Featuring Ryan Sawyers  Ryan Sawyers is in his second season as pitching coach and third overall on the Purdue coaching staff, joining the Boilermakers in August 2008. He will work primarily with the Purdue pitching staff and assist with the defense. Sawyers, who was a volunteer assistant for the Boilermakers during the 2004 season, returned to Purdue with a league title in tow after leading the Springfield Sliders of the Central Illinois Collegiate League (now the Prospect League) to the championship last summer. 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. 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.  He began his college 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 WVIAC Pitcher of the Year in 1999 and led the team in strikeouts both years. He also helped pitch Allegany College to a Junior College World Series appearance in 1997. Sawyers, who holds a bachelor's degree from West Virginia Wesleyan and a master's degree from West Virginia, returns to Purdue with his wife, Jaime, son, Brady, and daughter, Chelsea. |
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