Shane Hawkins: From Panther to Wildcat, 'Hawk' tells his story

When you hear the name of the town of Pinckneyville, one thing - and only one thing - comes to mind: Basketball. From the high school's first state championship back in 1948, to its' most recent in 2001, and all the trips to Champaign and Peoria in-between, Panther Basketball has put the town on the map for decades and has no signs of stopping in the near future.

While legendary head coaches Duster Thomas and Dick Corn have their names immortalized on the school's gymnasium and basketball floor, there's another name that, at the very least, comes close to matching those two icons in terms of being linked to the program's rich history - the Panthers' all-time leading scorer, and member of the 1994 state title team, Shane Hawkins.

Hawkins not only owns the school record for most points, he dwarfs the rest of the list. His 2,429 points in four seasons eclipses second-place Wade Graskewicz by nearly a thousand, and he has three season point totals that rank in the top eight all-time. Hawkins also went on to break records at Southern Illinois University, where he still holds the mark for career 3-point field goals made with 314 from the winter of 1994 to the spring of 1998.

From his first basketball hoop at age four (a miniature adjustable Larry Bird hoop), Hawkins was always around the game. He grew up just a block away from Thomas Gymnasium, the place the Panthers call home.

"The first time I went to a Pinckneyville Panther practice, I was probably four years old," Hawkins said. "I think I started going to Panther camp when I was in kindergarten or first grade. I was always in the gym. I think it was my seventh birthday I actually got to go do drills during practice. I was there so often, Coach Corn knew me. That had probably the biggest influence on me."

Shane's father, Tom Hawkins, was also a big influence on the Panther legend. Tom - a coal miner - coached Shane in fifth grade, and again later in high school as an assistant under Corn, the school's all-time wins leader at the head coaching position.

"(My dad and I) went to games, that's what we did when I was young," Hawkins said. "I can remember going to the B.I.T. (Benton Invitational Tournament), and we went every day - Monday, Wednesday, Friday, twice on Saturday - and we did it from the time I was three or four years old. I'm four years old, and he's taking me to the (SIU) Arena to see Larry Bird. Not because he wanted me to go, but because I wanted to go. I was interested in that."

Hawkins knew early on that his career path would be in the sport of basketball, but says as he got older, his love for baseball was perhaps even greater. His interest in the game is still there - he coaches his kids' youth baseball team when he's not diagraming plays for the Marion Wildcats.

"As I got older, basketball was still fun, but it was also work," Hawkins said. "It was kind of like a job. Baseball was relaxing. I could go out and field ground balls, go in the cage and hit. That was kind of my getaway from basketball. I loved baseball, I still do, but I knew I was dedicated more to basketball. I knew that was what I wanted to do. I don't know if it was my calling, but it was what I felt I wanted to do."

Six years before Hawkins and company bulldozed their way to a state championship in 1994, the 1988 Pinckneyville Panthers came within an eyelash of giving Corn his first title, falling to Pana in the finals. Hawkins said that team's close call gave him added motivation to get the Panthers back to state during his career at PCHS, primarily because several of the '88 players were guys he idolized and grew up with in Pinckneyville.

"I grew up with all older kids," Hawkins said. "We played whiffle ball, we played 'Panther ball,' we played dunk ball, tag football - that's what we did. I can remember playing with the '88 group. I'm six years younger, they're in high school and I'm in seventh grade. The Graskewicz's were two houses down. Nate Chapman, Mike Napier, Chris McGranahan, Blake Lindner, Shay Hagel… those guys were all right there (in my neighborhood). That's who I hung out with and played with during the summer."

"I looked up to them so much just because I'd been around them so much. I can remember after they get second in '88, we were at school the next Monday or Tuesday and all of our basketball players were sitting there together. We idolized those guys. We knew how good they were. So, that was kind of our goal, to go to that level. They paved the way for us by how good they were, how talented they were, how selfless they were, the way they played. Not only were they skilled, but they played the game the right way."

Hawkins went on to point out that while a second-place finish at the state finals might be a historic, life-changing event in some communities, this was Pinckneyville.

"It was great, but Pinckneyville is different than any other town," he said. "I think at that time Pinckneyville needed a winner, they deserved a winner. Coach Corn had been there so long, he'd no doubt put his time and effort into it."

Hawkins entered PCHS in the fall of 1990. After summer workouts and camps, he had a pretty good idea that he was going to see some time on the floor, even though he was just a freshman, and freshman rarely see the floor for the Pinckneyville Panthers. He says his first goal for his career was to win 100 games, which he admits was "lofty," but at the same time realistic.

"I'm thinking, ok, twenty-five a year, that's what we're supposed to do," Hawkins said. "We are the Panthers. We're supposed to win."

Goal number two? You guessed it.

"My second goal was to somehow, some way, in one of those four years get a state championship," said Hawkins. "Obviously I wanted it, but for me winning a state championship was more for Coach Corn and for our program. For the guys who didn't win it in '88, for the guys who had been there and not won it since '48. I wanted those guys who had played in the past to be able to celebrate and enjoy that. And, obviously I wanted it for our community, because basketball is so important to our town. To be able to bring that back was important to me."

Countless young men have grown up in Pinckneyville dreaming of putting on that blue and white uniform, running from the locker room at Thomas Gymnasium onto the floor, greeting young kids lined up at the tunnel wanting nothing more than to tell their friends they slapped hands with the Panthers. Hawkins says the experience is a surreal one, from the first time to the last time.

"I was one of them every year from the time I was four," he said. "It was different back then. They were lined up three or four deep all the way from the floor to the top. That's what you did, you wanted to be able to slap hands with the Panthers. Running through the tunnel there, coming out to 'Sweet Georgia Brown,' it was different there than it was anywhere else. Unless you've lived it, it's one of those things you just don't understand. That's one of those things that separated Pinckneyville basketball from everywhere else."

After accomplishing his goals at PCHS, and putting together a stellar collegiate career on top of that, Hawkins says his body had had enough.

"I probably could have gone overseas to play," he said, "but my body was just so beat up from being at Southern, being on that floor before they got the floor fixed my senior year. I love basketball, basketball is a major part of my life, but at some point in time you've got to understand when you're done."

Instead, he finished up his student teaching and graduated from SIU, coaching the Salukis as an assistant before later winding up at Trico High School for six seasons, and now Marion, where he's been the past three years. His game strategy mixes knowledge from the two Hall-of-Fame coaches he played for - Corn and Rich Herrin - with bits and pieces from big-time Division 1 coaches he's worked under - Bruce Weber and Matt Painter.

"You just take a little bit of the things you like the most from everybody around and try to mix it as best you can, and see how it rolls out," Hawkins said. "There are a lot of similarities (in their coaching styles), but they did some things a bit different, too. They all kind of attack things a little bit different."

Hawkins currently resides in Carterville, Ill. along with his wife, Karin, and three children - Conner (13), Caden (10) and Colton (7).

"(The kids are) all three different, their personalities are all different," Hawkins said. "They range from one extreme to the other with one in the middle. It's an interesting dynamic, it keeps things hopping here for sure."

While the Wildcats have a long way to go if they want to build a program with the kind of history and success found at Pinckneyville, they've got a guy in charge who knows what it takes. Hawkins has already led Marion to its first regional title in 24 years in 2014, and hopes to build on a 12-15 campaign in 2014-15. That team returned only two players with significant varsity playing time, yet showed improvement throughout the season.