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College basketball: March Madness 2005
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Games mean more (and less) when duty calls
By JOHN ROMANO
Published March 16, 2005
They are only games. Or so we are told.
They are terribly indulgent, and essentially meaningless. Except, perhaps, to the Army captain in Iraq who smiles at the latest Ohio University result on a makeshift scoreboard built for him by one of his soldiers.
They are only games. That's what you hear.
They have been assigned too much importance, and have no relevance in the real world. Although they must have meant something to the sergeant in Mosul who postponed his leave so a fellow soldier could fly home in time for the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament.
They are only games. Don't you know that?
They will be over in a few days, and largely forgotten in a few weeks. Still, they seem to have burrowed into Kevin Kuwik's soul.
The NCAA Tournament is about to begin and soon you will hear of the road taken by this player, or the path followed by that one.
None will measure up to the travels of Kuwik, who will be on the sideline with Ohio University against Florida in a first-round game on Friday.
Win or lose, Kuwik will be back on the road by Tuesday. There will be some combination of flights that will take him from his two-week leave in the U.S. to Europe, Kuwait and, eventually, his cot in a 7-by-20 metal shed in Iraq.
Kuwik, 30, is a basketball coach in his fourth season at Ohio. He is also an Army captain and engineer who is about one-third of his way through an 18-month tour of duty.
One has nothing to do with the other, but somehow the games have made the military obligation seem easier to tolerate. And, in some ways, his service with the Army has brought a greater perspective to a basketball team.
"In no way do I want to preach to them," Kuwik said. "But they're kids, and they're curious. They've asked questions and I've tried to give them some sense of what's happening there. I hope they've learned from me, but that's not why I'm here. I wanted to celebrate this turnaround season with them."
Eight months ago, none of them could have imagined how this would turn out. The Bobcats were coming off a 10-20 season, and Kuwik had just come off the road after weeks of recruiting for Ohio.
A Notre Dame graduate with a degree in mechanical engineering, Kuwik had moved through the coaching ranks from Christian Brothers University to Saint Michael's College and on to Ohio, all the while juggling the military commitments that came with an ROTC scholarship.
His obligation to the Army had ended in May 2004 but Kuwik hadn't had time to officially sever ties. He sent a resignation letter on Aug. 14 and, a short time later, thought he'd received a confirmation. Instead, upon opening the letter, Kuwik realized he'd been called to active duty.
His orders had gone through on Aug.12 - two days before he'd tried to resign.
It was suggested that maybe he could have put up a fight, but Kuwik said the Army had cut him a break years earlier by releasing him early from his active duty commitment so he could begin his coaching career.
"I wasn't going to throw a tantrum over it," Kuwik said. "The bottom line was it was the right thing to do."
With an assurance from Ohio coach Tim O'Shea that his job would be waiting for him when his tour ends in early 2006, Kuwik left for training in Fort Sill, Okla., in late October.
He spent Christmas in Kuwait and, by January, was helping to build the infrastructure for post-war Iraq's first elections.
"When you're driving and you see the (bomb) craters in the road, it definitely gets your attention," Kuwik said. "I haven't been involved in one, but I've heard explosions around me. To see those craters, it reminds you that every time you go out somebody might have something waiting for you.
"There are times when it's late at night and your mind is clear and you think, "I can't believe I'm over here.' But we're obviously very busy and the work helps. You can't be paranoid. You can't walk around every corner thinking, "This could be it.' It'd drive you nuts."
If the work has kept him busy, the basketball has kept him pleasantly distracted. For a $30-a-month Internet connection fee, he has been able to follow Ohio's radio broadcasts on a laptop. Even if most of the games are played in the middle of the night in Iraq.
He's written an online diary for the university's Web site (www.ohiobobcats.com) and has kept in touch with the team via e-mail.
Kuwik even provided the Bobcats with their unofficial motto for the season. The castle is the symbol for the Army's engineering corps, and Kuwik took a castle off his door and turned it over to the team.
His message was they needed to protect the castle. That meant playing better defense and not losing at home. He shipped players castle pins that they wore on their warmup jerseys before games.
"That team is such a part of him," said Kuwik's mother Karen, a first-grade teacher in suburban Buffalo. "He thinks of those boys as his family."
The contrast between this week and next is hard to ignore.
On Friday against the Gators, coach Kuwik will be wearing a business suit and holding a clipboard. Days later, Capt. Kuwik will be in fatigues and carrying a weapon.
On Friday, he will be directing young men in a game. Days later, he will be commanding young men in war-time conditions.
"He's very, very bright. And he's a very strong leader," Karen Kuwik said. "That's what bothered me. I know he'll feel an obligation to protect his people. I was telling someone how nervous I was about that. That he was going there to take care of everyone else.
"And they told me, "Just think of how the other moms would feel, knowing Kevin was there for their sons.' So that's how I've looked at it."
This week, there are no battles. No enemies.
They are only games. They mean nothing.
And everything.
[Last modified March 16, 2005, 04:48:32]
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