Rowing wasn’t a sport Rebecca Brougher was familiar with.
All Brougher knew was basketball and the quest for an Indiana high school state title.
Brougher had no idea how much success she would end up having with oars and a boat.
Brougher was going to play basketball in college, but decided not to after she got directly admitted into the Kelley School of Business, from which she recently graduated.
“I had kind of hung up my hat on sports and was like maybe I’ll join a club team,” Brougher said. “I kind of thought I was going to be done.”
That all changed when IU’s novice rowing coach called her high school basketball coach.
The rowing coach was looking for former high school athletes to join the rowing team, and Brougher fit the bill.
At first, Brougher said no to the overtures and only went on a visit to please her parents.
On the visit, Brougher said she was sold on trying to row when she met the coaches.
Brougher learned a lot from playing basketball, but she knew rowing was a completely different sport. During the course of her time at IU, she stepped up and became a leader for the rowing program.
“I don’t know if any of the actual basketball skills transferred,” Brougher said. “The intangible skills transferred. My senior year at Columbus North, I was the only senior and there were a ton of freshman. I gained a lot of leadership skills because I was the grandma on the team.”
Brougher also said basketball helped her gain a strong work ethic and a drive to be great.
It didn’t take long for the sport to catch on for Brougher. She would row as a novice her freshman year and was moved up to varsity her sophomore year.
“There are times when this sport is really hard,” Brougher said. “I kept getting injured sophomore year. It’s such a unique sport and you are so close with your teammates that you can’t just walk away. If you walk away, you would be giving up so much of who you are.”
Though Brougher said she had doubts at times, she developed into one of the best rowers on the team.
Brougher said her teammates were her greatest motivation to develop as she said she always wanted to beat them in training.
“With our sport, we are on the erg so much and we are competing with the person sitting next to you,” Brougher said. “But you are also great teammates with that person.”
The years Brougher was on varsity coincided with IU’s first three trips to the NCAA Championship regatta.
The biggest factor for her team’s increased success was its collective mindset.
As the team’s mindset shifted, so did its results.
“We are not just a club team,” Brougher said. “We are here to compete at the national level, that changed my sophomore. It’s exciting to be a part of something like that.”
On an individual level, the accolades came in bunches for Brougher in her senior year.
Brougher won the Spirit of IU award and Big Ten Rowing Co-Athlete of the Year.
Brougher was also named to the First Team All-Region team and the Pocock All-American Second Team.
“Becca is a very special athlete,” IU Coach Steve Peterson said. “She encompassed everything — that was what made her special. She was the strongest athlete on our team. She was a leader and she worked her way to that position. She earned every step of the way what she achieved.”
Peterson noted how involved Brougher was in different activities outside of rowing and called her the epitome of a student-athlete.
Brougher was shocked to win the Spirit of IU award, which IU Athletic Director Fred Glass gives out to whoever exemplifies the mantra “24 Sports, 1 Team.”
Community service was a big part of the reason Brougher won the award.
She was on the Student-Athletic Advisory Committee Executive Board and volunteered at Habitat for Humanity and the Hoosier Hills food bank. She also worked at the Shalom Center and with the Christian Student Fellowship.
“It was quite the humbling surprise,” Brougher said. “It supports what I’ve done individually. It does validate all the hard work I’ve put in.”
