University of Missouri
After fours years at Hazelwood Central, Hawkins was hired as the head coach of the University of Missouri Men's Lacrosse Club. The Missouri lacrosse team is not a varsity athletic program, but rather a club team affiliated with the school. Their team has no scholarships, and the decision-making of the team rests largely on the shoulders of the players, not school administrators or coaches. While coaching the lacrosse club, Hawkins taught history at Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri. As coach of the Mizzou lacrosse club, Hawkins compiled a 112–49 record in his first eight years of coaching the team, including a conference championship in 2004 that gave the team a berth to the league's national tournament. In 2004, he was selected as the coach of the year. Hawkins now identifies himself as an atheist.
On September 28, 2004, Hawkins joined the message boards at OutSports.com and made his first post, a 1,500-word anonymous message, seeking advice and guidance as an in-the-closet college coach. Later that year, he revealed his until-then hidden homosexuality to his parents and family who disowned him. Immediately after revealing his sexual orientation to his family, he informed the university and the other Missouri coaches. According to Hawkins, the university and his assistant coaches were supportive of his decision. The discussion continued for almost two years, until, on June 6, 2006, he finally posted under his real name and came out of the closet. The story was picked up by numerous national news agencies. The story again made headlines on April 7, 2007 when the Associated Press published a story detailing the after-effects of the original story.
In 2006 the Mizzou lacrosse club had considered letting Hawkins go due to the team's declining performance; however, after Hawkins publicly revealed his sexual orientation, the lacrosse club decided not to move forward with dismissing Hawkins out of fear that the decision would have been perceived as a result of his sexual orientation. The club decided to keep Hawkins onboard for at least one additional year; however, his contract was renewed with the understanding that performance must be significantly improved. On May 4, 2007, Hawkins was informed that his contract would not be renewed for the 2007–2008 season after finishing the 2006–2007 season with a 6–9 record.
Read more about this topic: Kyle Hawkins
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