Ryan Evans
Episode 311
13 JAN 2025
He is in his second season as an assistant coach for women’s swimming and diving at the University of Kansas. Prior to joining the Jayhawks staff, he was the head coach at the University of Mary, and before that he had been an assistant coach at the University of New Mexico. Prior to moving into the college coaching ranks, he was the head coach of Reno Aquatic Club from 2018-21. As a student-athlete he graduated from and swam at the University of Iowa, where he was named the team captain for the 2008-09 season. He also received the Big Ten Sportsmanship Award and the Iowa Swimming Leadership Award in 2009. He has a compelling story about his reversion back to the Catholic faith.
Notable guest quotes:
“Parents were Catholic, went to Mass, still go to Mass every Sunday, and I attended a Catholic school first through high school, graduated from Bishop Manogue Catholic High School in Reno, Nevada.”
“I grew up playing all the sports. Baseball was probably my first love and then I spent some years playing basketball, but swimming has always kind of been a theme in my family… my uncle was a long-time swim coach, and my oldest brother was an All-American swimmer in high school.”
“One of my good friends decided to open up a specialty running store in Reno and he offered me the manager position, he wanted me to help him open the store. So, I was the manager of Reno Running Company.”
“I told her, ‘I’ve always wanted to marry someone who was Catholic.’ I didn’t know why at that point but that was super important to me.”
“Sitting there (watching) this documentary… and a light bulb went off in my head and looking back now, that’s the moment that kick started my faith and my faith journey.”
“That was God’s plan, was for us to move to Albuquerque, and the reasons for that, there’s kind of three things that happened to me with my faith journey in Albuquerque.”
“It’s so amazing and beautiful to see how God has worked in our lives.”
“I started to do some research after reading the job description and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is a faithful Catholic university! This is something that we’re looking for’!”
“I think our faith gets stronger and it deepens when we’re in a community that maybe isn’t as accepting or as open to the Catholic faith.”
Related link:
