By EARYEL BOWLEG

Tribune Staff Reporter

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

AMERICAN rower Arshay Cooper is spreading the message about opportunities available to young people through sports like rowing.

The athlete, best-selling author, and protagonist of the film “A Most Beautiful Thing”, was in New Providence last week and met scores of interested students.

His visit was part of the US Embassy’s initiative to “bridge the gap” through sports.

“I’ve seen them, some on the rowing machine,” Mr Cooper said of the students he encountered. “We introduced most kids to the rowing machine. I seen them a little nervous or maybe don’t want to get on and they got on and they didn’t want to get off.”

“They had a lot of questions, you know, about what’s next and how they can get involved and the college opportunities.”

“Most of them are looking to be a part of a team and to find that sisterhood, that brotherhood.”

“I always say like, you know, everywhere I go, talent is everywhere, access and opportunities is not and we see some kid pull some amazing scores on the erg machines.”

“The good thing about rowing is that there are kids that have full scholarships to university because of their erg scores and never been on a boat. We see kids that can definitely 100 per cent develop into a collegiate rower, not only collegiate rower, they can represent this country in the Olympics being that they stick with it.”

Mr Cooper’s foundation, A Most Beautiful Thing Inclusion Fund, helps create access in academic support, college readiness, and youth entrepreneurship through rowing.

According to the fund’s website, the mission is “to break barriers within the sport of rowing by increasing sustainability, access to rowing, and diversity throughout youth rowing programmes across the country”.

Mr Cooper knows the power of sport as he benefited from rowing himself, having grown up poor on the west side of Chicago.

“It sounds good, right, like to be able to make history, but I felt like I didn’t want to be a trailblazer,” he said. “I wasn’t sure if I was able to navigate through a sport, where no one looked like me.”

“Me and these guys from different gangs, from different neighbourhoods, started rowing all over the country. It wasn’t just a rowing programme. It was a youth entrepreneurship programme as well and so a lot of us learn how to start our own business, how to work well with others and all the lessons we learned from the sport we kind of added it to our daily lives.”

Mr Cooper said rowing in the US offers more scholarships for young women than any other sport.

“I work with college coaches, meet with Ivy League coaches, D1 coaches, D2 coaches, and they can’t give out enough scholarships to women,” he said.

“So I think for the young girls it’s so important that we can create more access and dismantle barriers for them to be a part of the sport. That is so important.”

“For the young men, they have to, you know, put in a little bit more work. And you know, they’re competing with a lot of guys from Europe who started rowing probably at eight years old. So it’s a little challenging, but the scholarships are there.”

To get recruited for rowing at the collegiate level, Mr Cooper said rowing machine scores are essential.

“You’re measured by your 2k distance, 2,000 metres,” he explained. “So it is what you do with that machine, and the more time you spend on it, the better you become. It’s not really about athletic abilities when it comes to the rowing machine. It’s the work that you put in.”

The US Embassy’s partner, the Nassau Rowing Club (NRC), aims to change the lives of young Bahamians through sports and education.

“Our goal is to increase access to and awareness of the sport of rowing among young Bahamians from under-resourced backgrounds and communities,” said Kyle Chea, NRC founder and president.