Matt Hawkins
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| Full name | Matthew Hawkins | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date of birth | 30 March 1983 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Durban, South Africa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.88 m (6 ft 2 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 109 kg (240 lb) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Matthew Hawkins (born 30 March 1983) is a South African born, former American rugby union player and former coach of the United States sevens team.
Playing career
Hawkins played loose forward for the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club when first arriving in the US. He went on to win the National Super League title in 2006 with OMBAC.
In 2007 he was selected to the USA Eagles Sevens pool. In 2008 he made his first appearance for the USA Eagles at the Wellington and San Diego (now Las Vegas) stops of the World Sevens series Tour. Hawkins captained the Sevens Team in 2009/2010 season and 2010/2011 season and was the most capped Sevens Eagle of all time. Hawkins has had some great achievements on the Sevens Circuit, making the semi finals of the cup in 2009 in San Diego and reaching the final in 2010 in Adelaide.
In fifteens, in 2010 he was selected to the USA 15's Churchill Cup squad and won his first cap against Russia.
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Coaching career
Hawkins is a coach at Serevi Rugby. Hawkins has devoted his time outside of playing rugby to the development of rugby with in the US. Hawkins has been involved with youth rugby and as a coach of many different levels of rugby for many years. Hawkins is dedicated to developing talent at the youth rugby level and Collegiate level in America. Hawkins has been quoted as saying that his ultimate goal is help the USA Men's and Women's Sevens Team reach gold at the Olympic Games.
Hawkins started coaching the Belmont Sevens team with James Walker in 2009 after sustaining a major injury that put him out of playing for many months. That year he coached Belmont to claim their first National Sevens Title. In 2010 Hawkins again stepped in to coach the Belmont Sevens team and he played. That year Belmont qualifyied both their A and B side to the National Sevens Championships. That year Belmont fell at the last hurdle, finishing second. In 2011 Hawkins returned again to just coach the Belmont Shore Sevens team and they went on to win the National Championships for a second time in three years.
Hawkins has been involved with youth rugby in the States and his father and a few other dedicated rugby fans join together to form the Coastal Dragons Youth Rugby Team which calls Encinitas its home base. The Coastal Dragons are a youth rugby program that has 150 registered members and is constantly growing and are spreading the game of Rugby. Hawkins had the desire to create some form of summer program for youth kids to get kids involved in rugby for a longer period of time than what is usually allocated to them during the year, but also create an environment for athletes young and old to interact with some of the USA players who are now considered future Olympians.
On August 1, 2013 USA Rugby announced that Hawkins would take over as head coach of the Men's Sevens National Team, after Alexander Magleby's decision to step down.[1] The US fared poorly under Hawkins, however, finishing a disappointing 13th on the World Series, and Hawkins was removed at the end of the 2013-14 season.