BASKETBALL HEAD COACH JOHN HAWLEY RETIRES

After five years of coaching at Mt. Hood and over 40 years working in education, John Hawley, head coach of the Saints men’s basketball team, has retired for the third time in his career.

His final game as Saints coach came on Feb. 27, a 96-86 loss to Clackamas Community College. His assistant coach, Nathan Bowie, will take his seat and lead the team next season.

Hawley coached high school boys basketball in Georgia, Washington and Oregon for over 30 years. He came to MHCC in April 2015 after serving as Centennial High School athletic director for one year, and volunteering as an assistant coach for the Saints in the 2013-14 season.

Prior to settling in the Pacific Northwest, Hawley worked at a sports academy in north Atlanta for seven years. He worked on the management team for Suwannee Sports Academy, which has a seven-court, 100,000 square-foot basketball facility.

According to an NWAC (Northwest Athletic Conference) website article published in April 2015, during his time there he worked alongside Kevin Cantwell, former associate head coach at Georgia Tech University, to develop the On Court Player Development Training Program used by youth, high school, college, NBA and WNBA athletes. He also helped run and organize many leagues, camps, and college exposure events while at the academy.

After he was hired at Mt. Hood, Hawley coached both the men’s and women’s Saints teams for two years (he replaced men’s coach Geoff Gibor, and women’s coach Tyler Rose), before Jeremy Vandenboer took over the women’s squad in 2017-18.

Hawley’s men’s teams went 40-69 in four seasons, the highlight being a 16-12 record and reaching the second round of the NWAC championship tournament in 2016-17. His women’s teams went 16-39 over two years.

Hawley told the Advocate his desire to keep coaching all these years comes from his competitive spirit.

“I used to be an ironman competitor, a marathon runner, and I can’t do that anymore. I have no articular cartilage (which causes pain in his bone joints), so I think that’s what kind of drove me back into coaching,” he explained.

Asked what coaching gave back to him in return, Hawley mentioned being able to work with students and staff along the way.

“That’s the whole thing about coaching, is the relationships that you build with your athletes and the people that you interact with on a daily basis,” he said.

One of the things that drew him to MHCC was the staff, he said. “Our coaches here are just great and Kim (Hyatt, Mt. Hood’s athletic director) is just great to work for and (I) just really enjoy the camaraderie that we have here and how you collectively work together.”

Asked if he will coach again, after “retiring” twice before, Hawley smiled and charismatically said, “I always say, don’t say ‘never,’ ” adding, “At this point, I think I’m satisfied with where I’m at.”

That is, planning to spend time with his wife Risé, his four children, and his grandchildren.

“Your family really gives a lot when you’re a coach,” Hawley said. “We’ve made sacrifices throughout our whole life and so now it’s time to spend more time with family.”

He said he is looking forward to “not being on (a) time clock,” changing up the couple’s routine, and traveling.

(Jonathan Zacarias contributed reporting for this story.)