EX-UD COACH TO LEAD WAYNE TEAM
Former Flyers assistant Kuwik will guide boys team, replacing Trice.
Former University of Dayton men’s basketball coach Kevin Kuwik will be the next Wayne High School boys coach. Wayne Athletic Director Jay Minton confirmed that Kuwik was expected to be approved by the school board Wednesday night.
It’ll be the first high school position for Kuwik in 18 years of coaching, all at the collegiate level. He joined Archie Miller’s staff at UD as an assistant in 2011 and quickly established himself as a top recruiter. He was a frequent visitor to Wayne games
during the last several seasons
and was instrumental in landing former Warriors standouts and current Flyers teammates Xeyrius Williams in 2015 and Trey Landers in ’16.
Minton said Kuwik was “highly recommended” by Miller and Thad Matta, who this month resigned as Ohio State’s coach. Kuwik was an assistant at Butler when Matta was the Bulldogs’ coach.
Kuwik will succeed Travis Trice, who resigned as Wayne’s coach this spring to take over the Warriors’ girls basketball program. With Trice as coach during the last 10 seasons, Wayne vaulted to
the top of the area boys Division I programs and won a state championship in 2015, the program’s first. Trice coached three sons at Wayne. A daughter, junior Olivia
Trice, is among several returning standouts among the Warriors girls.
“Travis set the bar real high and he took this program to a whole new level,” Minton said. “Our concern when he wanted to move over to the girls job was that we didn’t want to lose any value in the boys. We were fortunate that Kevin was there at the right time. Everything is timing. He’s learned so much from so many key people. Now, he’s going to call his own shots and see what he can do with it.”
The Wayne girls basketball coaching position opened when Sonya Miller resigned March 30. In January, Miller was reprimanded by the district for allowing her husband, Robert Miller, to help coach the Warriors. The state board of education had permanently denied Robert Miller a required pupil activity permit in 2016.
Kuwik did not join Indiana’s new staff after Miller accepted the Hoosiers’ post on March 16. Former UD player Anthony Grant was named to succeed Miller as the Flyers’ head coach.
A New York native, Kuwik served 10 years in the U.S. Army as his coaching career evolved. Serving with the 113th Engineer Battalion of the Indiana National Guard while an assistant coach at Butler, he took an 18-month leave of absence in 2004-05 to serve in Operation Iraqi Freedom and earned a Bronze Star (the Army’s highest award). Besides Butler and UD, Kuwik also was an assistant at Ohio University, Christian Brothers (Tenn.) and Saint Michael’s (Vermont) and a student assistant at Notre Dame.
Wayne was 15-9 overall last season and 7-5 in the Greater Western Ohio Conference National East. The season before, Wayne ranked No. 1 in the final AP state D-I poll but was upset in a district final, finishing 25-1.