Ryan Sawyers Hometown: Rawlings, Md. Position: Assistant Coach Birthdate: 06/26/1978

Ryan Sawyers returns for his third season on the Purdue coaching staff, joining the Boilermakers on a full-time basis in August 2008. Sawyers will work primarily as the pitching coach and will also assist with defense. In the summer of 2009 he was promoted to the position of Recruiting Coordinator for the Boilermakers. He previously served as the volunteer assistant during the 2004 season.

Sawyers came to Purdue with a Central Illinois Collegiate League (now the Prospect League) title in tow after leading the Springfield Sliders to the championship in 2008. He was the Sliders' head coach in their first season in the league and led the team to a CICL-best 30-17 regular-season record. The Sliders won the first half, the regular season and the league championship.

Prior to joining Schreiber's staff at Purdue and his summer appointment in the CICL, he most recently served as an assistant at Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kan. During his three seasons (2005-08) with the Broncbusters he sent numerous players on to the Division I ranks and professional baseball, while also helping to lead them to a NJCAA Region VI runner-up finish in 2007. During Sawyers' time in Garden City players signed letters of intent with Purdue, Kansas, Florida Atlantic, Southeast Louisiana and Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Along with his pitching staff duties at Garden City, Sawyers coordinated recruiting, travel, fundraising, facility maintenance, strength and conditioning and academic monitoring. The Busters finished the 2008 academic year with the third best team GPA in the country.

He began his collegiate coaching career with a three-year stint at Shepherd University (2000-03) where the Rams won three consecutive division titles and finished runners-up at the 2002 NCAA II North Atlantic Regional. Under Sawyers' direction the Rams led the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in ERA in 2002 and 2003.

After Shepherd, Sawyers spent a season as an assistant at Allegany College and has also served as the head coach for the Front Royal Cardinals in the Valley Baseball League and as the pitching coach for the Chillicothe Paints professional team in the Frontier League.

His collegiate playing career includes pitching two seasons at West Virginia Wesleyan College where he was named the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Pitcher of the Year in 1999 and led the team in strikeouts both years. He also helped pitch Allegany College of Maryland to a Junior College World Series appearance in 1997.

Sawyers, who holds a bachelor's degree from West Virginia Wesleyan College and a master's degree from West Virginia University, lives in Lafayette with his wife, Jaime, son, Brady, and daughter, Chelsea.

Printer-friendly format	Email this article

Purdue Boilermakers