Joe Ryan is in his 30th season on the Manhattan College track & field coaching staff. He works primarily with the sprinters and hurdlers, and was elevated to Associate Head Coach in July 2016.
In addition to his coaching duties at Manhattan, Ryan also has Olympic coaching experience. He was the head track & field coach for Guyana at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, during which Aliann Pompey '99 just missed making the 400 meter final while running a Guyanese national record. Ryan reprised that role for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro after acting as a team official for the Guyanese delegation at the 2012 London Games. He has also traveled to the past eight World Track & Field Championships as a member of the Guyanese coaching staff, serving as head coach for the 2015 edition in Beijing.
During his career at Manhattan, 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.
After serving two years as the women’s assistant coach and two years as the women’s head coach, Ryan has spent the last 27 years as a member of the coaching staff for Manhattan’s combined track & field program. During his tenure as head coach of the women’s program, Ryan’s teams won seven Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) Championships and three Metropolitan Outdoor Championships.
He has had similar success as the sprints coach of the combined program. In this role, Ryan 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 Pompey, Manhattan’s first female All-American, to both the NCAA indoor 400-meter title and a national collegiate record in the 500 meters.
Pompey competed in four Olympic Games under the guidance of Coach Ryan. Since Pompey’s retirement, he has continued to work with Guyanese sprinter Winston George, who ran the 400 at the 2016 Rio Games. With George’s qualification for the 2016 Games, Ryan has had the distinction of having at least one sprinter compete in the last seven Olympics, including Dine Potter ‘97, who represented Antigua and Barbuda at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
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 100 meters and 200 meters. During his running career, Ryan competed in major meets throughout Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Off the track, Ryan also serves as the chair of the mathematics department in the Nanuet School District. He is the long-serving treasurer of the Metropolitan Track Coaches Association and President of the Manhattan College Athletic Hall of Fame Committee. Ryan assumed that role in 2016 after serving as vice-chair for four years.
His brother, Gerry, a 1988 alumnus, was an All-American hammer thrower at Manhattan and is a member of the Athletic Hall of Fame. A considerable number of Ryan’s female athletes have also been inducted into the Hall of Fame over the past 10 years.
A 1981 graduate of Manhattan, Ryan earned a master's degree from the College in 1986. He resides in Hartsdale, NY, with his wife Julienne, Class of 1981.
