Kirkland resident and Lake Washington High School alumnus Lia Roberds got to take in part Husky rowing history.

An upcoming junior at the University of Washington, Roberds was the coxswain for the men’s four-plus crew team in May at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association (IRA) championship regatta in New Jersey. There, all five boats brought home gold medals, while the men’s varsity eight made sports history by becoming the first team ever to win the national title five times in a row since the regatta was first held in 1895.

Roberds first got into rowing while attending Lake Washington High School, during a five-day summer camp with the Sammamish Rowing Association. A life-long soccer player, she said she found a strong appeal to the unique team aspect of rowing.

“You’re all doing the same thing at the same time,” she said.

Starting competitions in the spring of her sophomore year, she rowed until one of her coaches had her transition to coxswain, the person who steers the boat and provide instructions to the rowers. The switch from a very physical role to a stationary one was strange at first, she said.

“You’re put in leadership role,” she said. “That’s a weird spot between the coaches and the rowers. All of a sudden you’re not a part of the team. You’re a part of this weird spot of coaching but also being coached.”

As the person in charge of steering the boat and the only person facing forward, the coxswain role is more mentally-driven and requires them to respond well under pressure, she said, as well as properly time the boat’s turns on courses where minimizing the course distance around buoys can make the difference between first and second place. What makes that difficult, she said, is the slow reaction time of the boats, which she compared to driving a semi-truck.

Another important aspect of coxing, she said, is knowing how far the rowers can be pushed physically.

The coxswain is also the only person allowed to talk during the race. Ironically, Roberds said she was shy and timid growing up, and though rowing helped her open up, through coxing she gradually found herself breaking out of her shell. One of the benefits of being a rower as well, she said, was that she knew specifically what she was describing when coxing.

By her junior year, with hopes of competing at a collegiate level, Roberds decided to stop rowing altogether and focus on coxing.

“There was no way I was going to row in college, being 5-foot-1,” she said.

She also decided to switch over from the girls to coxing for the boys, who were short of coxswains. The change offered another challenge due to the different expectations they had.

“They all want different stuff,” she said. “Girls want constant flow of words… Guys want it (instructions) straight and simple.”

Initially looking at out-of-state, low key colleges, Roberds said she looked at more competitive universities after the 1-V took second out of 85 boats at the Head of The Charles in Cambridge, Mass., the world’s largest two-day rowing event. After competing at a summer camp with the University of Washington, she finally chose to row as a Husky, as had many of her Sammamish coaches. The transition to the collegiate level went smoothly, she said, thanks to being on the freshman team, which allowed her and her team to compete with others at the same level rather than experienced seniors. At the same time, she was struck by the tradition the team had, some going all the way back to 1936, when an all-Husky crew of eight took first place in the Summer Olympics in Berlin. One of those traditions is that the freshman are not allowed to wear University of Washington rowing apparel until they’ve actually competed as a Husky.

“We have so much pride for that letter on our chest because we know how hard we worked for it,” she said.

Coxing the freshman eight, they went undefeated and took the national championship. With this last season, she said the team adopted the motto “five for V,” which represented their desire to have their five boats will all five of their respective competitions at the IRA championship regatta. They also looked for their eight-plus team to win for a record-breaking fifth time.

Coxing the four man boat, Roberds said they normally compete first at the regatta, but ultimately went last, after the other boats on their team had taken first. For most of the race, they trailed behind Stanford, and it seemed as though they would take second. Yet, Roberds said she was still hopeful.

“Somehow I knew it was going to be ok,” she said.

During the last part of the race, they went into their sprints. Slowly, they began creeping on Stanford. With less than 200 meters left, she said Stanford suffered from a slipped stroke, which caused them to slow down just enough for the University of Washington team to pass them.

For Roberds, who is majoring in engineering, the recent victory is a far cry from her timid childhood days.

“I wouldn’t believe it at all, looking back,” she said.