questionnaires ask for your coach’s phone/email. What do college coaches who are talking to your high school coach ask about? I’m not nervous about it cause my coach and I have always had a good relationship, I was just curious.

If you don’t have a close relationship with your coach or there’s been a lot of turnover to the point where you haven’t consistently had the same coach for at least two years then I wouldn’t worry about involving them beyond saying “hey, so I’m looking at these schools and was asked to include your contact info on the recruiting forms I filled out”.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

When a coach asks “What should I know about you?” or “Tell me what me about yourself.”, what should you say? I was asked this question and completely froze because I had no idea how to respond. Please help! I want to be prepared next time.

Ugh, this question. I’ve frozen too when I’ve been asked this and in that nanosecond before I start bullshitting my way through answering it I question why such a simple question has to be so annoyingly difficult. It gets easier though once you’ve actually thought about it and have it in your head what you want to say.

Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten on how to answer this question came from a coach that I was riding along with one day during Harvard’s summer camp. She said that you should always aim to keep your answer around two minutes long, give or take, because anything less typically isn’t enough and anything more is too much. Since you’re talking to a college coach they’re going to care about two main things – academics and rowing – so those should be the two things you focus on. Ideally you should sit down and think about your accomplishments and essentially put together an outline or a script of how you want to answer this question.

From there you can practice it (with a friend, sibling, parent, your friendly neighborhood blogger, etc.) and get feedback on how it sounds. Obviously you don’t want it to sound rehearsed or like you’re reading from a script so practicing it in a conversational tone with the standard ebbs and flows is important. Actually speaking the words is important too because what you read and say in your head rarely ever comes out the same when you say it out loud.

Here’s an example (this isn’t based on anything/anyone in particular, it’s just what I came up with on the spot):

“I’ve been a member of the _____ team for the last three years and this past year was elected captain, which was the first time in ___ years that a junior was nominated for that position. This spring I rowed 6-seat in the lightweight 8+ that won the Southwest Regionals and placed 2nd in the A final at Youth Nationals. Those were the highest finishes our light 8+ has had at those regattas in ___ years so it was exciting to be a part of that. I also competed at CRASH-Bs in February and finished with a time of ____ which put me in the top 10 for the junior women’s lightweight category. At school I’ll be taking four AP classes this fall in addition to acting as vice-president of the ____ club, which I also helped form last year. My goal is to major in _____, which is one of the reasons why I’m taking AP _____ and _____. I really liked what I read about the program when I was researching schools, particularly about the ___________, so that’s one of the main reasons why I chose to apply here. I was also really impressed with how well the team did at Eastern Sprints and NCAAs this year and how the freshman crews have consistently been in the mix for medals the last couple of years. I’d really like to be able to say that I helped my team win an Eastern Sprints or NCAA title as a freshman so it’s definitely a goal to get a seat in the 1F by the time spring rolls around. I definitely think I’m capable of that too, especially given how much work I’ve put in over the years to get to where I’m at now.”

The key is to highlight your accomplishments and goals while staying concise and to the point. Try to avoid straying into “this is my life story” because that kinda just shows that you haven’t really thought about the question or prepared an answer for it. The only time I’ve mentioned something “biographical” is if it’s something that the two of us have in common, usually in the form of something relating to my hometown or where I went to school. I always try to do a bit of research on the coach(es) before I talk to them and, for example, if I see that they went to Marietta College or coached there at some point then I’ll mention that that’s where I’m originally from and that I rowed out of the boathouse beside MC’s. It’s a great icebreaker and an easy way to transition into whatever I was planning to say.

College Q&A Recruiting

Question of the Day

I was looking at the NCAA rules for recruiting and I was confused by one of them and was hoping you could explain it to me. I am a rising senior so it is now acceptable for the coaches to call me, but I was reading the rules and it said that they could only call you once a week. I had a coach call me but I didn’t have my phone so he left a message. Does that count as the one call for the week? (BTW I tried calling back but he didn’t answer so I left a message.)

So I spent awhile Googling this and, unsurprisingly, found very little useful information. I even went through the NCAA D1 manual (a 432 page convoluted monstrosity…) and couldn’t find anything. The one thing I did find though is from an article posted on AthleticScholarships.net back in 2013 about phone call violations reported to the NCAA by Iowa State. Here’s the full article if you want to read it but the part most relevant to your situation says “calls where you do not reach a recruit, which could be a voicemail or someone else picking up the phone, do not count against the numerical limits on phone calls”. Also “The NCAA requires that voicemails, failures to reach the recruit, and dropped calls be supported with “contemporaneous documentation.” That means that in the moment or shortly thereafter, the coach must record why the call should not count.

The thing you’ve gotta realize about the NCAA is that they’ve got coaches on very, very short leashes. I’m pretty sure if they could hand out three year post-season bans simply for not sending them a Christmas card, they would. So while leaving a voicemail might not count against the “one call per week” limit, some coaches might not want to risk it and would instead just wait until the following week to call you again. This is usually why they schedule a specific day/time to talk with you so you can be sure to have your phone nearby. If I understand the rules correctly though, since he couldn’t reach you the first time he called and you called back and left a voicemail, technically he can return that call within the same week since the original call he made doesn’t count. (…hopefully that makes sense.)

My suggestion would be to ask him the next time you talk for clarification on all of this just so that you know what’s permissible and what isn’t. Before coaches can contact prospective student-athletes they’re required by the NCAA to take a recruiting certification exam that tests their knowledge on all the rules, so assuming that he’s done that he would definitely be able to fill you in on how things work. Knowing the rules, even though they don’t necessarily apply to you, could also come in handy should something come up in the future.

You could also call the compliance department (located within the athletic department, for those that didn’t know that…) and ask them for clarification since there’s not really anything explicitly stated online (at least not anywhere that is endorsed by the NCAA) what the protocol is here. Their sole job is to make sure the athletes (and coaches) understand the rules and comply with them so if there’s anyone besides the coach who would know the answer to your question, it’d be these guys.