OKLAHOMA CITY – The mental picture of rowing often presents as a skinny boat moving gracefully across the water, powered by men who on land walk around in their Ivy League letterman sweaters, flashing winning smiles and an air of wealth.
 
Strike that image from your mind and say 'howdy' to Oklahoma City University's growing culture of youth rowers.
 
"People tend to associate rowing with the Ivy League and the northeast and it is a sport with a lot of tradition, but it isn't an elitist sport," said Mike Knopp, OCU director of river operations. "It involves mental endurance and grit to be a successful athlete. We're about creating a culture here over time. We want this to be as accessible as other sports."
 
Twenty-five years ago, the Oklahoma River was a dried-up dividing line in Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma City MAPS program, however, included damming and planting trees to transform the once-ugly gulley into the pride of the city. With the change, OCU and Knopp invested in the OCU Rowing program.
 
Soon, the Boathouse District was a thing and though the name suggests images of elitism, it is athleticism that resides there.
 
OCU isn't keeping the sport to itself and its home on the river – the Devon Boathouse – is now also a hub for a youth program that has grown to 17 high school and middle school teams across the metro area.
 
Knopp, along with OCU rowing coach Bryan Volpenhein and several OCU student-athletes, have lent their experience and time to growing a new generation of rowers in Oklahoma.
 
School Rowing
Knopp has led Oklahoma City and the university to develop a program that eliminates stereotypes and brings the sport of rowing to urban students.
 
"Schools didn't know how to start a rowing team," Knopp said. "We provide the boats, the facility and coaches. We wanted to create a program with no barriers."
 
The river sports youth program has made inroads with the metro's Title I schools that otherwise wouldn't have been able to fund another team.
 
"For me, it's always been about making it available for everyone," Knopp said. "The changes the sport can make are important. It's team-intensive. There are no MVPs; no bench. Everyone contributes to making the team better."
 
Mike's son Keaton is an OCU rower who also coaches the middle school students. He's seen firsthand the impact of middle school rowing.
 
"I was coaching a group of kids who, if not through their school, likely would not have had an opportunity to participate in a sport like rowing," Keaton said. "It was at a regatta and I helped motivate them to win their race, and the smiles and cheers that erupted from them were beautiful and extremely inspiring to see. They told me, 'They had never won anything in their lives,' and that moment solidified why coaching and giving kids these opportunities is so important to me."
 
A Symbolic River
No doubt, there's a philosophy about the sport itself, but no less so is the idea of what river sports bring to Oklahoma City.
 
"The river was dried up," Knott said. "I feel like the river has always been a dividing line- a ditch that divided people. Now the river is a place to bring people together in the quintessential team sport as one."
 
And on that river lies the OCU's Devon Boathouse – the jewel of the river. The $10 million facility is home to the Oklahoma City National High Performance Center, providing training opportunities for Olympic hopefuls in rowing and canoe/kayak.
 
The youngsters in the program get access to rowing tanks, rowing machines and other amenities to help them develop their skills. Stadium lighting gives the program a true high school sports feel.
 
"The Devon Boathouse is equipped with a rowing tank," said Knopp. "We know being out on the river can be intimidating and the tank helps kids overcome that. We also have rowing machines and the athletes can see themselves on a big screen competing."
 
Inspiring a Generation
Introducing the students to rowing is more than a school experience.
 
"It's all about getting kids on the water; the legacy of it," said Knopp. "If we can inspire and keep this generation active, that could be very powerful for the next generation regarding health and wellness."
 
Introducing kids to the sport has meaning for the here and now as well.
 
"We connect with the kids that have not found their place in other sports," Knopp said. "Their life trajectory opens up significantly. We get a lot of anecdotal information from parents about personal achievements in their children – a whole new level of confidence."
 
An Impact on OCU Students
The program also helps the OCU rowers, giving them a feeling of accomplishing something important to others.
 
"Working with middle school rowers has been very rewarding to me in various ways," Keaton said. "For starters, I believe giving back to the community that gave me all of my personal opportunities in the sport is incredibly important to enriching my own athletic experience. Furthermore, there is nothing more rewarding than watching the kids I coach grow more confident in themselves and their athleticism over the course of a season, and any way I can positively affect their lives and provide an uplifting environment is very fulfilling to me."
 
Growing the Sport
Keaton says the students in the program benefit both socially and physically while also growing the sport.
 
"Youth programming like our team is very important to the sport, especially in a place like Oklahoma, where rowing is not as widespread," Keaton said. "Teaching kids at a young age how to be athletes is so important because of the difficulty and intensity of rowing at a higher level, and by introducing kids to rowing in middle school, they are adequately prepared by high school to compete at a very competitive level. This more gradual introduction only works to further the depth of the sport and broaden its scope, something that rowing in Oklahoma needs."
 
Voice of Experience
While he doesn't work directly with the participating students, Volpenhein, an Olympic gold medalist, works with the program's coaches and sees the impact of the program on OCU.
 
"I think having our athletes work with the youth programs here has multiple benefits," Volpenhein said. "It improves their perspective on rowing and sports and what are the truly important values. It improves their communication skills, leadership skills, and interpersonal skills. It improves their own rowing skills. The more they teach and coach, the better they get at the sport themselves."
 
Transformational Experience
The program changes the students who are finding their path forward.
 
"A lot of the kids who initially join our program are shy, quiet, and timid around the other athletes," Keaton said. "As we push them out of their comfort zones and help them find ways to be proud of their personal accomplishments, watching them grow in confidence and spirit is incredible to see. By the time they graduate from the middle school program, a lot of our athletes are nearly unrecognizable from the kid who joined because of the confidence and happiness they gained from working hard and being pushed, praised and seen."
 
It's also changing the way they see the city.
 
"I love how the program draws from all over the city and from a diverse range of communities," Volpenhein said. "I like how many different opportunities the program provides, and I love how hard they work and the quality of the athletes that are coming out of those programs. They are all-around great people and athletes and have been a pleasure to coach and work with at OCU."
 
As OCU celebrates its 25^th year of river sports, it remains committed to improving and growing the community and the sport.