DUTY CALLED

Kevin Kuwik isn’t a hero. He tells you that immediately.

Kuwik is a square-jawed, hoarse-voiced assistant basketball coach for Ohio University who just happened to spend 18 months in Iraq hoping he didn’t get blown up as he worked for a unit that swept for road mines.

Kuwik isn’t special. He tells you that immediately too.

He is a basketball junkie but wasn’t good enough to play at a major college, so he went to Notre Dame on an ROTC scholarship. “It was a great way to get a great education,” Kuwik said. “And it also entailed a commitment.”

The commitment was to serve as an Army captain in Iraq.

A year ago, Kuwik made a surprise visit to Ohio U. as the Bobcats prepared to play in the NCAA tournament. He flew 30 hours, stayed for a game, and went back to war.

In December, Kuwik made a second surprise appearance in the locker room. But this time he stayed with the team.

Kuwik returned from duty in Mosul with some lines around his eyes and the fervent wish that he not receive special attention.

Although he is willing to talk about his experiences at war, Kuwik was clearly uncomfortable in the spotlight brought by waves of requests for television and newspaper interviews in March and again in December.

“I don’t want to be just the coach who went to Iraq,” Kuwik said before Ohio U. played Northern Illinois.

What he is, he said, is a young coach intent on earning a head coaching job.

Ohio is 16-8 and in fourth place in the Mid-American Conference Eastern Division. Unless the Bobcats win the MAC tournament, a return NCAA appearance is unlikely. So Kuwik is working hard. It is his responsibility to recruit. And Kuwik fulfills his responsibilities.

Like that ROTC commitment. It sneaked up on Kuwik in August 2004. He had done his four months of junior officer basic training, had spent two years at Ft. Lewis in Seattle, had gotten a coaching job at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, Tenn., and had done his duty with the Arkansas National Guard.

When he got the assistant’s job at Ohio University in 2001, Kuwik spent two more years with a reserve unit. Military service fulfilled

“Except for the paperwork,” Kuwik said.

Because Kuwik was an officer, he needed to send in specific documents telling the Army that he had completed his duty.

“In the back of my mind,” Kuwik said, “I knew that. But you know how it goes. I didn’t know exactly what I needed to do, and I was working a lot.”

In the summer of 2004, a buddy of Kuwik’s, another reserve, told Kuwik exactly what forms needed to be signed, sealed and mailed.

So Kuwik filled out the papers, put the stamp on the envelope and figured he had finished earning that ROTC scholarship.

Except ... he hadn’t. “I received orders to report for duty,” Kuwik said. “Those orders were postmarked before I sent in my papers. I could have fought it. I could have just not reported for duties.... But I tell the kids every day that when you make a commitment you see it through. Getting out of it on a technicality? That’s not the way to go.”

So Kuwik went. He spent a year and a half as an Army captain in the 113th Engineer Battalion. His unit swept roads for improvised explosive devices and helped secure polling stations during the Iraqi elections.

He saw men killed. He saw firefights and soldiers who lost legs and arms in explosions. He also saw hope. He saw Iraqi women voting, “which was really great,” Kuwik said.

Whenever he could, Kuwik followed the Bobcats on the Internet. “I was living in one place, the barracks were wired, and I’d be up in the middle of the night staring at the computer,” Kuwik said.

He would e-mail his thoughts to the Ohio coaching staff. He would send encouraging notes to players, most of whom he had recruited.

Kuwik grew up in Lackawanna, N.Y., a blue-collar town where hard work and loyalty are not only appreciated but expected.

“Kevin wasn’t happy when he got those papers,” Ohio University Coach Tim O’Shea said, “but he told me, ‘Coach, what can I do? Those are my orders.’ And when he was in Iraq, Kevin stayed involved as much as he could, more than I expected.”

When the Bobcats made it to the NCAA tournament last year, Kuwik made a surprise appearance.

“It was just luck,” Kuwik said. “Our unit got an unexpected chance to give a couple of guys a leave. I asked if I could go.”

His visit gained Kuwik an unwanted spotlight. And when Kuwik returned home in December, two days before Ohio played Cincinnati, the assistant coach was made a reluctant star.

“I just want to coach,” Kuwik said. “I look at all the guys still in Iraq; they’re special. Me, I just did my duty and now I want to get on with my coaching career.”

Kuwik, 31, is grateful that O’Shea told him his job would be held. He is thrilled to be back with the Bobcats.

He does not offer war stories to the players without being asked. He does not preach about duty, honor, country.

Jeremy Fears, a sophomore, said the players understand what Kuwik did and respect it.

“I’m not sure I would have done the same thing,” Fears said, “but Coach is honorable. He’s the man who recruited me here, and I missed him. It’s good to have him back, because he’s a man I can talk to.”

Kuwik is still growing out his Army buzz cut. He wears rubber bracelets on his wrist in a rainbow of colors supporting Lance Armstrong’s cancer foundation, wounded veterans organizations, breast cancer awareness.

Most of all, Kuwik wants to earn his way as a coach by being a coach.

“I’m home now, and it’s not about what I did in Iraq,” he said. “Thousands of guys have done and are doing the same thing.

“I’m not Capt. Kuwik now. I’m Coach Kuwik. I love my job.”