As she prepares for her next chapter in college, Washington High School senior Taylor Bartholomew will be taking on a unique challenge by also trying a sport for the first time-at the NCAA Division I collegiate level.

Bartholomew has been recruited to join the rowing team at Drake University in Des Moines and signed her letter of intent with the Bulldogs last Thursday. She tells KCII Sports that it has already been a unique journey to this next step.

“I got a message on Instagram from the assistant coach, and I honestly thought it was a scam at first,” Bartholomew says. “I was like, ‘there’s no way there is someone trying to recruit me, I’ve never done this in my life,’ but once I looked into it more and got more information, I found out that they were being serious about it, and they are just looking for true athletes that have been very active in their high school career.”

Indeed, Bartholomew says that inexperience might actually be exactly why Drake coaches want her to be part of the program.

“Rowing is a sport that they recruit people that have never rowed before,” she says. “Most of the team is actually full of people that have never rowed before, so that was kind of a comforting message for me, just knowing that I can succeed and I can earn a scholarship off of this, even though I’ve never done it in my life.”

While Bartholomew was already headed to Drake to study in the pharmacy program, she says now there’s a whole new opportunity in front of her-one that really won’t start until she sets foot on campus, but one she is thrilled to be taking on.

“[The Drake coaches] told me not to really be on the rowing machine much, which is really surprising,” she says, “but they don’t want me to learn bad habits there before I even get [to Drake]. I’m definitely going to try to gain some muscle, but after talking to the head coach,  I really felt like it was a good decision, just because I am one that goes 100 miles per hour right now, and I don’t think I would really like just sitting there, doing nothing next year and not being involved in a team. I’m a really competitive person, so I’m just excited to continue my athletic career.”

Bartholomew has played basketball at Washington while also running cross country and track & field for the Demons.