It’s the day that changed Rhyan Montovino’s life forever, and he can hardly remember the details at all.
The 17-year-old Camas High School senior recalls flashes of that Saturday in May 2016—dropping off a friend at his home, thinking about the route he’d take home.
The moment his car went off the road, hit a tree, then a wall? Any details he knows, they came from reports he’s read or from what people have told him.
“We still don’t really know what happened,” said Montovino, who spent a week in the hospital recovering from his injuries.
What is known are two things. First, Montovino may not have been alive to enjoy a recent beautiful August afternoon on Vancouver Lake if not for the efforts of three Mountain View High School students who came across him after the accident—one of whom, Grant Moog, had trained as a fire cadet with Clark County Fire District 6 and had a first-aid kit inside his truck.
“I have thanked them a couple different times,” Montovino said. “Sometimes, we keep in touch, although not as often as I’d like to.”
Second, Montovino knows he’d still be a linebacker for the state champion Camas football team but for the accident. Instead, his doctors advised that because of the head injuries he suffered, he had to give up contact sports for at least two years, sending him on a search for a sport that could quench his competitive fire.
Enter the Vancouver Lake Rowing Club into Montovino’s story.
Montovino’s parents, Chris and Karen, started researching different sports their son could play after he was cleared by doctors following two months of physical therapy. They contacted the rowing club looking for information.
At the same time, Rhyan had begun reading The Boys in the Boat, a book detailing the U.S. Men’s Olympic eight-oar rowing team’s quest for a gold medal. He was drawn to how physically challenging the sport is, so when a friend who was in the rowing club invited him to tag along to a practice last summer, Rhyan agreed.
It didn’t take long for Rhyan to decide this was a sport he wanted to try.
“I definitely fell in love,” he said. “I love just how rhythmic it is, how you really use your whole body.”
He also loved the teamwork aspect of rowing. With his football background, he discovered right away that like his first sporting love, everyone needs to work as a team to have success in the boat.
“Every guy or girl in the boat has to be perfectly synced and doing the same movement at exactly the same time, to be a mirror of one another,” he said. “More than any other sport, your form has to be impeccable.”
Coach Brent Eastes wasn’t surprised at how quickly Montovino took to rowing.
“He just showed up and exuded confidence,” said Eastes, who along with club director Alan Stewart decided to send Montovino to the Northwest High Performance Camp last winter. “He came in wanting to learn about the team and how rowing worked. He has that perspective from having played football. He doesn’t have an ego. And he enjoys the process.”
Rowing isn’t a sport for the faint of heart, as Montovino can attest. Eastes recalled individuals who came out for one practice, thinking they’d master the sport in no time, then went home, never to return.
“We get a lot of kids like Rhyan, who played other team sports and for whatever reason are now looking for a different path,” Eastes said. “Rowing really is the ultimate team sport. There is no bench in rowing. If you’re in a four- or eight-man boat, if you get tired, everyone now has to pull your weight. That’s the team culture that we’re growing and developing here.”
Eastes had Montovino start his rowing career in the eight-man boat. In his first regatta, the Portland Fall Classic, he rowed the seven oar on the Junior Novice team that finished fifth out of 16 boats.
“In that position (in the boat), you want someone who is the least likely to fold under pressure,” Stewart explained. “That was Rhyan.”
After the fall season and winter conditioning, Montovino now faced a choice—sticking with rowing or turning out for track, where he’d run the 100 and 200 meters as a sophomore.
Turns out, it wasn’t that difficult a decision.
“I don’t know if I ever really thought I would get serious about rowing,” he said. “But I’m really glad I did.”
During the spring season, Eastes introduced Montovino to single sculls. His first couple days in the boat were rough.
“I flipped the boat the first couple times. It’s really easy to do,” he said, smiling. “You need a lot more balance (in a single boat).
“But I love that in singles, you’re just relying on yourself. It’s up to you and just you to finish the race. It just takes time to learn.”
But as with the eights in the fall, Montovino quickly found his way. By the time the Northwest Regionals regatta was held on Vancouver Lake in mid-May—almost a year to the day of his car accident—Montovino was the club’s choice to row in the Men’s Novice singles event.
Montovino won his preliminary heat by almost 4½ seconds in a personal-best 8 minutes, 22.633 seconds, but in the final, he psyched himself out just a bit and got out to a slow start. He nearly caught Gabriel Petersen for second place, only to “catch a crab” (when the oar jerks in the water and doesn’t come out cleanly, Montovino explained) in the final few meters and get edged out, earning a bronze medal.
“I was a little bummed,” he said. “The placing didn’t matter too much to me. It’s the same thing as in running—you’re racing against yourself, and I lost to myself from the day before. But it did encourage me for this season. I haven’t been doing singles for that long. Looking back, realizing how far I’ve come, how much I’ve improved, it’s just made me strive to get better.”
Eastes thinks Montovino has the ability to row in college for a Division II or Division III program, or he could row for a club team at a bigger school such as Washington.
Montovino hears this and is taken aback. He hadn’t thought that far ahead. He sports a 3.83 GPA, wants to major in a STEM discipline in college (UW is his first choice), and also looks forward to joining the Navy ROTC program.
Rowing collegiately hadn’t been on his radar. He’s just enjoying the here and now, although every once in a while, he thinks about how lucky he is to be sitting in the boathouse, his athletic career on a different path than he’d ever imagined—but not over.
“I’m trying to think of something that’s not cheesy,” he said. “But life is a gift. Things can get turned on their head really quick. I was really lucky.”
“When we’re out on the boat, during the row, you’re not supposed to talk much, and it’s an opportunity for me to think and reflect, just let my mind wander and even do some praying while I’m out there.
“The doctors didn’t know what recovery for me would look like, or even if I’d recover. It definitely was a miracle for me to recover this fast,” he said.
Rhyan Montovino’s Favorite Things
TV show: Psych or Parks and Recreation
They’re both pretty funny and both pretty quotable. For action, I like The Walking Dead. It has interesting storylines, and you just get attached to the characters and see them almost dehumanize.
Movie: The Shawshank Redemption
I feel like most movies are pretty predictable. I figured one of them would escape from jail, but I like the scene when the officers discover the hole in the wall, and when the two of them meet in Mexico, it wraps up the movie really well.
Book: The Boys in the Boat
I have yet to meet someone who’s read the book and did not love it.
Food: His grandma’s homemade ravioli
I’m Italian, and she makes the best. We usually go with cheese and spinach ravioli, and sometimes we’ll even make it with spinach dough so it turns out green.
School subject: Math
I have a great teacher, the best I’ve ever had, Mrs. (Lisa) Edwards. I had her for Advanced Pre-Calculus, and now with AP Calculus, I’ll get her two years in a row.
Breakfast cereal: Honey Bunches of Oats
I’m just a Honey Bunches of Oats type of guy.
