If you have a travel bug, there are opportunities to coach in the United States. Recruiting services have popped up all over the world to help athletes get to the United States, but there isn’t a lot out there on how coaches might be able to come to the United States. Typically, the most challenging part about breaking into any market that you are unfamiliar with is knowing where to start the search.
First, let’s talk about the lay of the land regarding coaching positions in the United States. Unlike most countries, the USA has a very well-developed collegiate rowing scene that drives the job market. This means that better-paying jobs with benefits such as health insurance, retirement, and job security are often attached to collegiate programs. Therefore, most of the top coaches in the United States move into the collegiate scene at some point in their careers.
Outside of collegiate rowing, then we have the club rowing scene in the United States. Club rowing in the USA is not entirely as developed as other parts of the world due to the college programing and the Senior Team training set up in the USA. That’s not to say that the USA clubs are not good, they are great! We just do not have as many that run a full age programming since college-age and senior team athletes are housed under their colleges and then the national team. Club positions vary in the degree of benefits offered as well as the salary offered to staff. The larger the club, the more potential opportunities.
Next, we have the school rowing job market. School rowing teams are a mix of the racing season only programs to programs that train all year depending on the school’s philosophy. Some private schools do not allow athletes to row all year long but require that they do other sports in the fall and winter season. Some high school programs students will also participate in club programs during the offseason, depending on their love for the sport. Private school rowing often comes with other school obligations such as teaching or being a part of the dorm staff. Public high school rowing coaches can either work within the school for an extra stipend or be hired outside of the schools for a stipend. Typically, public high school jobs are hourly and do not come with benefits unless you are also working at the school or within the school district. Here’s a link to some, if not all of the high schools and clubs that service high school athletes: http://www.oarspotter.com/blades/USA/HS/USA_HS.htm
Lastly, if you’re a younger coach or older coach and looking to further your education in the United States, you can look for graduate assistantships. Grad assistantships are an incredible way to gain experience in the US system and get your graduate degree paid. As an international student, you’ll get a reasonable stipend in addition to health insurance in the USA. Graduate assistantships exist at most of the scholarship schools, and all of the sports typically have one or two GA’s (as we call them). Graduate Assistantships do not exist within the Ivy League, although Ivy League schools will typically take volunteer coaches. Given the number of GA’s within a department, it can be a great social environment and a learning environment. You will typically have to be admitted to a program on your own, but some programs can offer some help. GA positions are usually two years in length and require some previous planning as the spots are competitive.
Now that we’ve covered the various job locations let’s talk about where to start looking for jobs. The US system has a few places where jobs are posted. The most frequently used site for high schools, clubs, and some colleges is www.row2k.com’s classified section, link found here:
For graduate assistantships and college positions, there are a few other places these jobs get posted. Sometimes they can be found on www.row2k.com’s classified section, but typically they are found https://ncaamarket.ncaa.org/jobs and through various email chains. The primary email chain for the women’s side is the CRCA email list. That goes out to current coaches of DI, DII, and DIII women’s programs. If you are interested in GA positions open or come out via the CRCA list serve – feel free to fill out this google form, and GA positions will be forwarded onto the mailing list. On the men’s side, there are very, very sparse graduate positions offered (I’ve only heard of one school having a GA) but many programs will take volunteer coaches on both the men’s and women’s side. In addition to coaching jobs, there are various other positions on the NCAA job market within NCAA athletics, and it can be an exciting site to look over.
This article was written by Laura Simon, currently the lead recruiter at Yale University for the Women’s Team. To find out more about her work and story, head over to our content partners page, or read more of her work here.
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