About

Volleyball

Ryan has extensive experience playing in Europe. He played in all 3 CEV events: the CEV Challenge Cup, CEV Cup, & CEV Champions League. He competed in 5 different countries: Extraliga (Hungary), Mizunoligaaen (Norway), two seasons in Mestaruusliiga (Finland), Divizia A1 (Romania) & Campeonato Nacional (Portugal). In the 2018 Hungarian Cup Final, he was the team's MVP - the first libero in Hungarian Cup Final history to win the award. After the 2019 Norwegian Mizunoligaen season, he was named Norwegian Viking Player of the Year. In Finland during 2019/2020 season, according to Mestaruusliiga individual stats, he finished number 1 on the libero reception chart - [http://lml-web.dataproject.com/Statistics.aspx?ID=55&PID=56] (2019/2020 Best Receiver). In 2021, his Romanian team and him won the Romanian SuperCup for the first time in club history. In 2022, his Portuguese team and him also won the Portuguese SuperCup for the first time in club history as well. His Portuguese club finished 3rd in the 2023 European CEV Challenge Cup - the highest in the club history. He was born in Santa Monica, California and played & studied at Long Beach State University in California. During his tenure at Long Beach State, he was coached by Alan Knipe, who was the 2012 US Olympic Men's Volleyball head coach. Click on "Resume" to see more of his accomplishments. 

 

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Deafness

Ryan was born profoundly deaf in both ears. He uses small hearing aids and relies on lip-reading to communicate with players & coaches, just like David Smith, the deaf middle blocker on the USA's National Men's Volleyball team. Ryan had a speech therapist for 15+ years to learn how to orally communicate. Watch the video to learn more about him.