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More Articles

  • Defining Admissions Support for Rowing Recruits
  • Rowing Resumes, References, and Regatta Results
  • Pro Tips for Doing Video for Recruiting Purposes
  • Athlete’s Perspective: What to Expect When Transitioning from High School to College Rowing
  • 6 Simple Rules for Recovery
  • How to Make the National Team (As a Coxswain)
  • Profile: Michelle Sechser, National Team Lightweight
  • Rowing Camps and Recruiting
  • Rowing and Recruiting Services
  • What the NCAA Contact Rule Change Means for Rowers
  • Recruiting 2K Erg Scores
  • 3 Rowing Recruiting Factors To Consider (Besides Erg Score)
  • On Rowing Scholarships
  • The Recruiting Process – Developing Personal Awareness
  • Road to the National Team: Olympian Ross James
  • The Growth of Rowing in the Midwest: One Coach’s View.
  • My #1 Piece of Advice for Making the Varsity Eight for Coxswains
  • 17 Mistakes Juniors are Making During the Recruiting Process
  • What Are the Differences Between Club, Varsity, and Division II/III?

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Defining Admissions Support for Rowing Recruits

by Sparks editorial staff A large part of the presentations we sometimes give to teams deals with the various mechanisms utilized to support athletes in the admissions process. We deal with this everyday in our counseling practice – however, with the mission of serving both the college rowing community and our clients. As such, it […]


Recruiting 2K Erg Scores

by Sparks editorial staff Whenever we give a presentation to rowing teams about the recruiting process, someone generally raises their hand and asks what are the Women’s or Men’s “Division I 2K erg times” or similar. The question indicates a disconnect in understanding the use of 2K scores in the college recruiting process and is definitely worth exploring because there is […]


Recruiting Character – A Reality Check

by Sparks editorial staff The Head of the Charles is a significant point in the rowing recruiting calendar for many programs regardless of whether they attend the regatta. It is by mid-October that college programs have commitment from a handful of top-level recruits and are starting to get a picture of what their early round […]


What is the Rowing Volume of the Elite Programs?

Rowng volume at elite programs

by Nate Rooks A typical high school team might row 10k to 15k on a good day, even 20k on a long day. As I covered in our article about finding the balance between being a student and athlete, college rowing brings more schoolwork, more free time, more friends, and most importantly, a lot more practice. The […]


Finding the Balance Between Student and Athlete at Elite Schools

Nate Rooks

by Nate Rooks As a former rower, coach, and recruiter at Stanford University, one of the top recruit questions I received was, “how do rowers balance school and rowing… and maybe have a life too?” From my time experiencing success on the water and in the classroom, I’ve found there are three main components that […]


Rowing Selection: How Not To Get Voted Off The Boat

by Patrick Rufo My wife and I have been a fan of the reality show Survivor for a long time. As reality show junkies, we enjoy watching the drama unfold each week. During the recent finale, the contestants were going through another round of “Tribal Council,” and as I lay there foam rolling (that is […]


Rowing Resumes, References, and Regatta Results

by Sparks editorial staff Our consultants are often asked “what regatta results belong on my rowing resume?” or “what should my coach put in their reference?” There is a general human desire to standardize things. Much like what we’re about to discuss in this article, many have asked us about parity according to division in […]


The Ivy Question

by Sparks editorial staff As a college counseling firm, we do an awful lot of speaking with parents and junior rowers. When one peruses the online forums at places like college confidential we see one similar thread in the questions we often encounter. Namely: “how do I leverage my rowing to gain admission to an […]


The Importance of Team Culture

by Libby Peters Team culture is inarguably one of the most important elements of a successful rowing program.  As a coach, it’s great to have a handful of super-talented, highly motivated athletes, but if those individuals don’t have a similar set of priorities, values and goals, they will fall short of their potential. Although team […]


For UK Students Seeking to Row in the US

by Sparks Editorial Staff The number of students from the UK interested in rowing at an American university has been rising steadily since the government increased the maximum allowable tuition to £9,000 in 2012. After a few trips to the UK and working with a number of clients from the British Isles, we feel compelled […]


“Commit Now or Don’t Come”

by Sparks editorial staff It’s been an interesting recruiting season for us at Sparks. We work with kids to help them identify what they connect with in the sport and establish how they would like to grow so they might determine a good selection in terms of “fit” with a rowing program and university. We’ve […]


Rowing and Recruiting Services

by Sparks editorial staff The NCAA defines a recruiting service as a firm that provides information on “potential student athletes” (PSAs) to “member institutions”(college programs). Essentially, recruiting services act as third party facilitators for the recruiting process. Sparks is often mistaken for a recruiting service given the firm works with junior rowers and coxswains on […]


Beyond the Numbers: What Intangibles Are Coaches Looking For Besides Erg Score and GPA?

by Sparks Editorial Staff If you’re a junior rower and interested in rowing for a competitive college program, you already know grades and erg score are super important. Those are the first and last attributes a coach looks at and they’re the entry points for the recruiting process. Besides ergs and grades, but there are […]


Rowing Camps and Recruiting

by Sparks editorial staff We get a lot of questions about the recruiting benefits of institutional (short term) rowing camps. In other sports, attending an institution’s camp is one way to gain recruiting interest. However, in rowing this is not generally the case. We also receive a lot of question about longer term, more competitive […]


My #1 Piece of Advice for Making the Varsity Eight for Coxswains

by Marcus McElhenney “Keep your mouth shut. Don’t tell me–Show me!” The number one thing most coxswains (including me) like to do is tell everyone just how good we are at coxing. We like to talk,  because it is part of our job. So we talk, and talk, and talk some more. We tell our […]


On Rowing Scholarships

by Sparks editorial staff The collegiate athletic scholarship has long been a mark of pride for those that receive it and their families – especially in an esteemed sport like rowing. However, there are a number of assumptions about coxing & rowing scholarships that cloud junior athletes’ understanding of them and families’ ability to evaluate […]


3 Rowing Recruiting Factors To Consider (Besides Erg Score)

by Ben O’Grady Back when I was coaching and recruiting rowers at Louisville, Florida Tech, and other programs, I always looked at three major factors beyond the usuals of erg score, height/weight, and grades. Ergs are definitely important when predicting future boat speed, but I consider these other three factors to be key differentiators. This is […]


The Recruiting Process – Developing Personal Awareness

by Ryan Sparks Writing an op-ed piece in our newsletter, I feel kind of like the executives who write columns in their airline magazines–does anyone actually read that stuff? I’ll endeavor to be entertaining here, brief, and informative, though my topic this quarter is something I could write volumes on: the importance of developing self-awareness […]


17 Mistakes Juniors are Making During the Recruiting Process

by Sparks editorial staff For this article, we polled a group of coaches from universities all across the country–men’s and women’s programs–to find out what the top mistakes recruits are making during the recruiting process. If you’re a junior rower (or the parent of one) and you’re interested in getting recruited for the next level, […]


Why Training Secrets Don’t Exist – or, “on being a wizard.”

by Sparks Editorial Staff Remember when Rocky fought Ivan Drago in Rocky IV and we saw the montage of all the crazy training Ivan did behind the Iron Curtain? The communists believed that if they could impress their excellence at sport upon the rest of the world, they would be seen as a successful society […]


5 Things I Always Do to Prepare for a Big Race

by Hilary Gehman Hilary Gehman is an Olympian and former head women’s coach at Cornell who is currently an associate at Sparks Consulting. She will be on the keynote panel at SDCC’s Crews to College Event. There is no magical race preparation ritual that will lead to an open water win over your competitors. The […]


Athlete Profile: Gevvie Stone, Women’s 1x

by Helen Tompkins Gevvie Stone, who introduced herself as Doctor Stone for the first time recently, works as a research assistant at Tufts Medical Center while training for the 2016 Rio Olympics. After a successful 2012 campaign where she placed 7th at the London Olympics, her goal is to medal in Rio. For Gevvie Stone, […]


4 Tips for Avoiding The Dreaded Overuse Injury in Rowing

by Ben O’Grady During my time in the sport of rowing, I’ve seen all manner of injury: oblique strains, lat strains, lower backs, shoulder issues, sports hernias, bad wrists, and a host of other ailments. What all of these have in common is they’re overuse injuries, caused by pushing the envelope with some combination of volume, […]


Pro Tips for Doing Video for Recruiting Purposes

by Ben O’Grady In a previous post we wrote how one of the most important advantages you can give yourself as a recruit is to submit video. This is absolutely true, and in this article we’ll talk about how to do video the right way to maximize that advantage. Hardware Video technology has come a […]


Killer Coxswain Gear You Might Not Have

by Ben O’Grady For this article, we asked four of our contributors who also happen to be fantastic coxswains to write on the subject of coxswain gear, and specifically any gear they recommend or any unusual items that any coxswains in the audience can take advantage of. Here’s the stuff you need from some of the […]


Get Ready for Wind! Coxing the San Diego Crew Classic

by Laura Simon One of the toughest races to cox is the 2K course at San Diego Crew Classic. The wind and tide of Mission Bay make it a particularly challenging course, and coxswains visiting for the first time should be prepared.  In this article, I’ll review the challenges and offer some tips on how to […]


Athlete’s Perspective: What to Expect When Transitioning from High School to College Rowing

by Sparks editorial staff As a senior in high school, I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I signed my National Letter of Intent. The transition from high school rowing to college rowing was definitely no walk in the park. College rowing was a means to an end for this 110lb, […]


What Are the Differences Between Club, Varsity, and Division II/III?

by Ben O’Grady There’s a wide range of rowing programs to pick from and if you’re a junior athlete looking to row in college, you might ask yourself, what type of program is right for you? For this article, I want to do a compare and contrast of the various program types and add in […]


6 Simple Rules for Recovery

by Patrick Rufo Complex training programs, fancy functional exercises, and “rah-rah” motivational speeches are necessary to having a winning season, but many athletes and even coaches forget to plan the most important thing: Recovery. We can be so focused on the end results, we forget to plan for athletes recovering between important workouts and regattas. […]


How to Make the National Team (As a Coxswain)

by Marcus McElhenney I am often asked, “what is the best way to make the national team?” I love this great question because it tells me a coxswain has a goal and willing to work for it. This question is even more important this year as we will have three Sparks coxswains vying for different […]


About Rowing Recruiting

This website was developed by the folks at Sparks Consulting, where we guide rowing athletes and their families through the arduous task of finding the right college culture and rowing program to meet their academic and athletic needs.

Our goal here is to provide free, fact-based rowing recruiting specific information in regards to college recruiting in our sport. We understand rowing – we’re career coaches and Olympians, and we love working intimately with families from our experience behind the recruiting desk. Our client admit rate for their first choice is 94% – though we judge true success by the impact college has on clients after four years.

Beyond this we provide a free, searchable college rowing database amongst other sites.

We live to develop the rowing community and are continuously working to help folks who love our sport.

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More Articles
  • Defining Admissions Support for Rowing Recruits
  • Recruiting 2K Erg Scores
  • Recruiting Character – A Reality Check
  • What is the Rowing Volume of the Elite Programs?
  • Finding the Balance Between Student and Athlete at Elite Schools
  • Rowing Selection: How Not To Get Voted Off The Boat
  • Rowing Resumes, References, and Regatta Results
  • The Ivy Question
  • The Importance of Team Culture
  • For UK Students Seeking to Row in the US
  • “Commit Now or Don’t Come”
  • Rowing and Recruiting Services
  • Beyond the Numbers: What Intangibles Are Coaches Looking For Besides Erg Score and GPA?
  • Rowing Camps and Recruiting
  • My #1 Piece of Advice for Making the Varsity Eight for Coxswains
  • On Rowing Scholarships
  • 3 Rowing Recruiting Factors To Consider (Besides Erg Score)
  • The Recruiting Process – Developing Personal Awareness
  • 17 Mistakes Juniors are Making During the Recruiting Process
  • Why Training Secrets Don’t Exist – or, “on being a wizard.”