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.
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”.
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