‘A Most Beautiful Thing’ shares story of first African American prep rowing team

The first time Arshay Cooper and his Manley High School rowing teammates got in a boat at the Lincoln Park lagoon in 1998, most of them were still learning how to swim.

At that moment, the fact that they were making history as the first African American high school rowing team wasn’t a focal point. They were just trying to stay in the boat.

“No one really knew each other at that point,” Cooper said. “There were guys from different gangs in that boat. We weren’t around the neighborhood and the people who protected us. There were just these folks, most of them white, and they pushed us out in the water.”

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In 1998, basketball and football were the only sports taken seriously at Manley.

So when 32-year-old trader Ken Alpart showed up in the cafeteria with a boat and old tapes of the U.S. Olympic rowing team, students weren’t exactly lining up to join.

The former University of Pennsylvania crew-team member founded Urban Options with the idea of providing programs that kids in Chicago’s inner city might not have been exposed to before.

Rowing was one of those programs.

Alpart sold Cooper and his teammates — Alvin Ross, Preston Grandberry, Ray Hawkins Jr. and Malcolm Hawkins — on the idea of forming a brotherhood and a team on the water, something they had all been searching for through other outlets but never found.

“I grew up being chased,” Cooper said. “I’ve seen bullets fly past my home. I’ve skipped over pools of blood. I’ve seen people dead on the street corner, and it caused a lot of trauma. I tried out for the football team, and it triggered a lot of that trauma. I tried out for the basketball team, and it was a lot of conflict and arguing. Rowing was the only sport that didn’t trigger the trauma.”

The rowing team lasted three seasons, but the lessons Cooper and his teammates learned on the water shifted the trajectory of their lives.

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Cooper’s personal experience of healing from his childhood trauma inspired him to try to provide that same comfort to others, so in 2014 he began writing his autobiography.

After six months of writing, Cooper self-published his book, which was originally titled ‘‘Suga Water.’’ The first thing he did was send it to principals, teachers and coaches, and the response was powerful.

Cooper began speaking at schools, and before long, the book wound up in the hands of award-winning documentary filmmaker and former Olympic rower Mary Mazzio.

After reading the book, Mazzio took to Twitter to express her admiration for Cooper and his teammates, and within minutes of posting her tweet, she received a call from Cooper.

“He calls me and says, ‘Would you ever?’ ” Mazzio said. “And I was like, ‘Arshay, you had me at Mary Mazzio.’ I was so humbled he chose me to help share his story.”

Mazzio’s journey in creating the documentary ‘‘A Most Beautiful Thing,’’ narrated by Common and with Grant Hill and Dwyane Wade as executive producers, began with a ride around the old neighborhood. Cooper and Ross wanted to give the director a firsthand look at what life was like growing up on the West Side.

As the three of them drove through the West Side, beginning at Cooper’s old house and making their way to Manley High School, Cooper and Ross were pointing out the different blocks that belonged to different gangs.

“By the time we made it to Manley, I asked, ‘How did you get to school safely?’ ” Mazzio said. “And Arshay said, ‘That, my friend, is the point.’ ’’

The story Mazzio and Cooper share goes so much further than the history the team made on the water. The film takes you on a journey from the origins of the team in 1998 to the present day and exposes the social and structural impediments these young men had to endure, fought daily to overcome and are actively working to change in their communities.

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The film debuted last month at a special screening in Washington for members of Congress.

Congressman Danny Davis, whose district office is just a few blocks from Manley, was among those in attendance. He hopes that thousands of young people will see this film and use its countless lessons as a guide in their own lives.

“Not only were these men stars then, but they’re still stars today,” Davis said. “So I think it will be a tremendous motivating force.”

‘‘A Most Beautiful Thing’’ was set to debut to the public on Friday but has been postponed until July because of the coronavirus pandemic. Cooper’s memoir is available for preorder and will be republished by Macmillan Publishers on June 30 with the same title as the documentary.