Ryan is a New Hampshire native, growing up in the Concord area, where he started playing his club soccer with Express Soccer Club in the mid-nineties. An all-state player at Concord High School, he was a part of the 2004 NH Lions Cup team and played for various clubs from NH Classics, Hampshire FC, and the NH Phantoms.

He continued his playing career at Worcester Polytechnic Institute when a severe knee injury saw him sidelined and back home. It was during that time that his High School soccer coach, Scott Dunlop, introduced him to the world of coaching, and he hasn’t looked back since.

Ryan started coaching at the club level and has since worked with teams varying from u10-u18 boys and girls. At the age of 20 he coached the boy’s JV team at Bishop Brady and moved to be the JV Girls coach at Concord High School the following year. At one point he was working with the high school team, three club teams, as well as ODP all at the same time.

In 2009 it was time to go back to school where he finished his undergraduate degree in Business Administration at Plymouth State University and played on the men’s soccer team that year. A second knee injury forced him to hang up his boots and he became the men’s assistant coach in 2010, a position he held for four years.

During that time, Ryan was brought on as the Boys Varsity Head Coach at Bishop Brady High School, leading the team to its first winning season in 17 years and being awarded the 2013 NHIAA Coach of the Year. He coached the boys NH Lions Cup team in the summer of 2014, which made him the only male player in the state of New Hampshire to have played and coached in that same game (he was told).

Ryan was hired as the Head Coach of the women’s soccer team at PSU in 2014, earning LEC Conference Coach of the Year honors in 2016 (only the 2nd PSU women’s coach to do so). He will be entering his sixth year under the helm at Plymouth for the 2019 season.

Over the course of that time, Ryan has also been a patched US Soccer referee as well as a USFF futsal patched referee, was a league manager and coordinator of Fieldhouse Sports House teams in Bow and sat on the Board of Directors for Express Soccer Club.

One part of the game that Ryan is truly passionate about it the development of players who get to enjoy the beautiful game. For a better part of a decade, Ryan helped grow Samba Player Development Academy (PDA), based out of the Concord area. Alongside his good friend (founder/owner) Chuck Breton, they grew Samba to become the largest independent, unaffiliated (with any clubs) training program in the state of New Hampshire, training hundreds of recreational, club, state, regional, and national level players.

From Samba stemmed a futsal program called, “Samba Black” which were essentially glorified pick-up teams who competed at the regional and national levels. Ryan was fortunate to be able to lead two national championship winning teams and numerous regional championship teams, - to this day being one of the most successful futsal programs.

This excitement for futsal led Ryan to start a Samba Futsal League, which by its second year grew from an internal extension of Samba PDA to a fully operational, independent futsal league, known as 1st Touch Futsal. The league grew to over 100 teams in a three-year span. 1st Touch also worked extensively with the development of young referees with their mentorship program, providing a league environment that was safe, positive, and enjoyable for all who were involved.

Samba also went global. A non-profit was created by a group of local families who wanted to give back to those who were less fortunate. Samba International helps provide food, water, and educational scholarships to those in Malawi, Africa. Ryan was able to be an ambassador of the program and start a club soccer team in the village of Kong’oma, travelling to the African continent to help work with volunteer coaches from the village.

“Someone asked me if my passion was soccer,” Ryan said. “I thought it was – but after giving it more thought, soccer isn’t my passion – its people. Soccer is a vehicle in which I am fortunate enough to GET to make a positive impact on people’s lives. Soccer in the state of New Hampshire has opened so many doors for me, and the people ‘behind the scenes’ deserve so much recognition. I just want to be able to provide the next generation of players the opportunities to grow as players and people, much like I did. I want to give back.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I LOVE SOCCER. But without the people, and the players, volunteers, coaches, referees, parents, and all involved – I wouldn’t be able to do something I love being passionate about.”

Ryan has moved back to Concord where he lives with his wife, Ashley – and his dog Randy.