Stevens High School has recently made public their newest head coaching hire. Dan Ryan will take over the Cardinals’ program that was previously led by Matthew Baird-Torney, who brought them to a State Championship appearance in two years ago. Ryan has plenty of coaching experience, having started coaching in the 70’s, and is ready to get the ball rolling in 2018. The very able Paul Silva will serve as Ryan’s co-coach with a successful football and baseball history, and Scott Spaulding returns as the JV coach. Stevens will have a well-seasoned coaching staff ready to hit the ground running the first day of tryouts. Earlier this week, Ryan was kind enough to answer some questions regarding the recent hire and the upcoming season:
What is your experience with coaching basketball?
I started my coaching career at Belknap College in Center Harbor, NH, again in the Lakes Region… a college that is now defunct. I was an assistant there for three years and head coach for half a season until the college closed. We were NAIA (National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics) and able as a small school to grant scholarships, so my time there was spent with some incredible athletes. I have coached high school basketball at Interlakes High School in Meredith, NH in the Lakes Region… 15 years as the JV coach and 8 as the varsity coach. I coached at Plymouth State University as an assistant to Paul Hogan which I unfortunately only did for a year, but I loved coaching there. While coaching as a varsity coach at Interlakes we went to the championship game three times, with no championships.
What is it like to be hired to coach in a tight-knit community like Claremont?
I took a volunteer assistant’s job at Stevens and developed a fondness for the kids and the people at the school and will do all that is humanly possible to build a self-sustaining great basketball program to go along with the other successful sports programs at Stevens. I am extremely grateful for the opportunity rendered to me by the athletic director at Stevens, Doug Beaupre, to give me the chance to get that elusive championship I have been chasing, it seems like forever. I can’t wait to be able to on the black and red again.
What style of play do you plan on running and what do you expect from your players?
We will play a very aggressive man to man defense and employ a screening offense. I am known as being a defensive coach, but feel the only way to be successful in the game, as in life, is with a balanced approach. Our hallmark will be as a transition team and we have the thoroughbreds to make it happen! I love speed and quickness and the current group of athletes are loaded with those two attributes. We won’t have many experienced players returning and no height to speak of, but as I have previously stated, speed, quickness and athleticism are usually the defining factors in high school sports. What we are expecting from the kids is their very best effort and I know we will get it knowing the kids from the school I love.
How excited are you to get the ball rolling? When does preseason start?
I am thrilled to get this opportunity and can’t wait for the season to get started. Even though we are stepping up to D-ll from D-lll, I expect us to be competitive. It may take a while to get the system installed, but knowing the fight of the kids in Claremont, we expect great things in the future. Until we see the talent at the first workout and select the team, I don’t know if we’ll be younger or older. Some of the kids who showed up to summer league games made a lasting impression on me for their grit and determination.We intend to run clinics at the youth league and middle school levels to show the kids what to expect when they get to the high school. I am thankful and thrilled to be able to put the pedal to the metal again after so many years away as a head coach.
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