Quote:Story by Ruth S. Barrett

On paper, Sloane, a buoyant, chatty, stay-at-home mom from Fairfield County, Connecticut, seems almost unbelievably well prepared to shepherd her three daughters through the roiling world of competitive youth sports. She played tennis and ran track in high school and has an advanced degree in behavioral medicine. She wrote her master’s thesis on the connection between increased aerobic activity and attention span. She is also versed in statistics, which comes in handy when she’s analyzing her eldest daughter’s junior-squash rating—and whiteboarding the consequences if she doesn’t step up her game. “She needs at least a 5.0 rating, or she’s going to Ohio State,” Sloane told me.

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Sloane is still trying to figure it out. As an insurance policy, she’s decided to add rowing to her oldest girl’s sports schedule. “My daughter is 5 foot 11,” she said. “That’s not the optimum body for squash. She has the frame for rowing. I’ve always had it in the back of my head. Rowing moves the needle way more.”

In July, she put the girl in a single scull. “When she gets to a regatta, that’s when the other shoe will drop,” Sloane told me cheerfully. “She doesn’t know that she’s going to row so hard that she throws up. She doesn’t know that she’s going to have to train twice a day and that she’s going to give up a lot. This sport has some intensities and some struggles that are unreal.

“All she knows is that it’s a beautiful day. We found this coach, a lovely dynamo, who’s interested in her. The sun is shining on the water. She’s in heaven.”