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Kevin Kuwik (Dayton Assistant Coach)

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Buckskin86

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Kevin Kuwik

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."
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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

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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.
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washingtonpost.com
 
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Personal tragedy keeps OSU assistant coach determined to improve airline safety
By Doug Lesmerises, The Plain Dealer
December 10, 2009

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Princeton University
Last February, Kevin Kuwik was an assistant coach at Princeton when his fiancee, Lorin Mauer, was killed in a commuter plane crash outside Buffalo. “Every day thousands of flights and tens of thousands of passengers are flying around this country," Kuwik, now an assistant at Ohio State, said prior to addressing a congressional committee on Thursday, "and you never want to see anyone go through what we’ve had to go through.” COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Ohio State basketball assistant Kevin Kuwik still flies on the type of commuter aircraft on which his girlfriend, Lorin Mauer, died in a crash in Buffalo on Feb. 12.

Like many Americans, he has little choice if he's going to fly to see family or for his job as the Buckeyes' video coordinator. Yet Kuwik, 35, has a well of experience in adversity to call upon, and he won't fly without a fight.

Called up from reserve status to serve a 15-month tour in Iraq starting in 2004 while he was an assistant at Ohio University, Kuwik won't change his life, but he'll push to change the lives of others.

"From my time in Iraq, one mentality that was kind of instilled in me, something would happen, whether it be an IED hit or whatever, and we always took the approach if you let that change the way you live or approach every day, the bad guys win," Kuwik said Wednesday. "I think it's ingrained in. I've been flying to recruit or travel, to do everything, and I'm going to continue to do so, but at the same time I'm not just going to hope that something doesn't go wrong."
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http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2009/12/personal_tragedy_keeps_osu_ass.html

OSU men's basketball: He's proof a positive approach still works
Thursday, December 10, 2009
By Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

They know Kevin Kuwik's story.

They noticed the past few months that he'll miss a day of practice now and then. Coach Thad Matta has explained why, and there is a story about him, from The Washington Post, hanging in their locker room.

But maybe it wasn't until this week that the players on the Ohio State men's basketball team understood the moral of the story about their 35-year-old video coordinator.

"Life," Kuwik says, "is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it."

That's what he said he told Evan Turner on Sunday, the day after Turner and his teammates saw their aspirations for this season shattered with one fall to the floor.

Turner, one of the best players in college basketball, suffered a transverse process fracture of his second and third lumbar vertebrae when his hands slipped off the rim after a missed dunk and he fell flat on his back. He is expected to miss at least eight weeks.

"It's hard for him," Kuwik said yesterday. "It was hard for me the first time it happened, the second time it happened. And I don't know if it ever gets easier.

"But as you grow up and you get more perspective and you see yourself finding a way to get through some of these situations, maybe it gives you a little more belief that it isn't insurmountable."

While an assistant coach at Ohio University in 2004, Kuwik was sent on a 15-month tour in Iraq. His hitch in the U.S. Army Reserves had expired, but he had not completed his discharge paperwork when the letter arrived telling him to report.

"It definitely rocked my world," he said. "But I said to myself, 'Turn a negative into a positive.' That got me through that 15 months, every day thinking, 'Don't feel sorry for yourself, don't take the woe-is-me attitude. Find a way to bring something positive out of this.' "
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OSU men's basketball: He's proof a positive approach still works | BuckeyeXtra

http://www.cleveland.com/buckeyeblog/index.ssf/2009/12/kevin_kuwik_ohio_state_basketb.html
 
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Kuwik's journey is not yet complete

Friday is the one-year anniversary of the Continental Airlines regional jet crash near Buffalo that claimed the lives of 50 people, including Lorin Maurer, the girlfriend of Kevin Kuwik, the video coordinator for the Ohio State men's basketball team.

Since May, Kuwik has been one of the leading voices among survivors of the victims who continue to lobby Congress for legislation imposing more stringent safety regulations on the regional jet industry.

Kuwik will be among more than 500 family and friends of the victims who will reunite Friday in Buffalo and walk the 10 1/2 miles from the crash site to the Buffalo Niagara International Airport; they are calling it the "Walk to Complete the Journey."
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Kuwik's journey is not yet complete (Hoops & Scoops: an OSU basketball blog)
 
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Kuwik inspires OSU with pregame speech
February, 15, 2010
Kuwik Honors Late Girlfriend, Victims

Andy Katz reports on how Ohio State assistant Kevin Kuwik honored his late girlfriend and victims of Flight 3407

On Friday morning, Ohio State video coordinator Kevin Kuwik and hundreds of others walked the final 10? miles of what should have been the last few minutes of Continental Flight 3407 into Buffalo on Feb. 12, 2009.

The walk was yet another way Kuwik honored his late girlfriend and Flight 3407 victim Lorin Maurer, one of 50 who perished in the crash. For the past year, Kuwik, a former Indiana National Guardsman who served a lengthy tour in Iraq, has been at the forefront of lobbying Congress to change aviation laws for tougher regulations on commuter pilot training.

Unbeknownst to Kuwik, Ohio State coach Thad Matta had patches made with "3407" to honor the one-year anniversary.

"It totally took me by surprise," Kuwik said Sunday night.

Matta said the idea came to him when he was with his wife this past week and saw a PBS "Frontline" feature about the crash and the lobbying effort.

"Kevin had been flying back to D.C. [to lobby], back and forth every two weeks, and he apologizes about it," Matta said. "I kept telling him, 'Kevin, don't worry about it.' But when I watched that program, I looked at my wife, and we were both in tears. I told [Ohio State's equipment manager] that we had to do something."

When Kuwik reached Champaign, Ill., for Sunday's game against Illinois, Matta told him he would give the pregame speech.

Matta said he has had Lou Holtz, Jim Tressel and others address his teams over the years. But those speeches were nothing compared with Kuwik's.

"It was the most amazing thing in my life," Matta said Sunday night. "Every guy had tears in their eyes. He spoke to 12 guys. He could have spoken to the world."

Kuwik told the Buckeyes that when the 50 passengers got onto that plane, they had no idea what they were getting into. The past year has been about making sure people know and making sure it never happens again.

"I told them they don't understand what it means to have the No. 13 team in the country wear that patch on national TV," Kuwik said. "It helps everyone know that it is a big deal."

Kuwik told the Buckeyes to "think about the person that means the most to you, your mom, your dad, and that person being gone in a blink of an eye. The 50 family members had that happen. You can be miserable, bitter or make something positive out of it."

The players took the message to heart.
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Andy Katz's Daily Word: Kevin Kuwik's emotional pep talk lifts Ohio State Buckeyes - ESPN
Ohio State Honors Flight 3407 Crash Victims
Monday, February 15, 2010
Posted By Chris Littmann

This might come off like an obscure jersey note that was extracted from a single link on UniWatch, but I wanted to draw attention to it because of the connection to someone I know.

Ohio State wore the patches you see on Evan Turner during Sunday's game against Illinois. The black-and-white patch reads "3407," which references flight number 3407. That was the flight that crashed on Feb. 12, 2009, killing 50 people onboard and one on the ground. Among those 51 killed was Lorin Mauer, the girlfriend of Ohio State men's basketball video coordinator Kevin Kuwik.

Kuwik and others who lost loved ones to the 3407 crash walked what should've been the final 10-plus miles of that flight on Friday morning. It's the latest move to raise awareness about aviation safety concerns, which you can learn more about at 3407memorial.com. (Take a minute to read more.)

Kuwik returned from that walk and was asked by Ohio State coach Thad Matta to give Sunday's pregame speech before the win against Illinois. It was no great surprise that dry eyes were hard to come by in the Buckeyes' locker room. He has some experience at this.

I had the pleasure of covering Kuwik when I was a student at Ohio University and he was an assistant on the Bobcats' staff. He was known for his tireless work ethic, and that he has been spreading himself thin between lobbying in D.C. and doing his job with the Buckeyes shouldn't come as a shock to anyone who knows him.
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http://www.sportingnews.com/blog/th...5/ohio_state_honors_flight_3407_crash_victims
 
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Persistence of OSU assistant, others pays off

Air safety legislation championed by Kevin Kuwik, the Buckeyes' video coordinator, and families of the victims of Flight 3407 passed Congress on Friday and will be signed into law by President Barack Obama.

Kuwik's girlfriend, Lorin Maurer, was on the commuter flight that crashed Feb. 12, 2009, on approach to Buffalo-Niagara International Airport. All 49 people on the flight and a man in the house the plane crashed into died.

Kuwik, who made numerous trips to Washington to lobby Congress in the 18 months since the accident, discussed it twice with local media, in October and December of last year.
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Persistence of OSU assistant, others pays off (Hoops & Scoops: an OSU basketball blog)

The Associated Press: Congress OKs overhaul of airline pilot rules
 
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Buckeyes to honor Flight 3407 victims
February, 11, 2011

A year ago, Ohio State coach Thad Matta shocked his assistant Kevin Kuwik by saying he wanted to do something to remember Kuwik's former girlfriend on the one-year anniversary of her tragic death in a commuter plane crash outside of Buffalo.

So the Buckeyes wore patches with the flight number -- 3407 -- on their uniforms at Illinois on Feb. 14, two days after the anniversary but the first game Ohio State had that weekend.

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Robin Alam/Icon SMI
Evan Turner and Ohio State wore the "3407" patch last season against Illinois.

Patches on sports uniforms usually have a shelf life of the current season in which someone close to the team/program/franchise dies.

But the grieving doesn't stop after one year. And apparently neither does Matta's respect for Kuwik's loss and the continued fight for a cause that ensued. Ohio State will wear the patches once again, this time Saturday, as the top-ranked and undefeated Buckeyes go to Madison to play Wisconsin.

"Time goes on and everyone expects you to move on but it's a lot easier said than done," said Kuwik, who is Ohio State's video coordinator but is essentially one of the key assistant coaches. "I appreciate that Thad recognizes how important this is to me and to everyone else and he has stuck with us all the way through."

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http://espn.go.com/mens-college-bas...id/6113314/buckeyes-honor-flight-3407-victims
 
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Ohio State Assistant?s Higher Cause
By PAT BORZI
Published: March 19, 2011

CLEVELAND ? If Kevin Kuwik, the video coordinator for the Ohio State basketball team, spots a flaw in George Mason?s defense that the Buckeyes can exploit in their N.C.A.A. tournament game Sunday, it will not be anywhere close to the most significant thing he has done in his life.

Neither is his 15-month tour of duty for the Indiana Army National Guard in Iraq, where he won a Bronze Star.

To the families of the victims of Colgan Air Flight 3407, which crashed near Buffalo on Feb. 12, 2009, Kuwik is their go-to guy, the man who navigated the federal bureaucracy to get their voices heard in Congress. Kuwik?s girlfriend, Lorin Maurer, was one of the 49 people killed aboard that flight; the National Transportation Safety Board attributed the crash to pilot error.

It took a chance meeting in a casino, many trips to Washington and lots of nights with little sleep. But Kuwik?s efforts led to the passage of the Airline Safety and Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2010, which allows more rest for pilots and establishes a central database for airlines to review pilots? F.A.A. records before hiring.

?Without Kevin, that piece of legislation does not happen,? said Scott Maurer, Lorin?s father. ?He?s just a remarkable young man. When he gets focused on something, look out.?

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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/20/sports/ncaabasketball/20buckeyes.html
 
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/sports/ncaabasketball/24ncaa.html?_r=1&ref=sports

Basketball Number Cruncher Becomes a Go-To Guy
By PETE THAMEL
Published: March 23, 2011

NEW ORLEANS -- Well past midnight in the team hotel after Butler defeated Michigan State for a spot in the national title game last year, Bulldogs Coach Brad Stevens embarked on the biggest challenge of his coaching career. With less than 48 hours to prepare for Duke, Stevens flipped open his laptop.

He logged on to the basketball statistics Web site of Ken Pomeroy, a meteorologist based in Utah whom he has never met or spoken with. There, he found advanced data about Duke's tendencies that helped him come within a missed shot of the national title.

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