Richard Hawes is in his 35th season as head men's and women's swimming & diving coach at Ohio Wesleyan University.
The Battling Bishop women's team tied for 30th place at the 2013 NCAA Division III championship meet.
Under Hawes' guidance, the Bishop men's team has placed in top 20 at the NCAA Division III championship meet 3 times. Ohio Wesleyan finished 17th at the 1995 Division III meet after finishing eighth in 1994 and tying for 13th place in 1993.
In his first season at the Bishop helm, Hawes piloted the men's team to a fifth-place North Coast Athletic Conference finish and the women's team to a sixth-place finish with only 9 swimmers on the roster. In 2019-20, the Bishop women's team placed sixth and the men's team placed seventh in the NCAC.
Hawes has coached 23 All-Americans and 14 All-America relay teams at Ohio Wesleyan. His teams also have performed well in the classroom, with both men's and women's teams receiving CSCAA academic team honors for 32 consecutive semesters. The Ohio Wesleyan men's team ranked second among NCAA Division III teams in overall grade point average in 2008-09, while the Bishop women's team was tied for seventh place.
Hawes came to Ohio Wesleyan after 4 years as an assistant coach at Illinois State University. While with the Redbirds, he worked primarily with sprint and middle distance swimmers while assisting with on-deck coaching, designing workouts and recruiting student-athletes.
A 1982 Illinois State graduate, Hawes received his bachelor's degree in biology with a minor in chemistry before returning to ISU in 1987 to complete a second bachelor's degree in biology education with a minor in coaching. He was a 4-year letterman as a sprint freestyler for the Redbird swimming team and assisted head coach Steve Paska while earning his education and master's degrees. Hawes received his master's degree in exercise physiology and coaching from Illinois State in 1991.
A professor emeritus of physical education at Ohio Wesleyan, Hawes taught exercise physiology. During a 2004 sabbatical from teaching, he worked one semester at the Australian Institute of Sport, developing a 3-D video analysis system for above- and below-water stroke and race analysis for the AIS biomechanics department. He also worked with the AIS biomechanics team at the 2004 Australian Olympic swimming trials.
Hawes founded and serves as head coach for the Delaware (Ohio) Racing Club, a United States Swimming program for competitive age group swimmers. He has coached one age group state champion and one nationally ranked top-16 age group swimmer.
A native of Mount Prospect, Illinois, Hawes began his coaching career at the River Trails Park District during his high school days.
