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Ryan Swanson remembers the grand days of Blue Dragon basketball. He
remembers when the Sports Arena was packed and the entire city of
Hutchinson watched every move the team made.
He also lived it as a player. Swanson was a redshirt on HCC’s first
national championship team in 1988.
Swanson is now in his third season as the Blue Dragons’ head coach.
“I want to pack it,” Swanson said, referring to the Sports Arena.
“Call me crazy, but I think there’s enough people out there who are
just like me and want this place packed again.”
In his first two seasons at Hutchinson, Swanson has a 46-17 record.
He is the seventh coach in Blue Dragon history to win 20 or more
games in each of his first two seasons.
Last season the Blue Dragons went 23-9 and advanced to the
quarterfinals of the Region VI Tournament. The Dragons jumped from a
fourth-place finish in the Jayhawk West in 2007 to a 12-4 record and
a second-place finish in 2008, the highest league finish since 2004
when the Dragons won the league. Point guard Bobby Maze earned 2008
Jayhawk West Player of the Year and NJCAA first-team All-America
honors.
Swanson’s first team finished 23-8, but it had several big moments,
including a victory over No. 1-ranked and eventual national champion
Midland College.
Swanson is a Hutchinson native who played at Hutchinson High School
for Dan Justice and at HCC for legendary Blue Dragon coach David
Farrar. After his playing days were over, Swanson started his
coaching career as a graduate/volunteer assistant for the Dragons in
1990.
Swanson has eight years experience as a junior college head coach,
posting an overall record of 182-74 at three different schools.
Before coming to HCC, Swanson was a head coach at St. Catharine
College in Springfield, Ky., Marshalltown Community College in
Marshalltown, Iowa, and Garden City Community College.
“I can't tell you how excited I am to be a Blue Dragon again,”
Swanson said at his news conference when he was introduced as coach.
“It’s good to be back. I’m very excited to get this basketball
program back to the level that other coaches have their programs
at.”
Swanson comes to HCC with an impressive resume.
His most recent-position was as head coach at Garden City Community
College where he led the Broncbusters to their first Jayhawk West
championship in that program’s history in 2005. In his two years at
Garden City, Swanson coached one first-team NJCAA All-American and
four All-Jayhawk West players.
Swanson’s Broncbuster teams had a two-year league record of 24-8,
which was four games better than any other team in the Jayhawk West
over that span.
Between Garden City and Hutchinson, Swanson worked as an account
representative for Delta Enterprises and he also operated a college
basketball scouting service.
After leaving HCC as a volunteer assistant, Swanson was an assistant
at Barton County and later landed as an assistant at St. Catharine
College in Springfield, Ky., in 1996. St. Catharine qualified for
the 1997 NJCAA Tournament. That team averaged 107.3 points per game.
Swanson took over as head coach at St. Catharine one year later and
spent three seasons, winning 76 percent of its games playing one of
the toughest schedules in the country. Swanson left St. Catharine to
take the top men's job at Marshalltown Community College in
Marshalltown, Iowa.
After one year at Marshalltown, Swanson received an opportunity to
coach at the Division I level with Bruce Pearl at the University of
Wisconsin-Milwaukee. In 2003, UWM earned its first-ever berth in the
NCAA Tournament. Swanson spent two seasons at UWM before taking the
Garden City position in May of 2003. |
