February 5, 2010
DIVER OVERCOMES DISABILITY TO BECOME CHAMPION
East Gaston's Ryan Hawkins overcame a club foot at birth and prepares to defend his N.C. 4A diving crown.
Charlotte Observer - Langston Wertz, Jr. 
East Gaston High diver Ryan Hawkins has won four straight N.C. 4A Western regional championships. He’s a two-time All-American. He’s signed a scholarship to Virginia Tech. And today, he’ll try to repeat as N.C. 4A state champion.
Not bad for a guy who doctors weren’t sure would be able to run well or play sports.
Hawkins, 18, was born with a club foot. His right foot was turned inward, his right toes pointing toward his left foot. According to the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons, a club foot occurs in about one in every 1,000 births, with boys, like Hawkins, slightly outnumbering girls. Even with surgery, the academy says, the corrected foot will likely stay 1 to 1 1/2 sizes smaller and be somewhat less mobile than a normal foot.
“The doctors told us all that,” said Robin Hawkins, Ryan’s mother. “They said we can fix his foot, but he might not be able to play sports at all when he gets older. I was like, ‘Fine.’ We didn’t care about sports at that point.”
The surgery went well and Ryan eventually started swimming, following his older sister, Heather, to the pool. He joined the team at New South Swimming when he was 10 and began going at it year-round. Being younger, his teams would get done before Heather’s would, and while his sister practiced, Ryan remembers he could never take his eyes off the divers.
“I would watch the older kids do flips and I remember one kid did a lot of twisting,” Ryan said. “It looked interesting and exciting.”
He took some diving lessons, and his coach surprised his parents one day by announcing that Ryan had a gift. He was a natural. Mother Robin, who works with academically gifted children in two Gaston County elementary schools, and father Doug, an IT manager for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, didn’t play sports much growing up. They didn’t expect that one of their kids, as this coach was saying, could be one of the best around.
But by 13, Ryan finished second in a USA Diving Junior National event. Since then, he’s been a finalist several times, at the Junior and Senior National levels, on the 1-meter, 3-meter and platform events. At the 2009 Speedo Junior National Diving Championships, Hawkins finished in the top five on all three levels.
“I have watched Ryan progress through the sport since he was a beginner,” Virginia Tech diving coach Ron Piemonte said in a news release when Hawkins’ signing was announced in December, “and his acrobatic ability is perhaps some of the best I’ve ever seen. There isn’t anything he can’t do.”
To get to this level, Hawkins practices five days a week for three hours a day. He also maintains a 4.0 grade-point average. His mother said proudly that he has not made a B in high school.
“Academically and athletically, he’s about absolute dedication,” said East Gaston swim coach Josh Allen. “Diving is one of those sports that doesn’t get all the glory like football or basketball or baseball, but he loves the sport and he knows he’s good at it and he knows he can get better if he works hard. I’ve been a varsity coach for seven years and I’ve never seen an athlete more dedicated to being their best than Ryan.”
Hawkins said a big part of his drive is that he’s his own biggest critic.
“I’m a perfectionist,” he said. “If I do one little thing wrong, I push myself. Every day, I get mad at myself for not doing something exactly right.”
Diving has taken Hawkins to events all over the country and to Canada. It’s helped him build a quite a legacy in N.C. high school circles as well. He finished third in the state as a freshman, second as a sophomore. Now, as a senior, he’s trying to be a repeat champion.
Hawkins’ club foot surgery left him with a long scar that runs up the inner part of his right calf. His right leg is somewhat weaker than his left. His mother is amazed the he can compensate for that.
“Everything he does versus other divers is twice as hard,” she said. “So much about this sport is your hurdle before you take off and how high you get. So everything he does is different. The fact that he does this and is good at it is a true blessing. We’re just blessed that he can do this. We really, really are.”
About Huntersville Family Fitness & Aquatics (HFFA):
Huntersville Family Fitness & Aquatics is about family, fitness and fun. Dedicated HFFA staffers produce an exciting variety of programs and partnerships that connect the community and enable members to experience and achieve the most in health, wellness, and total fitness. Built in 2001, the 88,000-square-foot HFFA facility features state-of-the-art aquatic and fitness components, including a 50-meter pool, a 25-yard warm water pool, an outdoor family fun pool, full-court gymnasium, complete fitness center, and group exercise studio. As the only public facility in the Southeast with an Olympic-sized, 50-meter competition pool and 10-meter dive tower, HFFA regularly hosts aquatics events with up to 2,000 spectators for regional, national, and international swim and dive competitions. For more information, please call (704) 766-2222 or visit www.hffa.com.
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