“The through point of the conversation is about identity,” Hawk said. “In college, I didn’t — and a lot of my teammates didn’t — do a good job of thinking about what our identity was outside of just being a football player. I want to help student-athletes get prepared for life when their sport is no longer their identity. And I want them to start thinking about that right now, whether they’re a freshman or senior or somewhere in between.”
Hawk will give a similar speech to a couple of classes full of student-athletes at the University of Dayton in November, and he said he’s had conversations with people at Miami about doing something there.
“This is something I’ve thought about and always wanted to do,” Hawk said. “My dad (Keith) is a phenomenal public speaker.
“This is just the beginning of it,” he continued. “I fully plan to do this hopefully throughout the country. I’ve been fortunate enough to connect with people in the NCAA and people in athletic departments at other universities throughout the Midwest.”
The older brother of Cincinnati Bengals linebacker A.J. Hawk, Ryan played in the Canadian Football League and Arena Football League and had a few tryouts with NFL teams before giving up the sport and going to work at LexisNexis, where he works in a leadership role with sales and marketing groups.
He said he’s eager to come to Wright State to start his new endeavor, and he hopes he gets as much out of the experience as the student-athletes do.
“My goal is to trigger some thoughts in them about what they want to do when they are done being athletes,” he said.
Men's soccer: The Raiders are coming off a 3-1 win against Valparaiso last weekend and tonight will travel to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, where they will try to keep pace with Horizon League frontrunner Northern Kentucky. WSU (7-3-1 overall, 2-2-1 HLx) sits four points behind the Norse (6-4-2, 3-1-2).
Women's soccer: The Raiders will try to snap a two-game losing streak at home this afternoon when they take on Youngstown State at 2.
Volleyball: WSU will play its fourth conesecutive home match today at 4 p.m. against Oakland before going on a four-game road swing. The Raiders (12-10, 1-6 HL) are trying to snap a two-match losing skid.
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