This isn’t a story like most written about North’s basketball team, or even a stories about Coach Ryan. There won’t be mentions of individual players or individual awards or statistics. Instead this story is a little more about what made Coach Ryan.

Chad Ryan was born 41 years ago at Lutheran Hospital in Des Moines, and he hasn’t ever stayed too long away from the city of his birth. Since that day sports have always been a part of his life, from going to his elementary school to play basketball with his friends all the way up to playing D-III college ball, sports have made him. He played football, baseball, soccer, and basketball in high school until he received a hairline fracture in his thigh and that ended his football days. Basketball wasn’t his favorite sport, he preferred baseball and football while he attended North for one year and Hoover for the other three.

We know Coach as a coach and his aspirations to coach started in seventh grade and was nurtured in college when he was a student coach at Central College. His road there was marked by a year off to work construction, a year at Iowa Central Junior College that ended with a broken wrist, a year at DMACC Boone where he set records for most steals in a game and most consecutive made free throws, then it was off to the now closed Westmar College, and finally he landed at Central College where he played his final two years. In his own words, “I was kinda a traveler in college.”

Out of college his road to North was more haphazard then his road to Central. Out of college he took a job in Boise as a junior high coach. He then moved back to Iowa to be close to home and took the job as JV head coach at Central College and assisted the varsity, he also worked at Central Campus at this time. After all that he went to Des Moines high schools and got a job at Lincoln as the Freshman coach and once more assisted the varsity. Three years later he left and started coaching a semi-pro basketball team out of Ft. Dodge for a year, in that year he would coach an NBA Rookie of the Year. He left though and went to coach at Roosevelt as the Sophomore coach and for the last time assisted the varsity team. Four years later he put his resumé out for a head varsity coach position and was accepted at North. Many people said he was crazy and could get a better a job in a few years, He started the day before school.

He changed a losing program into a wining one, as evidenced by this last season. The title as CIML Champions was, outside of his kids being born, one of his prouder moments and the best one as a coach. His work hasn’t gone unnoticed either as he was named sportsspotlight.com 4A Coach of the year, which in of itself was hard for him because he is a self-proclaimed humble guy. As a coach accepting awards aren’t his biggest challenges, those come from players who are academically ineligible and playing big budget schools with arguably better talent. Those academic challenges though are some of the most rewarding according to Ryan, “ Seeing a kid struggle in class and then he turns the corner, that really great to see.”

Some of the players see him as a dad. For coach that a little weird, at Lincoln he was the big brother, Roosevelt he was an uncle, now a he’s a father figure. “Before too long the kids will be calling me grandpa,” he says. Of course begs the question of “ How much longer will he coach?” To that he answers, “ I don’t see myself retiring anytime soon… I’m not putting my resumé out there if that’s what you’re asking.”

Coach isn’t just a coach though, he is also Co-Athletic Director with Mr. Tate. He tries to catch one event from each sports program throughout the year. He is also helping coach the boys tennis team who are between coaches. “The kids come work hard in tennis and it’s inspiring. This is why I do what I do, to get out and watch these kids bust their tail.” He’s always been involved in sports and has no intention of stopping now or after he retires. He might not have started at North, but he has become North and will hopefully finishes his career at North. Which if up to him his career will end at the home of the Polar Bears.