Washington Huskies rower Luke Collins back after father's death

Luke Collins is back in the boat.

Granted, it was never guaranteed he'd be in any boat. The 6-foot-7 senior from Poulsbo is a Husky legacy, with his grandfather and cousin both competing on the UW men's rowing team. His mother, Kristin Collins, was a Husky lacrosse player as well.

But Luke didn't begin to row until the summer before his freshman year of high school, when he started to sour on lacrosse and decided to start something new. Collins instantly took to the sport, even training on an ergometer machine in a barn to improve during the pandemic.

Which is how Collins wound up at Washington, maintaining a pipeline from Bainbridge Island to the Montlake Cut.

"I was looking at a bunch of different schools, and this just ended up being the best fit," Collins said Thursday, sitting on the dock of UW's shell house. "Just the competitive nature and environment was something I thought I really could grow in. I eventually got my times down fast enough where I could actually be a viable candidate to come here.

"There was definitely pressure even from when I started being serious about rowing, because this was a bit of a legacy. But it's also the best place you can possibly go if you want to be a high-performance rower, at least in the U.S., and honestly the world."

Washington's 21 men's rowing national championships, including two in a row, offer ample evidence.

But there have been rough waters, in and out of the boat. Collins - who will graduate with degrees in political science and history next month - dropped out of UW last spring while his father battled a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Sean Collins, who was diagnosed with neuroendocrine carcinoma in his digestive tract, died in April 2025.

"It's a parallel story to me a little bit, because my father got sick with cancer, too, and my father wound up passing away maybe nine months before his," UW men's rowing coach Michael Callahan told The Times on Friday. "When he came to me saying his dad was probably at the end of life, I just couldn't imagine. I'm a 50-year-old man, and here's this kid in college dealing with the same thing.

"But I remember the first thing he told me was, ‘I think I should take this next quarter off. I need to take care of my mom and my sister.' I was like, ‘That's definitely the kind of guy you want on your team.' He's looking after other people, especially the closest people in his life. I just thought it spoke to his character and what was most important at the time. I was just thinking to myself, ‘I hope that's not it. I hope he doesn't walk away from the team forever.' "

Understandably, Luke was left at a personal and competitive crossroads.

He wasn't sure if he'd return to rowing, or UW.

"But after a few weeks of not training," Collins said, "I realized how much this place meant to me and how much rowing meant to me in general.

"Honestly, I had every reason not to come back after that. I could have said, ‘I just want to be done with it,' because that's a really big stain on my college experience. But after three weeks, I went to watch the Cal dual and was like, ‘OK, yeah, I miss this. I miss being in the boat and racing.' So that's kind of where I made the decision."

The decision was made, in part, with his dad in mind. Because he's not on scholarship, Collins had to try out and make the team again after re-enrolling. He earned the Pigott Most Inspirational Award at UW's 2026 Class Day Regatta. And though he doesn't compete in UW's top boat, the top-ranked Huskies can win a third consecutive national title next weekend at the Intercollegiate Rowing Association National Championship Regatta in Gold River, Calif..

But Collins' college career isn't almost over. Because he skipped the 2025 season, the senior will likely utilize a fifth year of eligibility to return to UW in 2027.

"[My dad] was very supportive, and I think he would have wanted me to come back, which was also part of my decision as to why I came back and why I'm doing a fifth year," Collins said. "I think the fifth year is more for me, because I want to finish all four racing years. But that's definitely part of my decision-making process."

Collins aspires to coach someday.

But in or out of the boat, he's always been an oarsman in the ways that matter most.

"It's one of those sports, when you're doing it really well you're pulling for everybody else, not just yourself," Callahan said. "You always go harder for the person in front of you and the person behind you. So he has the characteristics of an oarsman."

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This story was originally published May 24, 2026 at 6:44 AM.