The best coach-to-camper ratio in the country

Extending our guidance and college counseling mission, Sparks Rowing Camp was created for high school student-athletes who wanted an opportunity to grow and connect with our sport. Our rowing camp approach implements the largest number of hours of one-on-one coaching time with our campers in the US. Given the differing needs of young athletes coming to camp, and our short time together, we see this as the most effective path to excitement and results. This ratio gives young athletes access to a large selection of educators who coach large, top-ranked nationally and internationally competitive teams.

The camp serves as our flagship alongside our winter advanced camp in San Diego, our development camp in New Zealand, and advanced coxswains only camp. Our camps provide us with an ideal way to fulfill our mission of connecting young athletes with high-end exposure in terms of rowing development. The goal of the camp at Wesleyan is to 'spark' (forgive us) more passion for the sport and increase each student's ability to pursue rowing with all-star coaching and education.

For our 2012 domestic camp blog, please click here.

A Coxswain Development Camp

So many coxswains have come to us looking for college help and for hands-on coaching that we also employ Olympic-medal-winning and National Team coxswains as associates. There's a real need in our community for coxswain education; therefore, we have created the first coxswain-specific development camp and have interlaced it with our rowing camp.

With a curriculum created by US Men's coxswains Marcus McElhenney and Steven Young, we work to give coxswains the standards and tools they need to consciously evaluate their skills and to improve dramatically. Coxswains will cox, spend time with an 8 point system of one-on-one technical evaluations with our coxing staff, and will attend small group seminars to discuss tapes, calls, steering, drills, and recruiting as they relate to their specific level.

Rowing camp that produces fun and results.

Coaches at our camp have an incentive to educate at the highest level possible, which makes a significant difference in terms of kindling an atmosphere where the focus is on our campers, first and foremost.

Each of our staff has made rowing the focus of their lives, and each has enjoyed and been successful at it. And each one also understands how important it is to pass the torch. Thanks to our structure, they are able to do exactly that on a very real level.

From mandatory fun time to private coaching and from work in teams to downtime in the dorms, we see our rowing camp as a place where campers can find their place in rowing and be challenged to grow as athletes and as individuals.