SZVETITZ COLUMN: Hawke proves worthy leader of AU swim team

Brett Hawke had the swimming resume. And the trophy case to go with it.

But the two-time Australian Olympic Team member and nine-time NCAA individual champion — not to mention a 17-time All-American swimmer for Auburn University — lacked the coaching background.

Heck, he’d only been out of the pool for three years since retiring as a professional in early 2006.

On paper, he wasn’t exactly cut out for the job he inherited when Auburn head swimming coach Richard Quick was diagnosed with an inoperable cancerous brain tumor in late December 2008 and had to step away from the team.

Hawke had only been an assistant. For three years. Never a head coach.

And the guy he was stepping in for has been stalking pool decks longer than Hawke has been breathing. Oh, and then there’s the 12
NCAA Championships on Quick’s resume — seven at Stanford and five at Texas.

No pressure. Yeah, right.

“I felt a lot of pressure initially when Richard first had to take a step back,” Hawke said. “I saw myself as an assistant coach and not a head coach.”

But then he realized something. What’s written on a piece of paper doesn’t define who you are.

“I’m a coach. I get paid to do a job,” Hawke said. “And I knew I could do it.”

And he did. Well. Very well.

Hawke stepped up and in. And even while still grieving for a friend and mentor who had just been dealt a colossal blow, he took over the
Auburn men’s program and dove right in.

He led the men to another SEC title — their 13th in a row — and their eighth national championship since 1997. It is the program’s 13th national crown overall.

Not bad for an “assistant coach.”

“It was a pretty cool thing,” Hawke said. “You just kind of got to pinch yourself and make sure it all happened the way it did.

“It was a pretty cool experience really.”

And he’s not just talking about the national championship — which the men won last weekend at Texas A&M. He’s actually talking about the entire experience.

The whole ride. Not just the last turn.

See, Hawke knew he could do the job. He just had to convince his swimmers.

“At that point, it was more about the psychological than it was anything physical,” he said. “I had to get the guys believing in me. I had to get the guys confident in the fact I could get the job done.”

And he did. But it didn’t come on the pool deck during a practice, or even during a meet.

No, it came outside. After a beatdown from Texas in early January.

Hawke called it “male bonding.” If this weren’t a family newspaper, we might call it something else.

“I could have let the guys been OK with being close to Texas,” he said after the Tigers fell to the Longhorns, 139-102.

And no one would have really blamed him for it. After all, it wasn’t even two weeks after Quick’s diagnosis — an event that devastated the team when it originally found out and still resonates throughout the entire university and swimming world.

Just getting in the pool was a victory. Right?

Not for Hawke.

“I took the guys outside and just gave it to them,” he said. “I felt like it was what those guys needed at the time. It was a kick in the pants.

“I knew we had the swimmers to beat Texas. I didn’t see anything more special in them than I did in our guys. I just kind of smacked them into believing.”

And at that moment, it was Hawke’s team. Unequivocally.

“At first, I was apprehensive about it,” Hawke said of the after-meet “male bonding.”

“But after I did it, I felt it was a really powerful moment. I feel like it really elevated me into the position as head coach at that point.”

And the Tigers responded. They have the trophy to prove it, as they turned around and beat that same Texas team in come-from-behind
fashion to win the title last weekend.

Talk about a cherry on top.

And Hawke? Well, he now has that experience ... and another star to go on that paper everyone loves to measure a person’s worth against.

“When I first got in this game three years ago, the guys looked up to me because of what I did as a swimmer,” Hawke said. “People really respected that fact.

“But then, I had to go out and earn extra respect as a coach. I had to go out and prove that I knew what I was doing on the deck.”

Done and done.

While everyone is hoping Quick will return to the team, no one knows that for sure. Hawke said he’s going to continue coaching Auburn, waiting for the day Quick can come back.

But what happens if that’s not the case?

Well, one thing’s clear: Auburn doesn’t have look too far for another leader. It’s got a darn good one already on deck.

MIKE SZVETITZ is sports editor of the Opelika-Auburn News. He may be reached at mszvetitz@oanow.com