Coach Tony Ryan was inducted into the Florida Track and Field Hall of Fame on January 4, 2024, and shares about his nomination and contributions to the team.
Ryan credits “having good coaches, and having a team that buys into the culture of being the best that you can be” to his success as a coach. He surrounds himself with coaches he has both coached as athletes and worked with in the past, allowing him to elevate the Bolles Track and Field program by focusing on the athletes and the team environment.
For Ryan, the most important thing a coach can do for the team is “to always look for ways to improve.” Ryan says that great coaching involves attending clinics, receiving input from other coaches, and reading about running to continue to learn about the sport. “Once a coach thinks that they know it all and they can’t get any better in what they do, then it’s probably time to stop coaching,” he says.
While Ryan is honored by the nomination, he remains humble and looks forward to the continuing development of the program. “I measure success by having a good, consistent program every year, rather than just being good when you have some talented athletes that all come along at the same time.”
He defines a successful team environment as “not necessarily buying into winning, but being the best runner and teammate that you can possibly be.” This allows the athletes not only to be competitive with one another, but also to value their improvement as athletes and measure their success by their growth as runners, not by times.
In Ryan’s experience, the most important thing a team can do is maintain the balance of hard, progressive, and recovery days, while remaining consistent in training schedules throughout a season. Consistency allows the athletes to get the most out of their workouts, while also utilizing recovery to minimize injury and continue to make improvements at practice.
Ryan emphasizes how the best recovery for an athlete is sleep. “Ice baths, massages, rolling, icing- there is nothing that is more beneficial than getting a good night’s sleep consistently.” To accommodate this, Ryan highlights the importance of sustainable practice times so that the athletes are able to get home at a reasonable hour and get a good night’s sleep.
Off the field, Ryan is an advisor and 11th grade English teacher at Bolles. He describes the advantages of being a coach and teacher, and how he is able to use this to have better insight of a student-athletes schedule. “I’m a big believer in making the practices efficient,” Ryan says, “so that students are getting home at a reasonable time knowing that they’ve got to get their homework done.”
Above all, Coach Ryan is grateful for the opportunity to be inducted into the Hall of Fame. “I’m really fortunate to get to coach some really great kids, and have great parents that support our program,” he says.
