SAC Sound-Off: Glad to be an AD's Son
October 30, 2012
By Coby Ryan
Manistique junior
“Oh, you’re Rob Ryan’s son, right?”
As a student-athlete, I hear that all the time. The Upper Peninsula is a tightly-knit network in the sports world. Names, faces, and schools are heavily interconnected. And as the son of Manistique’s athletic director Rob Ryan, everything in that perspective is multiplied.
There are certainly perks to being my father’s son. At every away game I attend, I am greeted by some coach, athletic director, or other school official who already knows my name before the game even starts. Also, we have unlimited access to the gym. It is hard to stay connected to statewide sports living where I do, but having my dad as an AD helps. We always attend the MHSAA Boys Basketball Finals in East Lansing through him, and we love it. Finally, he introduced me to the MHSAA Student Advisory Council, and I am extremely thankful for that. He has more sports-related access than most people, and I benefit from that.
There also are some traits of being an AD’s son that people probably do not see if they do not have a similar relationship. I definitely am held to a higher standard, both academically and athletically, because of my father’s position in the school. This pushes me to be the best student-athlete I can be, and for that I am grateful.
But, there can also be a feeling of being overshadowed by what he does. I am my own person; I am not my father. Many times, I am identified by his achievements, not mine. If I play a good game, I’m “Rob Ryan’s son,” not “Coby Ryan.” Identity problems can be an issue as an athletic director’s child, but this motivates me more to want to be called by my own name because of who I am and what I’ve accomplished.
When I am attending or involved in an athletic competition, my peers and I do not have the same experience. They all see the players playing, a couple guys reffing, and some other people doing statistics or something; they don’t really care about the details. They are just there to watch the game.
When I go, I see things in an entirely different light. I see a team that arrived on the field or court without a hitch because my dad was there to greet them, show them where everything was, and make sure they were all settled in. I see an unbiased, professional officiating crew contracted by my father from a different community. I see scorekeepers, announcers, timers, and statisticians, all hired by him because of their knowledge of the game being played and their ability to perform the task given to them. When there are unruly fans, coaches, or players, I see people that my dad has to deal with by getting them out of the game so enjoyment is not taken away from the rest. In the student section, I am much more aware of sportsmanship and what is appropriate or inappropriate for a high school game than my peers because of him. Being his son puts a whole new perspective on how I view the game.
Through my dad, I can be much more involved in my community’s sports, even if I am not playing all of them. He taught me how to keep stats for basketball games. He had me announce JV football games. I have been a referee with him in local basketball tournaments. Also, we coached a girls basketball travel team together. These opportunities all arose from his being an athletic director.
Overall, I love being my dad’s kid. We both love high school sports and get to enjoy them in more ways than most fathers and sons ever will. I believe there are some negatives to it, but I find that in the end these actually just make me a better student-athlete and a better person. I guess I am pretty lucky to be “Rob Ryan’s son.”
Coby Ryan, Manistique junior
- Sports: Football, basketball, track and field
- Non-sports activities: Class President, Quiz Bowl, Drama Club, Glee Club, National Honor Society, Spanish Club, YETI, Academic Booster Club Class Representative
- Favorite class: Gym
- Up next: Ryan hopes to attend the University of Michigan.
- Shining moment: Scoring 22 points and beating our rival Big Bay de Noc in JV basketball.
- Pump-up jam: "Winner" by Jamie Foxx (with Justin Timberlake & T.I.)
- Must-see TV: "The Office"
- Favorite films: "Step Brothers" and "The Dark Knight"
PHOTO: Manistique junior Coby Ryan stands with parents Christi and Rob during his football team's Parents Night this fall. 
Online Course Trains Leaders Nationwide
By
Geoff Kimmerly
MHSAA.com senior editor
August 11, 2015
By Geoff Kimmerly
Second Half editor
The valuable lessons student leaders have received over the last decade during Captains Clinics presented statewide by Michigan High School Athletic Association staff are now available to students nationwide and beyond as part of an online Captains Course produced by the MHSAA and available from the National Federation of State High School Associations on its Learning Center website.
The Captains Course, created over two years with assistance from Michigan State University’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports (ISYS), is broken into 10 segments providing instruction on leadership styles and skills to how to handle situations faced by leaders of teams in any sport. A total of 20 past members of the MHSAA Student Advisory Council speak during the program, providing peer-to-peer guidance that has proven effective in student leadership campaigns.
The online Captains Course has been started 2,881 times since its release in July, including 802 times during the first 10 days of this month. The first MHSAA Captains Clinic was conducted in March 2005, and clinics are presented in person on a league-by-league basis to approximately 1,000 students each school year.
The online Captains Course is free and can be downloaded after an account is created on the NFHS Learning Center website at http://www.nfhslearn.com.
“Many student-athletes have characteristics that allow them to become leaders, but rarely do they receive lessons in how to be an effective team captain; this has been the goal of our Captains Clinics and is the aim of this Captains Course,” said MHSAA assistant director Andy Frushour, who coordinates the association’s student services programs and advises the Student Advisory Council. “Our in-person Captains Clinics are still a great way to deliver leadership lessons and to get students from rival schools to interact with each other in a fun and worthwhile way. But we can only do so many in-person clinics per year.
“With the online version, we can deliver the same message, albeit through a different format. And we can do it 24 hours a day, at the user’s convenience, using a medium that kids use like the rest of us use oxygen, and potentially delivering our captains message to exponentially more students than the in-person version; even to students outside of Michigan.”
The online Captains Course is an introductory program, with plans for two more advanced leadership courses that will be facilitated online but with activities and discussions to take place offline in local communities. The goal for the “hands-on” portion of later training courses will be for leaders to conduct interviews with coaches and administrators, write short answers and interact with teammates for a more transformational learning experience.
The first course is made up of 10, 10-minute segments, and takes about two hours to complete – but is meant to be completed over multiple days. The short “bite-sized” segments make it easier for students to digest all of the information being given to them, and are based on research by the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports. Doctoral students working with the institute serve as instructors during Captains Clinics.
The Captains Course is hosted by recent high school graduates Caycee Turczyn of Lapeer High School and Connor Thomas of Marlette. Both were two-year members of the Student Advisory Council; Turczyn will begin studies this fall at the University of Michigan, while Thomas will start at Oakland University.
“All of the lessons are based on research conducted by MSU’s Institute for the Study of Youth Sports,” Frushour said. “Dr. Dan Gould and his doctoral students are rock stars in the field of youth and leadership development, and we are lucky to have them as partners on this project “
The Institute for the Study of Youth Sports was launched in 1978 to establish a world-class institute that would scientifically study the beneficial and detrimental effects of sports participation on children and youth and then work to maximize the beneficial effects. The mission of the Institute for the Study of Youth Sports is to provide leadership, scholarship and outreach that transforms the face of youth sports in ways that maximize the beneficial physical, psychological, and social effects of participation for children and youth while minimizing detrimental effects.
The Student Advisory Council is a 16-member group which provides feedback on issues impacting educational athletics from a student’s perspective, and also is involved in the operation of MHSAA championship events and other programming. Members of the Student Advisory Council serve for two years, beginning as juniors. Eight new members are selected annually to serve on the SAC, with nominations made by MHSAA member schools.
The MHSAA is a private, not-for-profit corporation of voluntary membership by more than 1,400 public and private senior high schools and junior high/middle schools which exists to develop common rules for athletic eligibility and competition. No government funds or tax dollars support the MHSAA, which was the first such association nationally to not accept membership dues or tournament entry fees from schools. Member schools which enforce these rules are permitted to participate in MHSAA tournaments, which attract more than 1.4 million spectators each year.
PHOTO: Lapeer's Caycee Turczyn and Marlette's Connor Thomas host the online Captains Course, with this segment shot at DeWitt High School.