Fair point. Rowing is not popular at high school level in the USA for many reasons, and it's much more difficult for the upper-middle class to use to their advantage, primarily because evaluating a recruit is fairly easy: fitness scores, eyeball test for technical prowess (plus race results), and coach recommendations + intangibles gleaned from visit. It's not a game; speed and fitness are measurable for each person. Also, the competition at the top level of recruiting involves going up against junior national team or junior worlds talent from other countries too, so coaches have an easily identifiable recruiting pool that obviates the need to sift through the second quartile of domestic talent, so to speak.
(If your coach is on the take, well that's a different story altogether.)
(If your coach is on the take, well that's a different story altogether.)