Coach: Rowing increasing college chances despite admissions scam
Just recently the sport of rowing became attached to the largest university admissions scam in history.
Actress Lori Laughlin has been accused of bribing USC to accept her daughters’ admissions as recruits for the rowing team, even though their daughters never were involved in the sport. But the sport is becoming more of a reality to get kids into college locally.
Channel Islands Rowing Club coach Jacob Coert is hoping to inspire a whole new generation of student athletes.
“There’s not a lot of people that do rowing because nobody really knows about it,” said Coert.
Right now, Coert has only five girls and nine boys in the club, but he wants students to know it’s a good option for getting into college.
“You got a way better chance of getting into schools in rowing than in softball, basketball, football,” said Coert. “It is just numbers. In football, basketball you are competing against a million other kids exactly like you, where in rowing there is 150 maybe 200 for really popular schools.”
His message comes on the heels of last week’s college admission scandal. Wealthy parents accused of paying for their kids to get into college, falsely as rowing athletes.
“It is pretty remarkable that rowing was utilized,” said Coert. “It is considered one of the elite sports, and to me it just shows that parents are willing to do anything for their kids and I would just say to parents who are that desperate who want to get their kids into those schools, come out and give rowing a chance.”
Driffil elementary school teacher, Kimberly Dufau, invited Coert to her class after her students read the book “The Boys in the Boat,” about the 1938 Olympic rowing team.
“I have a heart for the kids here,” said Dufau. “Our kids are amazing.They do not have the opportunities like what is going on in Hollywood where people are spending millions of dollars to get their kids into college in unethical ways. These kids want to work and do what is necessary and they have the heart to actually row.”
Coert says girls have a 40 percent chance of getting into college through the sport of rowing. It’s slightly lower for boys, but that beats the 1 percent possibility through main stream sports.
“The amount of stories where you have had kids how have come out and they just haven’t been successful in other sports, crush it in rowing and then they end up going to these amazing schools,” said Coert. “It happens more than you might think.”
The Channel Islands Rowing Club takes in athletes starting from 5th grade through high school.
The rowing club will host an open house on April 6 from 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.
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