Nicholas Askew was born and raised in Kinston, NC, where he began sports at a very early age. He splashed in his first pool when he was three years old. At age seven he walked onto his first tennis court.
When he was 10 he became a rigorous competitor, being groomed as a future Olympic swimmer. By the end of high school his exceptional swimming and tennis talent earned him the distinguished title of High School Athlete of the Year. In 1996, after receiving several scholarship offers for swimming and tennis, Askew left his hometown, following in his older brothers footsteps, to study at Howard University in the nation’s capital.
During his time as a dual-sport student- athlete, Askew’s achievements mounted: he broke several swimming records, served as team captain and became a six-time conference champion. He also acquired the “Most Valuable Player” award four times – three times for swimming and once for tennis. He had the distinguishment of being the only student-athlete to have earned an MVP award in two sports in the same year.
In 2001, he became an assistant coach at his alma mater, helping to recruit top talent and train them into even stronger athletes. The following year, he began to empower more young people as the Director of programs at the Prince George’s Tennis and Education Foundation in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.
With nearly two decades of experience as a professional coach, Askew has worked with top athletes from around the globe, helping to nurture them into top-ranked district, state-level, and national-level athletes. "He doesn’t just teach youth how to compete; he uses sport to teach athletes life skills, such as leadership, accountability, discipline and patience.
Askew’s coaching style along with his commitment to empowering students and the community has earned him several honors including "Coach of the Week," "Coach of the Year," and "Professional of the Year." He continues to be highlighted by Howard University magazine, The Washington Post, WHUR, WTOP, NBC4, ABC7, WUSA9, DCW50 and USA Swimming for his various accomplishments. Most recently Askew was honored at the 33rd Annual National Black History Swim and selected as the 2020 "Maritza Correia McClendon" Award recipient from the Diversity in Aquatics organization. In addition, Askew was named the 2020 Coastal Collegiate Sports Association (CCSA) Conference Men's Coach of the Year.
Currently, Askew enters his seventh season as Director of Swimming & Diving at the nation's only NCAA Division I Historically Black College and University (HBCU) Swimming & Diving team where he has grown the program tremendously.
In just his second season, the team immediately began to excel by winning its first dual meet in nearly 15 years. Additionally, in season three, both teams finished the dual meet season undefeated at home. Season four saw the team win their Mid-Season Championships in Richmond, VA. The program has also seen significant improvement with swimmers and divers making Conference finals including individual and relay medalist. To date the program has seen over 80 school records broken and both teams have boasted their best season-ending records in nearly 30 years. Since 2018 both programs have increased their presence on the National stage by competing in the National Invitational Championship as well as seeing diver Christian Nickolas reach the NCAA Diving Championships in back to back years. The program is also very proud of Latroya Pina qualifying for the 2020 Olympic Games, representing her home country of Cape Verde.
Academically, both squads have been selected to the College Swimming and Diving Coaches Association of America (CSCAA) Scholar All-America Team in consecutive semesters. The Men's program has achieved the highest Team GPA award at HU in two of the last three years. While also seeing Mohamed Bouzaghrane and Noah Nicholas capture the highest Male Athlete GPA award in 2015 & 2020, respectively.
A proud Bison, Askew has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. He resides in Maryland with his Howard sweetheart, Christie Askew and three daughters, Aleena, Avianna, & Aleya.
