Circle Book Club explores Arshay Cooper’s ‘A Most Beautiful Thing’

Students and faculty gathered remotely on February 2 for the latest installment of Groton School’s Circle Book Club, a discussion of Arshay Cooper’s A Most Beautiful Thing.

Mr. Cooper grew up on the West Side of Chicago and went to Manley High School, one of the toughest schools in the city, surrounded by violence and gang culture. In 1997, he joined the first all-Black high school rowing team in America, a crew he would later go on to captain. 

The experience, so foreign at first for an inner-city kid, would go on to redefine what Mr. Cooper thought possible. After graduation, he spent two years in AmeriCorps, attended Le Cordon Bleu, and ultimately fulfilled his dream of being a professional chef, working for the likes of World Wrestling Entertainment. He’s since worked as a coach and counselor, and helped create the same kind of rowing programs that changed his life in other low-income communities across the country. A recent film adaptation of the book was named one of the best films of 2020 by Esquire magazine and was nominated for an NAACP Image Award.

Mr. Cooper was also keynote speaker at Groton’s 2023 MLK Day event. Caroline Chica, Groton’s associate director of admission and co-director of the Cultural Alliance, told club members that he came to the school’s attention through a confluence of good luck: Associate Head of School and Crew Coach Andy Anderson was familiar with some of the people who worked on the film adaptation and Trustee Kevin Griffith ’80 knew Mr. Cooper from his nonprofit work in Chicago.

“I started thinking, ‘There’s something going on here. This is going to be good,” Ms. Chica said. “What was really nice about having Arshay Cooper here is that he’s just a real person. I think he related to the students in a way that was very approachable and he really spoke a lot about how athletics can be an avenue to learn more about yourself, to learn about discipline, community. And I think that really resonates with my experience here at Groton.”

Christina Chen ’23 said that, as coxswain for the boys varsity crew team, the book was a very special read for her.

“It was really great to read a book not only about finding identity and empowerment through sport,” she said, “but also looking at the sport of rowing through a very different perspective.

“I felt really connected through the way that he wrote about rowing: This attitude of a team extending beyond just being in the boat and really becoming a family, on and off the water,” Christina added. “That’s a value that I’m really going to hold onto.” 

Jennifer Polynice ’25 read the book over break and said Mr. Cooper’s relatability came through to her, both on the page and in person.

“His talk was amazing,” said Jennifer. “Some speakers come in and just lecture us. But Mr. Cooper didn’t only talk about his life. He integrated the students into the conversation.”

The hour-long conversation covered the plot of the book and broader themes of faith and spirituality, empathy and caring, leadership, and the intersection of athletics and identity, both individually and as part of a team.

“The book spoke to me on many levels,” said former coxswain Betsy Lawrence ’82. “It was fun to read his descriptions of rowing, but it was really the friendships he developed that spoke to me. The relationships I made on the water are ones to this day that I hold incredibly dear.”

Elise Bolger Ruggles ’82 said taking the idea of Mr. Cooper’s faith—in his coaches and teammates, in his mother’s recovery from drug addiction, and in himself—out of the book would’ve left a very different story.

“I think of Groton as a school with a foundation of faith,” she said, “so in the same way you couldn’t take the chapel out of Groton School and have it be Groton School.”  

Stay tuned for details of the next Circle Book Club selection, coming soon.