I’m a junior that’s looking to cox in college. I started as a freshman rower and have had an increasingly difficult time as my team has gotten stronger. I’m regarded as the cox on the team (we race 95% sculls) and want to switch clubs but it just isn’t feasible. If I could switch, I wouldn’t be in the top boat to get recruited. I’m not looking forward to another season as a weak rower this spring, I genuinely love to cox. Would walking on work well for me even if I want to go to a d1 school?
You don’t have to be in the top boat to get recruited, it’s just one of those things that helps because in most cases it’s an indicator of a lot of the qualities and skills that coaches want to see in their coxswains. It’s not a necessity though.
It doesn’t really sound like you’re enjoying it very much so I guess I gotta ask, why are you still doing it? You’re primarily a sculling team, you’re not a strong rower, you’re not trying to be recruited, you’ll probably be a walk-on in college … it just doesn’t seem like there’s really anything keeping you on the team right now. If you’re doing it just to be able to say to a college coach that you did it for four years, don’t. Quality over quantity.
Just a thought but it might be worth considering how important it is for you to stay on a team that doesn’t seem to be able to really use you (at least in the way you want to be used) when you could spend your time in other ways, be it doing another sport or just working on your grades, studying for the SAT/ACTs, etc. There’s pretty much no reason why walking on wouldn’t be an option for you though, regardless of how many years of experience you have. Most D1 programs have good walk-on programs (at least the ones I’ve seen do) so it’s obviously something to consider doing if you know you want to keep rowing/coxing when you’re in college.
