Joe Ryan enters his 17th season with the Manhattan College track & field coaching staff. After serving two years as the women's assistant coach and two years as the women's head coach, Ryan has spent the last 10 years as an assistant coach in Manhattan's combined track & field program.
In 2003, Ryan was named as one of the recipients of the 2003 AFLAC National Assistant Coach of the Year Award. He was one of 500 selected out of 350,000 high school and college assistant coaches across the nation. He was recognized for his expertise, longevity, contributions to the school and community, and special achievements throughout his career.
During his tenure as head coach of the Lady Jaspers, Ryan's teams won seven Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Championships and three Metropolitan Outdoor Championships. In 2001, Ryan earned his first men's Metropolitan Indoor Championships when he assisted head coach
Dan Mecca.
Ryan has had similar success as the sprints coach of the combined program. In this role, he has coached a number of college record holders and numerous All-East performers in both the IC4A and ECAC Championships. During the 2000 season, Ryan coached Manhattan College's first female All-American, Aliann Pompey, to both the NCAA Indoor 400m title and a national collegiate record in the 500m. Pompey competed in the Sydney Olympics where she advanced to the quarterfinals, as well as the Athens Games, where she advanced to the semifinals of the 400m. With Pompey's participation in the 2004 Olympics, Ryan has had the distinction of having at least one sprinter compete in the last four Olympics, including Dine Potter, who represented Antigua and Barbuda in Atlanta in 1996.
In 2002, he coached Pompey to her first gold medal in the 400m at the XVII Commonwealth Games, where she represented her country of Guyana. Due to his extraordinary training over the years, Ryan was selected as track coach of the Guyanese track team for the 2001 World Track & Field Championships in Edmonton, Canada.
Ryan started his coaching career at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, where he was head coach of the boys' team for three years. His squads won two Indoor New York Championships and 11 Indoor and Outdoor Sprint Titles, while a number of his athletes and relay team earned national recognition.
A former co-captain of Manhattan's men's track & field team, Ryan was a member of the Jaspers' outdoor record sprint medley relay team. A native of Ireland, he also competed for the Irish National Team from 1976-84, winning seven national sprint titles and setting records in the 100m and 200m. During his running career, Ryan competed in major meets throughout Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Ryan, who earned his Bachelor's and Master's degrees from Manhattan College, is also the chair of the Math Department at Nanuet High School in Rockland County.
Ryan currently resides in Hartsdale, New York, with his wife Julienne, also a 1981 Manhattan graduate.
