Initially, word out of Strawberry Crest was that the football team’s new head coach would be named in January.
Ron Hawn impressed Crest enough to fast-track that announcement to last week. It will be his second gig as a head coach, having previously ran the Tarpon Springs High program from 2011-14. Most recently, he coached the defensive line at Seminole High.
Hawn has coached at the high school and collegiate level around the country and is ready to rebuild the Chargers’ program from the ground up.
“Moving forward, we’re approaching each game enthusiastically and improving the program,” Hawn says. “We’re not winning states in 2016, but we’re going to get better.”
NOT THE FIRST RODEO
A native on Hamilton, Ohio, Hawn played NAIA football for two seasons before transferring to Ohio State to finish his education. He’s been coaching ever since he graduated.
This has included stops at the Division II level, coaching in Kansas and Massachusetts, and working everywhere from the defensive line to the defensive backs. Hawn is a linebackers coach by trade but has experience just about everywhere.
His first high school gig in Florida was, briefly, at Tarpon Springs, before moving to Hagerty in another assistant role. Hawn then returned to Tarpon Springs and, in 2011, was named interim head coach after the school chose to remove Atif Austin. The Spongers went 3-7 in Hawn’s first full season as head coach and made the FHSAA playoffs in 2013 and 2014.
In the 2014 playoffs, Hawn received a suspension for an altercation that happened after the team took a 29-28 loss to River Ridge in the 5A regional playoffs. He was to be suspended for the first six weeks of the next sport he’d coach (in this case, track and field), but Hawn says that he did win an appeal and shrunk it to a three-week suspension.
“There was a minor dust-up at the end of the game, we got everyone separated and someone from the other school approached me from behind, screaming, cursing at me,” Hawn says. “I repeated to him exactly what he said to me. That was it. It turned into this thing — and I did curse — but my reaction was wrong … I learned from it.”
Hawn then resigned from the position of head coach, though he says the suspension was not the key factor in his decision.
“My wife was pregnant, there were a lot of things going on, and I felt like I needed to take the next step in my life,” Hawn says. “… I wanted to coach, I just knew it wasn’t reasonable for me to be a head coach with my wife giving birth in August.
“I wanted to give them the opportunity to move that program on.”
He took a job coaching Seminole’s defensive line this year, not wanting to balance the stress of running a football program right as he was set to become a father. After the season, he knew he wanted to get back into a head coaching role.
CHARGED UP
Hawn was familiar with Crest long before applying for this job.
“I’ve passed it 4,000 times driving on I-4,” he says. “Always thought it was interesting. I applied to be defensive coordinator in 2009 or 2010.”
He says he’s anticipating the move up from 5A to 7A play, noting the abundance of talent in the immediate area, Crest’s size and the quality of its facilities. Coaching at a brand-new school is a different experience from comparatively ancient schools like Tarpon Springs, and Hawn can’t wait to get his feet wet.
As of press time, Hawn had yet to meet with the current coaching staff and get to know the state of the program better. He says that he hopes to be able to retain as many existing coaches as possible.
Turning Crest into a contender won’t be easy, but
Hawn feels that the potential is there.
“On the state of program now, it’s hard for me to touch anything without me being there, and they went 0-10,” Hawn says. “But what caused that? None of that really matters to me … Before long, we will be better, but it will take time and a lot of hard work. We’ll get it done.”
Contact Justin Kline at jkline@plantcityobserver.com.