Bio

Mike played his high school football in Ontario, Canada, and after being recruited by Alabama, Auburn, UC Berkeley, and San Diego State, he chose SDSU. He transferred to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to finish out his playing career and enter the CLF draft. He was a fifth round choice of the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the 1984 CFL draft.

With an injury and career choices shifting, he moved into teaching and coaching. He was a head coach and assistant coach in three different high schools in Canada and coached the offensive line for two seasons at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick.

Moving to California, he taught and coached at Baldwin Park High School from 1989-1999. He coached offensive and defensive lines, coached special teams, and was the scouting coordinator from 1989-1991, where the Braves won a CIF Championship in 1991 and were finalists in 1990. From there it was off to coach offensive line with an incredible football mind, Clint South, at San Bernardino Valley College in 1992 and 1993. They won a National Championship in 1992 with a bowl win over his old SDSU coach John Featherstone and El Camino College and were undefeated in 1993 with a statement bowl game win over Bakersfield College in their own stadium. They suffered only one loss in his two years at SBVC.

He continued teaching at BP and coaching on and off from 1994-1999. Then he moved to South Hills High School and became the offensive and defensive line coach, special teams coordinator, and later assistant head coach to Steve Bogan and the Huskies [where he met and coached now VVC head coach David Slover]. After a second round loss in the playoffs of 1999, Coach Ryan and the Huskies went on the win CIF in 2000, 2002, 2003, and 2005, losing a championship game in 2004 and dropping a second round game in 2001. He then moved to consulting with La Serna High School and Baldwin Park High School while working on college player reports for the San Francisco 49ers.

During this time he spoke at the Bill Williams Clinic as well as at several high schools and small clinics. He also created and coordinated a football combine in the San Gabriel Valley to highlight top high school juniors for college coaches.

In 2007 he moved to Apple Valley, but continued to teach at South Hills commuting every day to West Covina. Getting restless and wanting to help out, in 2008 and 2009 he returned to on-field life, helping coach the offensive and defensive lines with the Apple Valley Sun Devils and Head Coach Frank Pulice. The gritty team won the school’s first playoff win in 25 years in 2009. Taking 2010 off, he returned to the Huskies in 2011 to coach the defensive line in Coach Bogan’s last year at the helm of the steely program.

After finally hanging up the coaching cleats after 2012, he continued to help his coaching friends in California, Hawaii, and Canada. He retired from the classroom in 2020 and went into dog rescue and rehabilitation.

As a teacher, he taught AP English Literature, AP English Language, Yearbook, Journalism, and Theory of Knowledge, coordinated the International Baccalaureate Program, and taught 9-12 English. In coaching, he coached five CIF Championships, two CIF Finalists, two junior college bowl wins, and one junior college National Championship, and helped over 25 players reach either the CFL or NFL.