Documentary on Atlantic High football team, “I WILL SOAR,” debuts in Delray Beach
DELRAY BEACH — A three-year journey came to a climax Tuesday when Atlantic football players, staff, and members of the Delray Beach community came together for the private screening of “I WILL SOAR,” a documentary on Atlantic’s football team at IPIC Theater.
The idea for a documentary originated during a breakfast between two friends. John Sturdy, a cinematography, met his longtime friend Jane Swanko one day for breakfast and pitched the director and motivational speaker on an interview.
He’d heard about Swanko’s volunteer work at Atlantic High School and felt it had the makings of a feel-good story in his local Delray Beach community.
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But what was really happening within Atlantic’s football program, led by then-coach TJ Jackson, was a far more complex and inspirational story — one that Sturdy and Swanko quickly agreed had to be told.
“I just said to John, ‘I’ll tell you the documentary. Come with me,’” Swanko said.
While Swanko had started her work at Atlantic as a motivational speaker brought in by Jackson, her connection with the student-athletes within the program became something she never could have expected.
“I just fell in love. I couldn’t leave,” she said. “When they have no one else to turn to, they go to the football family. There’s an old saying that they said, football will save them. And this football program has saved these kids.”
Tuesday’s red-carpet showing brought together a number of football players, both past and present, including defensive tackle Zyin Thomas and receiver Tyler Burke, and former star Henry Bryant, who now attends Louisville.
“At first, we were a little shocked because half the team is camera-shy. I wasn’t really a spotlight person,” Thomas said about being introduced to the idea of the documentary.
“But as John came along, we got the hang of the camera, we got used to it,” he continued. “After a year, the next season, we totally forgot about it. We still knew he was recording us, but we just put it to the side and did what we had to do.”
That included a standout season for Atlantic, which won the Class 7A tri-county gold bracket title in 2020 after missing out on the state postseason series due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Plays that highlighted Atlantic’s success on the field, like a long touchdown score by Burke, drew smiling reactions from the audience during the screening, but the documentary was about much more than just on-field prowess.
“The gist of this documentary is just how, in an inner city school that lives 80 percent below poverty, if you build a family and get the support of the community, the success that you can have,” Swanko said. “This is not one person. This is a store that has come together to take care of these kids.”
The academic side of Atlantic’s success, including a steady dose of tutoring for struggling student-athletes and an emphasis on maintaining high GPAs, was depicted in the documentary.
And rightfully so. The program had a 100 percent graduation rate this year, with 63 percent of the players becoming first-generation college students.
“Without your education, you can’t really go anywhere,” Bryant said. “So it’s important. Coach TJ would always tell us to focus on our grades first, family and our grades. Football is just there.”
The graduation and college accomplishments come in the face of numerous obstacles within their community, challenges the student-athletes took on with the support of the community around them.
“The happiness that you see, there’s a lot of struggle going on in this town,” Sturdy said. “And a lot of these kids don’t have things most people grow up with, and they still succeeded. And that, to me, is remarkable.”
