Row or Cox

Question
QUESTION: My Son is a Junior in highschool and loves crew.  His 2K is 7:23, he is 5.7" and 128 lbs.  He has been the 1st seat on the 2V and stroke and 7 on the 3V. He wants to continue rowing in college but is afraid he should switch to coxswain if he is to continue in the sport.  Any advise or suggestions?

ANSWER: Hi Amy: I see no possibility where a college coach will make your son a coxswain.  For starters, he is already a bit too heavy.  By the time he gets to college, he will gain weight and will probably be a fine lightweight rower.  His 2K time is slightly better than average for lightweight rowers his age.  That's extraordinary considering how light he is.  

My only advice is that your son should target a bodyweight of 145 lbs.  He can gain healthy weight by adding a muscle building weight lifting program, 2-to-3 workouts a week.  He should also add some healthy calories by eating a bit more of the right foods.  He may still be growing, so he may get a bit taller before entering college.

Your son is a rower, not a coxswain.

Regards/AP

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Good to hear! Do you have suggestions on colleges he should include in his search that have good lightweight programs, concentrating on the east coast?  His 2K is now down to 7:18.8.

Answer
Hi Again, Amy: Unless someone is a shoe-in for a rowing scholarship, I don't recommend picking a college solely on the basis of which school has the best rowing program.  Numerous factors: academics, cost, campus life, admission standards, having strong academic programs that your son wants to major in, among many others, must be considered along with a how good the lightweight crew program is.

To answer your specific question, the best college lightweight crews are any of your Ivy League schools (with Cornell and Dartmouth the best), the Naval Academy, and MIT.  Some other schools with good programs are Delaware, Fordham, Pittsburgh and Georgia Tech.  Many schools with crews have lightweight programs.  However, there are also schools that compete in heavyweight/open only.  Further research with specific programs is the only way to find out.  Use the link below to help you out in your research:

http://www.rowinglinks.com/usa/colleges/

Understand, weak programs can suddenly get better and strong programs suddenly worse.  This is because of the inflow of talent coming in and the natural attrition of rowers due to graduation, drop-outs and transfers. More reason to pick a school for reasons other than rowing.

Regards/AP