Steven Rosts riding a wave of success
If anyone was due for a stretch of good fortune it was Steven Rosts.
After completing his freshman year at the University of Washington by stroking the school’s third varsity eight to an Intercollegiate Rowing Association championship as part of a IRC team title, the 21-year-old Jordan native lost his second year of rowing to mono and tonsillitis and his third year to the COVID-19 pandemic.
This year, things were going great for the Eden graduate until the injury bug struck once again.
“In February, at a practice like any other, I partially tore my medial meniscus and tore the cartilage in my knee,” the Ridley Graduate Boat Club member said. “I was out for about seven or eight weeks on land but I worked my tail off to stay in shape. If I was able to make a full recovery, I would be able to row and fortunately I was and I was able to stroke the second varsity eight.”
The 6-foot-5, 205-pounder stroked his crew to Pac-12 and IRA national championships and was part of a dominating team performance at the IRA nationals.
“We swept the regatta,” Rosts said. “We won the first varsity, second varsity, third varsity and the four to take home that nice trophy. It was pretty spectacular and quite an amazing feeling after four years and a lot of ups and downs. After the injuries and pandemic, it was great to cap off such an extraordinary year.”
What made it even more special for the two-time Henley champion was the fact that he was Washington’s team captain.
“It is amazing to see all the names that came before you and the culture. With the history of this program, it is truly an honour just to follow in the footsteps of so many legendary Canadian rowers and my head coach.”
Rosts had a couple days to bask in the glow of a national championship before he started out on an even bigger adventure, namely trying out for a spot on Canada’s under-23 national team.
“It is such a unique year. Usually all the athletes would head to Victoria, British Columbia, but with COVID and the travel restrictions, we actually hosted the Canadian selection camp in Seattle, Washington,” he said.
He started out at the camp competing with other athletes for a seat in a straight four and then Rowing Canada decided it wanted to send a single as well.
“It has been a dream of mine to race for Canada in a single and it was going to be an incredible opportunity and a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” the former Canadian Secondary Schools Rowing Association single champion said. “When that came up, I trialled for it and it all went well. I am really pleased to be going to race the single for Canada.”
It has taken him awhile to regain his form in the boat.
“With not sculling this last November, I was a little rusty at first but then I had a great conversation with the Rowing Canada group and the coaches here and they told me to take my time and be patient with it,” Rosts said. “I had to get out the rust and cobwebs and then I started to hit the standards I needed to hit.”
He is improving every day and has plenty of confidence heading to the under-23 worlds that start July 7 at Račice in the Czech Republic.
“The last four years I have rowed in crew boats and that has been a blast and I loved racing and rowing with my teammates,” Rosts said. “But I am really looking forward to building some confidence in myself and just trusting myself and knowing that I am capable.
“I am fit and determined and I just have to believe in myself. I need to go into the regatta and lay it all on the line.”
It will be his first time representing Canada at the international level but it is old hat for the Rosts family. Older brother Ryan was a member of the national team and older sister Morgan won two under-23 world championships in the eight and will be at the Tokyo Olympics as the spare for women’s heavyweight squad.
“It’s nice to have older siblings who have paved the way. It’s crazy to think that it is my last crack at under-23s. To know that I will be hopping on a plane shortly is pretty surreal and I am really looking forward to it.”
He has yet to decide if this will be his one and only appearance in a Canadian singlet.
“I will make that decision after next year. Depending on how this regatta goes and the result, maybe I will have a new goal to push towards,” he said. “It is all about working my hardest the next few weeks and just putting my best effort and result down. I can’t control how everything goes but I can control what I do.”
When the summer is over, he will be back to Washington for final year of eligibility in rowing and to pursue a masters degree in communications leadership. This spring, the President of Student-Athlete engagement for the Washington Student-Athlete Advisory Council was awarded a prestigious Pac-12 Post-Graduate Scholarship.
“That was quite a nice surprise,” he said. “I am going to graduate school and it is a four-semester program. That will help pay for my last semester. It will be a big help.”
Rosts, who played several sports while at Eden, was drafted in the seventh round of the Ontario Hockey League draft by the Erie Otters and attended the team’s training camp.
“I thought if I could get an education through athletics that would be an amazing accomplishment and that was a goal I was really pushing for,” he said. “I love hockey but I had a few injuries and I was banged up a little too much. I miss hockey dearly and I think of it all the time.”
His focus then turned to rowing in Grade 10.
“It was something that I wanted to try because I didn’t want to leave any rock unturned,” the former Canadian ergometer champion said. “I picked it up, enjoyed it and started taking it a little more seriously in Grade 11 and 12.”
Given his rowing resume, it’s hard to argue with the athletic path he chose.
