SRA Stories: Lia Roberds

Lia Roberds was born and raised in Kirkland, Washington. Brought up in an active family who all loved to be outdoors, sports were always in her life. She started out with ballet, moved onto soccer, and eventually found herself walking down the path to the Sammamish Rowing Association (SRA) boathouse.

Roberds coxing an Experienced High School Boys boat at SRA

Roberds and her University of Washington teammates

“I love sports, and especially team sports,” Roberds said, “My mom signed me up for a rowing camp one summer, and I wasn’t thrilled at first.” Lia’s mom, who also rows at SRA on the sculling team, always signed her up for these sort of things “I had to do the float test and couldn’t believe I had to swim with my clothes on,” Lia added. But after the 2009 summer program ended she was hooked.

Roberds joined the women's team as a rower, and found herself struggling to keep up. She was consistently seated in the 4V or 5V boats, and found that rowing wasn’t her strongest area in crew. Standing at 5’1”, her coach encouraged her to try coxing in addition to rowing. After a couple years, she eventually moved onto the men’s team as a full time coxswain when the women’s team had a surplus of coxswains. After working for so long to start having success, Roberds was rewarded during her experience at the Head of the Charles Regatta in 2012.

“Racing at Head of the Charles my senior year of high school was one of my favorite memories,” Roberds recollected. “For me it was huge personal success to make the boat in the first place. There were eighty-five boats in our event, and we placed second. The race was crazy. I remember studying the course for weeks before the race because I wanted to nail every turn.” Roberds and her boat started to pass others boats during their race. A brief clash of oars through Anderson Bridge boosted their adrenaline and they continued to take off down the course. For Roberds it was her first huge success. She finally felt like her work was paying off. “For me it was a really big personal achievement. It was huge for my boat and bonded us as a team.” They continued to find success during the Spring season with the first ever wins at Brentwood and Opening Day for SRA in the Men’s V8 and a 6th place finish at Youth Nationals.

Roberds with her fellow husky teammates

Roberds enjoying her time outdoors, a place she and her family loves

Following her high school career, Roberds went on to join the men’s rowing program at the University of Washington, where she won three National Championships. She said, “It was a smooth transition onto the Washington team, because many of my coaches at Sammamish had been University of Washington rowing alumni. I felt that same sense of strong community at Washington that I had felt at  SRA. Having that connection was great.” Roberds noted that another aspect that made her fit into the Washington team even more was the presence of local rowers, some even from SRA. “Washington has a lot of international rowers that had incredible junior rowing experiences, but they also had that awesome mix of locals.” She mentioned. Sammamish continues to see our junior rowers joining the University of Washington rowing program.

That strong sense of community that Roberds felt both in high school and in college is a big factor in why she continues to play a part in SRA’s legacy. When asked why she came back to the Sammamish boathouse, she said, “I come back for the community. Sammamish helped me grow as a person in high school. I was shy in high school, but rowing taught me grit, perseverance, and how to change my mentality toward facing new challenges. I feel like I owe Sammamish a lot for my growth and the community makes it fun to come back.”

Roberds graduated from the University of Washington in 2017 with a degree in Industrial and Systems Engineering, and now works for Convoy, which is a tech company in the trucking industry. However, she still makes time outside of work for coaching and coxing at Sammamish. “I do like hopping between coaching and coxing because I can add to the team in different ways,” she said. “I coached here in the summers in college and helped with almost every time slot and every age group.” Roberds enjoys passing on her love for the sport, and seeing her rowers experience new things and gain more skills. She added, “What I enjoy is having people overcome personal challenges, whether it’s a physical or mental challenge, and feel like they get one step stronger each time they come down to the boathouse.”

On Mount Rainier

While she doesn’t know what future years may hold, Roberds knows that a long as the community she lives in has a focus on rowing, she will continue to be involved in the sport. No longer a collegiate coxswain, however, Roberds is finding enjoyment in stepping out of the coxswain seat and getting more active. She said, “rowing will always play a part in my life, but I also enjoy finding new activities and joining the communities that are involved with each unique sport.” Since her graduation, Roberds has gotten more involved in downhill skiing, backcountry skiing, mountaineering, backpacking, and running. She ran in the Seattle Marathon this past Fall and dreams of summiting Mount Rainier soon.

The mental side of the marathon was an easy barrier to conquer for Roberds, who said rowing gave her immense mental toughness. “Rowing taught me to be comfortable with pushing myself a little bit each day.” By pushing herself a little every day in rowing mentally as a coxswain, Roberds saw those learned lessons trickling into other aspects of her life. She became a better leader in class and at work, challenged herself to take on new roles at the office, and she accomplished other physical activities. She correlated the lessons she learned through crew to progress in other aspects of her life. “If you push yourself out of your comfort zone in one aspect of your life and find success, it will start to feed into all aspects of your life,” she said about her achievements at SRA and the University of Washington.

Roberds following her successful marathon run

In all of her years rowing and beyond, Roberds has gained incredible experience. She advises new rowers to, “be comfortable with being a little uncomfortable and pushing yourself a little bit every day. Challenge yourself to be faster than you are, to step up into a leadership role, or to try something new. Learning something new is hard on it’s own. Create small goals one at a time and push yourself to accomplish them.” ​

Lia Roberds is an incredible part of our community and continues to give back to the sport that she credits with giving her so much. She, like so many others, caught that insatiable bug for rowing, and we are incredibly happy that she did. Thank you, Lia, for all that you have done for SRA! We can’t wait to see what adventure or achievement you conquer next.