Kevin Kuwik (official thread)

[Buckskin86]

Iraq veteran joins staff
Kevin Kuwik is the program's new video coordinator, Matta announced. He replaces Dan Peters, who left for Akron in June.

Kuwik was an assistant coach at Ohio University from 2001 through 2008, during which he served an 18-month stint in Iraq with the Indiana Army National Guard. He was a captain in the 113th Army Engineer Battalion.

BuckeyeXtra - The Columbus Dispatch : OSU basketball: Weatherspoon joins large class of 2010

[Kickdown02]

Another solid coaching pick up for Matta. Kuwik was at Butler this past season. A great young coach.

[Buckskin86]

October 30, 2009
Kevin Kuwik's new cause

When coach Thad Matta hired Kevin Kuwik as the program's video coordinator in August, I was well aware of Kuwik's story from when The Dispatch profiled him as an Ohio University assistant coach in 2005. Then, he was on leave from his job and in Iraq as a captain with a U.S. Army Reserves engineering unit. He served for 14 months, returning in December 2005, and was awarded a Bronze Star for meritorious service.

I was unaware of the rest of his story until this morning, when I read The Washington Post account of yesterday's Senate aviation committee hearing in Washington on legislation that would enhance aviation safety regulations.

Kuwik served as spokesman at the hearing for a group representing passengers of Continental Connection Flight 3407, which crashed Feb.12 in icy weather while on approach to Buffalo Niagara International Airport in New York.

Why Kuwik?

His girlfriend, Lorin Maurer, a fund-raiser in the Princeton athletics department, was a passenger on the flight and died, as did all others on board. Maurer, 30, was en route to Buffalo to meet Kuwik for his brother's wedding Feb.14.

Kuwik was working as director of basketball operations at Butler last season. He and Maurer had met less than a year before the crash while attending the Final Four in San Antonio.

"Coming back from Iraq and I didn't lose anybody," Kuwik told the Buffalo News the day after the accident. "You think if you can get through Iraq unscathed, you wouldn't have something like this happen."

Hoops & Scoops: an OSU basketball blog

After a loss, this coach has a cause that goes on
Kuwik advocates improved pilot safety after girlfriend's death
By Steve Yanda
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 30, 2009


Kevin Kuwik, the video coordinator of the Ohio State men's basketball program and a former assistant coach at Ohio University, lost his girlfriend in the crash of Continental Connection Flight 3407 near Buffalo on Feb. 12. Now his efforts are aimed toward Congress. (Melina Mara/the Washington Post)

One day, Kevin Kuwik hopes, recruiting will be a crucial part of his job as a college basketball head coach. On Thursday, Kuwik spent nine hours doing exactly that, recruiting members of Congress to support a cause that has consumed him for months.

For the 10th time since the beginning of May, Kuwik and several others came to represent the passengers of Continental Connection Flight 3407 and solicit support for legislation that would enhance aviation safety regulations. The legislation already has passed in the House of Representatives but has not yet made it to the Senate, not with the health care debate consuming nearly all conversation on Capitol Hill.

So Kuwik, the video coordinator of the Ohio State men's basketball program and a former assistant coach at Ohio University, led a group of grieving victims into a congressional office building to sit in on a Senate aviation subcommittee hearing chaired by one of his chief targets for the day -- Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.). Afterward, they held a makeshift news conference outside the hearing room before a series of meetings with congressional staffers whose bosses' influence would greatly benefit their cause.

washingtonpost.com