By Logan Langlois
NASHVILLE, TN — Did you catch the last Nashville boat rowing race by chance? Neither did any other Tennessean you’d try and ask probably, but what if you found out that this under-celebrated sport could be the gateway to bettering the lives of many of Nashville’s inner-city kids? That’s what author, mentor, professional chef, and former captain of America’s first all-Black high school rowing team, Arshay Cooper, said soon after he visited the Nashville Public Library to talk about his book A Most Beautiful Thing. While touring the city, Cooper said he was also able to visit with the Nashville Rowing Club Executive Director and Junior Men’s Head Coach Cory Sanderson to talk with the team’s coach about an upcoming recruiting program Cooper is to help coordinate, set to launch this Fall.
Copper said outreach would consist of him coming back with the team he’s assembled that is dedicated to his cause of traveling to inner cities all around the world with him to talk to kids about crew. He said with this team – which includes former American Olympians of color – he will be traveling throughout many of Nashville’s inner city and underprivileged areas to share his story with kids about how the sport of rowing provided him an outlet and path away from gang life while growing up in a violent neighborhood on Chicago’s West Side in the 1990s. Cooper said the rowing team that he was the captain of in high school consisted of many kids who were from rival neighborhoods, who, after finding their way to crew, were able to put away their differences and work together.
“Rowing completely changed my life and I always say that it’s where I found my wellness,” Cooper said. “It’s a sport that’s non-combative, non-conflict, many college opportunities.”
Cooper said his mission, before, during, and after the writing of A Most Beautiful Thing has been committed to outreach for troubled youth to find an outlet through crew. He said the inspiration behind writing his internationally celebrated book that has now been adopted into a documentary produced by 9th Wonder, Grant Hill, and Dwayne Wade, and narrated by Common, was to tell his story so that kids could see participating in the sport is possible for them as well. Cooper said that along with recruiting, he will also be trying to secure funding to expand the Nashville Rowing Club membership.
Cooper said one of the biggest hurdles to getting kids to join crew is providing them with consistent and reliable transportation. He said crew could be a great opportunity for many of Nashville’s children of color and girls, as the most sought-after college scholarships are for fall sports, leaving rowing to be a dark horse for life-changing financial aid. Cooper said rowing has often been a sport most populated by those in usually white, elite communities. He said it is time for the sport to become more reflective of the diversity that makes up the true American image.
“In the 150-plus years this sport’s been an Olympic sport there’s only been five Olympians of color in rowing in our country,” Cooper said. “I think we need to represent our country better.”
Cooper said he hopes to see some of the kids he has mentored in America make it to compete in the Olympics themselves, as it is one of the big ways crew measures an athlete’s success. He said rowing not only teaches kids life skills of teamwork and swimming but can also help them travel to see parts of their city and country they may not have the opportunity to otherwise.
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