Coach Stephanie Ryan, heading into her sixth year as a triple jump and long jump coach at Andale, answered our questions about her coaching career.

Before Stephanie was a coach she was a Division 1 track athlete at WSU who competed in the heptathlon.  “I had to learn hurdles, high jump, long jump, shot put, and javelin,” Stephanie said.  “My coaches in college always made practice fun.  We would always enjoy being at practice together and have good conversations.”  Stephanie also states that she has been able to move around and help with other events based off where coaching staff needed her.

Further down the road, Stephanie wanted to coach at Andale along side with her husband, Tyler Ryan.  “[he’s] extremely knowledgeable and I believe in his coaching philosophies.  I truly believe that he is one of the best coaches I’ve even been around…”  Stephanie constantly bounces ideas off Coach Ryan and is a huge reason she wanted to coach at Andale.  With two Ryan’s on the coaching staff, the track team instead calls her Coach Steph.

Over the years Coach Steph has visited coaching clinics, communicated with both high school and college coaches, and followed high level coaches on social media in efforts of keeping up with the new developments and trends in triple and long jump.  In addition to staying updated on the latest techniques and strategies she ensures that her athletes a mentally prepared to compete.  “At meets I usually try and make it fun just like I do at practice,” Coach Steph said, “I think most athletes perform better when they are loose and just let what we’ve worked on at practice just happen fluidly.”

“I think I’ve tried to create that environment where we are going to work hard but have fun.”  Coach Steph said.  “The beauty about track is that there is a lot of down time to get to know your athletes.  I would say that each athlete needs different things from me.”  While some athletes she can give constructive feedback and have no problem taking that information and applying it.  “Some need positive reinforcement and others need more direct feedback.”  Overall Coach Steph’s goal is to create an environment that her athletes can look back on later in life and enjoy the memories they made in track.  One of her memorable moments as a coach is all the relationships she’s built as a coach and being around kids.

But her second most memorable moment was the boy state championship win last year in 2023.  They needed Louisburg boys to place 4th place or lower in the 4x400m in order to win the state title.  The first two teams had times that were much better than the rest, but Louisburg and Bishop Miege had the 3rd and 4th best times.  The team was down on the infield getting the Bishop Miege boys hyped up to beat Louisburg, “Never thought I would see that,” claimed Coach Steph.  The race was on and it was neck and neck and Bishop Miege ends up beating Louisburg. The team was going crazy up in the stands and celebrating on the field and all the other schools are so confused Andale didn’t have a team in the race.  What they didn’t understand is that the Andale boys won the state title by ½  a point because Bishop Miege got 3rd and Louisburg got 4th.

When asked who she thought would contribute most to the track team, she answered with.  “I’ve been really impressed with all my returning jumpers.  They have been great leaders at practice by showing the new freshman how we run practice and by stepping up and leading the drills.  I think they all can be contributors this year to our team.”