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Sports

Where Are They Now: Hawkins a Solid Netminder at Shorecrest, UW

Rylan Hawkins helped lead Shorecrest to a state soccer title in 2005, before heading to the University of Washington

While Shorecrest High School has a long history of success in boys soccer, one name jumps out when looking at the school’s netminders over the years.

Rylan Hawkins was a four-year letter winner, and two-year team captain for Shorecrest, and helped lead the school to a state title in 2005. For Hawkins, nothing tops that state title in terms of high school soccer memories.

“Shorecrest fans came out in droves to root us on. It was a very unique experience,” said Hawkins. “Shorecrest is certainly a premier high school soccer program with the fans to back it. I distinctly remember getting on the bus after the win and having the crowd of fans start rocking the bus. That was pretty fun.”

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By the time Hawkins left Shorecrest, he had amassed numerous accolades. In his high school career, Hawkins had registered 45 shutouts (18 during his senior season), was twice named to the All-Wesco South first-team and as a Seattle Post-Intelligencer All-Star (2004, 2005), while also being named a first-team All-State honoree, 3A MVP and a Seattle Times “Star Times” All-Area selection his senior year. Hawkins’ performance would catch the eye of the University of Washington, and he would take his goalkeeping prowess to Montlake in the fall of 2005.

After redshirting, Hawkins would win the starting goalkeeping job as a freshman. That year, Hawkins recorded seven shutouts (a Pac-10 high) in 19 games, and was a Pac-10 honorable mention pick. Hawkins’ sophomore season would come to an abrupt end in the season’s fifth game, after suffering a serious facial injury in a game against New Mexico.

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“I ended up breaking my face down in New Mexico, which required complete facial reconstruction, some plastic, some titanium, a new nose, and my mouth wired shut for a month.”

While losing an entire year was difficult, Hawkins still had more than his share of highlights.

“I think looking back, the best moments were those Friday night games under the lights playing some great teams like UCLA,” said Hawkins. “I will never forget beating UCLA 1-0 where a PK save of mine sealed the victory.”

After a junior year in which he shared goalkeeping duties with Stephen Fung, and a senior season that saw Hawkins make 73 saves and record six shutouts, while being named an Academic All-American by ESPN the Magazine, a Lowe’s Senior CLASS Award finalist, and Pac-10 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, Hawkins would head to Boston to go on trial with the MLS’ New England Revolution. However, Hawkins would soon find that soccer wasn’t his main desire.

“I had been doing several interviews with some tech companies in Seattle and California,” said Hawkins. “I decided I would give the MLS a shot before moving on to my career, but after about a month in Boston I realized that my passions were more in the technology field than on the soccer field.”

Currently, Hawkins lives in Seattle, and works as a Program Manager on Windows 8 for Microsoft.

“The stuff we are doing with Windows is totally revolutionary and I think I certainly made the right choice to choose Microsoft,” said Hawkins. “I get to work on a product that over a billion people use, working on some international features and user experience stuff.”

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