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Updated Dec 10, 2009 3:30 PM ET
     
 
They know Kevin Kuwik's story. They noticed the past few months that he'll miss a day of practice now and then. Coach Thad Matta has explained why, and there is a story about him, from The Washington Post, hanging in their locker room. But maybe it wasn't until this week that the players on the Ohio State men's basketball team understood the moral of the story about their 35-year-old video coordinator. "Life," Kuwik says, "is 10 percent what happens to you and 90 percent how you react to it." That's what he said he told Evan Turner on Sunday, the day after Turner and his teammates saw their aspirations for this season shattered with one fall to the floor. Turner, one of the best players in college basketball, suffered a transverse process fracture of his second and third lumbar vertebrae when his hands slipped off the rim after a missed dunk and he fell flat on his back. He is expected to miss at least eight weeks. "It's hard for him," Kuwik said yesterday. "It was hard for me the first time it happened, the second time it happened. And I don't know if it ever gets easier. "But as you grow up and you get more perspective and you see yourself finding a way to get through some of these situations, maybe it gives you a little more belief that it isn't insurmountable." While an assistant coach at Ohio University in 2004, Kuwik was sent on a 15-month tour in Iraq. His hitch in the U.S. Army Reserves had expired, but he had not completed his discharge paperwork when the letter arrived telling him to report. "It definitely rocked my world," he said. "But I said to myself, 'Turn a negative into a positive.' That got me through that 15 months, every day thinking, 'Don't feel sorry for yourself, don't take the woe-is-me attitude. Find a way to bring something positive out of this.' " Kuwik returned to Ohio in 2005. When coach Tim O'Shea resigned in 2008, Kuwik moved to Butler, where the Buckeyes play their next game Saturday. Last Feb. 12, Kuwik flew to his hometown of Buffalo, N.Y., for his brother's wedding. His girlfriend, Lorin Maurer, 30, was scheduled to arrive that night on Continental Connection Flight 3407 from Newark, N.J. But the turboprop jet crashed in icy weather on approach in New York, killing all 49 aboard and one person on the ground. Since then, Kuwik has joined families of the deceased to advocate for airline safety, spending a day in Washington every few weeks lobbying Congress and the federal government for more stringent oversight of regional airlines, improved pilot training, more experienced pilots and tougher standards regarding pilot fatigue. All were found to have contributed to the February crash. Today will be Kuwik's 12th visit to Washington since May. He will attend a Senate aviation subcommittee hearing on the progress the Federal Aviation Administration has made in addressing the improvements pushed by Kuwik's group. "There is tremendous industry pushback on this," Kuwik said. Within the past month, chief executives of 20 regional airlines met privately with the subcommittee chairman, Sen. Byron L. Dorgan, D-N.D., "basically begging him not to pass this because they're afraid it's going to result in higher labor costs," he said. "That should not be a factor. First and foremost, the flying public's concerns should be taken into account, that every time you get in a plane, you have a great crew and a great chance of getting safely to your destination." bbaptist@dispatch.com
Tagged: Ohio State, Ohio, Washington

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