Steve Peterson
Heach Coach
Steve Peterson
Heach Coach
Steve Peterson was named head coach of Indiana University rowing in 2003. Peterson is the second rowing coach in IU history.
Between the 2014-18 seasons, Indiana rowing was one of nine programs to finish inside the top 15 at the NCAA Championships for four consecutive years. Peterson has been a mentor for nine All-American honorees, 21 Collegiate Rowing Coaches Association (CRCA) All-Region members, and 31 All-Big Ten rowers. Peterson was responsible for the team’s first NCAA appearance in 2014, where the team placed 12th. Throughout the 2014 season, the team was also ranked in the Top 25 throughout the season and earned a fourth place standing at the Big Ten Championships. Peterson received Coach of the Year honors and the Indiana rowing staff received Staff of the Year for the historic season.
Outside of the collegiate realm, Peterson has had several athletes receive recognition. Internationally, IU rowers have been named to national teams on three occasions (Croatia and Canada). Throughout his 31 years as a head coach, Peterson has mentored 11 U.S. National Team athletes and no fewer than five of Peterson’s former athletes have gone on to medal at the World Championships or Olympics.
Peterson was a U.S. National Team coach from 1999-2003. Throughout that time, Peterson’s athletes medaled 6 times at the World Championships and Pan American Games. Before coaching the national team, Peterson served on the 1998 U.S. Lightweight Women’s Sculling Development Camp staff. Peterson also served three, four-year terms as a member of the U.S. Rowing High Performance Committee (HPC), where former elite rowers and coaches are responsible for planning and implementing the selection procedures for the U.S. National and Olympic Teams.
Academically, Indiana rowing has boasted 238 Academic All-Big Ten athletes and 75 CRCA National Scholar-Athletes under Peterson. As a team, rowing has claimed Indiana Athletics’ coveted Program of Excellence Challenge multiple times in Peterson’s tenure.
Before coming to Indiana, Peterson was the head coach for the women’s rowing program at George Washington University from 1996-2003. During his tenure at G.W., the varsity rowing program captured multiple championship titles, including an Atlantic 10 Championship. Before coaching at G.W., Peterson spent one season in the Big Ten Conference as the head coach for the varsity lightweight men’s crew at Rutgers University. Before Rutgers, Peterson spent a large portion of his early career as head coach for the University of Rhode Island from 1989-91 and as URI’s assistant coach from 1986-87.
As an athlete, Peterson rowed for the U.S. Olympic team in the men’s lightweight double sculls at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, placing ninth, and is a seven-time U.S. National Team member. As a rower, Peterson earned more than 50 rowing medals, from collegiate to elite competition. He competed for the U.S. National Team from 1989-92 and 1995-96, finishing among the top four in the world in the men’s lightweight double and quadruple sculls on three separate occasions. His men’s double scull team won the 1990 World Championship, which resulted in being inducted in the US Rowing Hall of Fame and earning the 1990 Vesper Cup Award, presented annually to a U.S. National Team member for outstanding and inspirational achievement in international competition.
Peterson graduated from the University of Rhode Island in 1985, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in marketing/advertising and was inducted into the URI Athletic Hall of Fame in 2000.
