Cooper's friends, family gather with hopes of a rescue

MESA, Ariz. — Only a few hours after the Coast Guard had called off its search Tuesday, about 300 friends and family members of Marquis Cooper gathered with others who simply wanted to help.

They came to a sprawling church for a hastily organized prayer vigil for the former University of Washington and Seahawks linebacker.

Just don't call it a memorial. Those who gathered shared the hope that the man who loved football and fishing somehow will be found alive and vowed to continue the search for Cooper and two friends who have been lost at sea off Florida's Gulf coast since Saturday night.

"We're not quitters," Joseph Davis, Cooper's grandfather, told reporters at the family church, Central Christian Church, saying he believed his grandson was still alive. "The search is going to still go on."

Cooper's father, Bruce, and a friend, NFL free-agent defensive tackle Tank Johnson, told The Associated Press that they would organize their own search.

"What we're asking for is experienced aviation pilots" to volunteer for the mission, said Johnson, who played alongside Cooper at UW from 2000 to 2003. "We are looking only for experienced pilots. ... We don't want another tragedy as we are searching."

Johnson, who played for the Dallas Cowboys last season, said he had spoken to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and that "we have the support of the entire NFL" in continuing the search.

Cooper, 26, was a freshman on the Huskies team that won the Rose Bowl after the 2000 season and was a college standout selected by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the third round of the 2004 NFL draft. He played for six teams in five years, including the Seahawks in 2006. He currently is listed on the Oakland Raiders' roster.

Cooper met his wife, Seattle-area native Rebekah, while both were students at UW. The two have a 3-year-old daughter, Delaney.

Four pictures of Cooper greeted those who came to Tuesday's vigil. One showed him wearing a UW football shirt and holding a fish. In another, Cooper and several friends formed the letter "W" with their hands — a signature used by UW athletes and students.

Davis and several other family members spoke with reporters before the vigil, which was attended by Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner. The gathering echoed themes that have emerged the past few days of a kindhearted, perpetually smiling young man who loved to fish.

"We're optimistic, yet down," said James Livingston, a cousin of Cooper's. "But we're going to continue to keep the faith and look to the heavens. That's where our answers come from."

Livingston called it "surreal" seeing the pictures of Cooper's capsized 21-foot boat, having been on it himself a few times to fish. He said Cooper was an expert boater.

"I know something had to have happened out of the ordinary," Livingston said.

"They were sitting on chairs fishing, the weather got bad and a wave came and capsized the vessel," he said of details that have been released to the family.

Nick Schuyler, a former player at the University of South Florida, was found clinging to the boat Monday and rescued. Cooper and the two others — NFL free-agent defensive lineman Corey Smith and former South Florida tight end William Bleakley — have not been found.

As Schuyler recovered in a Tampa, Fla., hospital, he gave details of a desperate fight for survival in stormy seas. The four fishing buddies huddled together in the dark, clinging to their capsized boat, Schuyler told a friend. The light of helicopter shone on them, and he could see city lights from shore. But the men drifted away as the hours passed, with Cooper and Smith disappearing first.

"The waves were just so much. They never got a break," Schuyler's friend Scott Miller told AP.

The men initially hung together, trying to come up with a plan. Bleakley swam underneath the boat and retrieved three life jackets and a cushion.

At the church in Arizona on Tuesday night, Cooper's grandmother Zelma Davis said she was keeping faith that Cooper was OK and said she was comforted that he was following his passion when the accident occurred.

"He loved that water, so he's OK," she said. "He's all right."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com.