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Perry Wrestling Announces New Head Coach for Maroons
“After conducting a nationwide search for the best talent in wrestling coaching and hearing impressive references from pillars in the wrestling community, we are confident in Coach Ryan’s ability to lead our boys wrestling program,” stated Chad Wilson, Superintendent of Perry Public Schools.
Coach Ryan has been an educator and wrestling coach for 34 years. He graduated high school from Tulsa Webster, where he was a 4x state qualifier and finished 2nd and 3rd at the state wrestling tournament while wrestling for the legendary coach, Ernie Jones. He went on to wrestle at the collegiate level for NEO and became a JUCO All-American, then continued wrestling at University of Central Oklahoma where he was a national qualifier.
In his coaching career, he has led wrestling programs to success at Bristow, Tulsa Webster, Chandler, and Owasso. He also spent some time at Graham High School in Ohio, where he coached one of the best high school teams in the nation, earning nine state titles and was recognized as national champions by USA magazine in 2008 and 2010.
Throughout those years, Ryan was named the OWCA class 3A Coach of the Year, 6A Coach of the Year, racked up a total of 12 state titles, and had wrestlers go on to earn national titles and even an olympic gold medalist, David Taylor.
Most recently, he has been the assistant principal at Duncan Middle School for the past two years.
Coach Ryan and his wife Beth will move to Perry over the summer. They have two sons; Kyle, who is the current head wrestling coach at Owasso High School, and their youngest son is Cody, who was a state champion wrestler at Chandler in 2013.
Coach Ryan commented, “Perry Wrestling has always been the epitome of greatness in the Oklahoma wrestling community and I look forward to continuing the legacy.”