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Coach Debbie Ryan will be officially inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend. |
Virginia women’s basketball coach Debbie Ryan’s biography stretches on for pages and pages in the team’s media guide. 675 career wins, 22 NCAA Tournament appearances, 3 Final Fours, 11 ACC titles, 21 20-plus win seasons, 7-time ACC Coach of the Year. And that’s the condensed version.
Never during her 31 years on the sideline in Charlottesville, though, has Ryan prepared and delivered a speech like the one she will this weekend.
Saturday night in Knoxville, TN, Ryan is officially inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. And she has all of five minutes to sum up a wide-ranging and influential career in the game that has touched thousands.
TheSabre.com tracked down Ryan for a conversation far exceeding five minutes to discuss a variety of topics, including becoming a Hall of Famer, her favorite memories and stories of Virginia basketball, and how she’s preparing that speech for Saturday night.
JED: You and I have done about a million interviews over the last ten years, and I’ve never started one this way: “Hall of Famer Debbie Ryan.” Have you gotten used to that ring? Do you ever get used to that ring?
RYAN: I don’t really get used to titles before my name. It’s such an honor to be called a Hall of Famer and be in that group that’s already in the Hall of Fame. It’s probably more of an honor for the University of Virginia and all the players, coaches, and administrators who have been a part of my career.
JED: Obviously this is significant for you, but also, the number of student-athletes that you’ve helped to develop, the number of people’s careers you’ve helped launch, you’ve been a standard bearer for the University … as much as it’s about you, I would think it has to be about so much more that you’ve embodied here over 31 years?
RYAN: Well there’s no question that this is really about a legion of people that are behind me and with me all along the way, from my family all the way through the players, the coaches. Everyone who’s been involved in my career here has been an integral part of me being named to the Hall of Fame. That’s why I’m a little uncomfortable because it’s most definitely a shared honor, and it’s something that this Charlottesville community should be proud of, our fans should be proud of, because it’s all about them as well.
JED: So when you got the call, and answered “Debbie Ryan, Virginia Basketball,” and they said “Hi, this is the Hall of Fame, and we’d like to invite you to join our exclusive little sorority here,” what was your reaction? And how did that go when you got that call and had that conversation and realized “Oh my goodness, I’m going?”
RYAN: Well, it was a really interesting night. It was about this time last year, and it was late on a Saturday night, so I’m thinking it was probably after the Hall of Fame induction for last year’s class. And it was Carol Callin and Beth Bass. They both called me on the phone, and they were both extremely excited. I think that in itself was very satisfying for me because they were probably as excited as they’ve been for anybody to be named to the Hall of Fame. And I felt like, “Wow, these are two of my colleagues that are so excited that I’m being named,” and that meant the world to me. It was a neat night. It was late at night – probably around 11 or 12 and I was ready to go to bed – and they called and we just chatted for a while. They told me I couldn’t tell anyone at that point. So I just thought to myself “That’s just amazing.” It was surreal.
JED: How do you keep a secret like that when the smile’s splashed all over your face and everyone’s probably saying “Debbie, something’s going on here?”
RYAN: I did keep it pretty secret. I did tell my family, but that was it. Everyone else found out after we were allowed to say things. But it was a surreal experience, and it’s very gratifying and satisfying, but more for everyone else than just me.
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Val Ackerman will introduce Debbie Ryan’s video presentation at the induction. |
JED: I don’t need to remind you of all that you’ve accomplished in the game – it speaks for itself – but before you got that call last year, did you ever allow yourself to think or wonder or dream or speculate “I wonder if the ball bounced right if that’s something that could ever happen to me: Debbie Ryan and the Hall of Fame?”
RYAN: Honestly I never really put any thought into it. I’m not really into individual honors. It’s not something that I need. I think more in terms of my team and my players receiving the honors that they deserve. I think in terms of my staff getting to where they need to go. But I never really thought about this individual honor for me. I’m very humbled by it and honored by it, but at the same time, I figure that if you do what you’re supposed to do, you take care of business, and you work extremely hard, you’re going to get what you’re supposed to get. That’s the way I always felt.
JED: You’ll be in Knoxville this weekend to be inducted, yet in Major League Baseball or the NBA or the NFL, players and coaches are inducted after their careers are over. But you’re going strong – you won 24 games last year; you want to get to the Sweet 16 and beyond this coming year – is it interesting for you that you’re being inducted mid-career and there are still chapters to be written in the Debbie Ryan coaching novel?
RYAN: I think that’s how it is for a lot of coaches in our profession. But I don’t really think about it in those terms, but I’m definitely not going anywhere and I love what I do. This program has really taken a turn upward. We’re headed in the right direction and we’re putting together a team right now that could go as far as it wants to go, potentially all the way to the Final Four.
JED: The speech you have to give Saturday night. How do you do that – seven minutes summing up 31 years. I mean this in the best way: “Good luck.”
RYAN: Really it’s only supposed to be five minutes, so if I steal seven and then three more, I could be in trouble. I figure there’s a break after my speech, so maybe I can go a little bit longer. It’s very difficult. I’ve been here 31 years, not including two years as a graduate assistant. My career encompasses and involves a lot of people. We mentioned one today while we’re sitting here that I need to remember. It’s a very difficult speech to write. We’ll see how it turns out.
JED: Let’s talk for a minute about becoming a coach … and then becoming a basketball coach. Did you always know that you wanted to be a coach, even if you didn’t know it was basketball?
RYAN: I always knew I wanted to be a coach, from the time I was about nine years old. The reason was because my grandfather was a swimming coach, but he died of Hodgkin’s disease long before I was born, so I used to see pictures of my granddad at my father’s old home, and I always wanted to be like him. And I was a competitive swimmer growing up. I knew I wanted to do something in coaching; what it was going to be, we weren’t sure. I didn’t know if it would be swimming, field hockey, tennis, golf, basketball … I played all those sports at different times during my life. I wasn’t quite sure which one I wanted to coach, but I knew that’s what I wanted to do.
JED: During your time at Ursinus College, obviously you were heavily involved in basketball, but you involved in a lot of stuff. You were the all around sportswoman, weren’t you?
RYAN: Well, I played tennis, I played field hockey, I played basketball. I also dabbled in softball and lacrosse. I really liked all kinds of sports. I just liked being around sports in general. It was a big, big part of my life.
JED: In the end, you made the right decision with basketball. But why basketball when you made the decision that you did?
RYAN: It’s an interesting thing because I decided between field hockey and basketball. I was coaching field hockey at the time under Linda Southworth. Linda was leaving, so I was in position to move into that job or into basketball with Dan Bonner moving on. I chose basketball because that was by far my favorite of all the sports. I loved field hockey, but not as much as I loved basketball. I just saw the future of basketball being more in the direction of where I wanted to go where I felt like I could make a bigger impact, not just within basketball but in the sports world in general.
JED: You and I could do a 25-part series of how much Virginia Athletics – and women’s basketball in particular – have grown up since you’ve been here. Maybe the best way to do it is through an illustration. I remember at you’re 25th anniversary weekend a few years ago, you telling stories about road trips in vans, what the locker room was like back then, and now here we are sitting in you’re office in the John Paul Jones Arena, and it brings it all full circle, doesn’t it?
RYAN: Absolutely. We used to drive vans to games. We’d play a 7:30 game, then be dead tired and pile in the vans at 10 and drive all the way back from Carolina. But it was what we had to do. And our locker room was shared with 4 or 5 other sports. We didn’t have our own locker room, and the locker room actually had urinals in it. We just had some interesting obstacles to overcome, but it was worth it. It was worth every second of it. I learned a lot about the game in my office in University Hall. It was underneath the steps. We had these teeny tiny offices where we crammed five or six people into one office, and I had a closet in there that was next to Bruce Arena’s office. When the men’s games were going on at U-Hall, I’d run to my office because my closet was backed up to the visiting locker room, so I could hear every halftime speech from some of the greatest coaches to ever coach the game … from Dean Smith to Norm Sloan to Jimmy Valvano to Mike Krzyzewski. I heard all of them. Bruce and I would run in there and listen to the halftime speech. I actually got a lot of things that I learned about the games from listening to those guys – their pregame and halftime speech, and I listened to every single word. I never said anything to anybody, but listening to them and how they caught the attention of their players was how I grew as a coach.
Hear The Interview |
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Listen to Jed Williams’ full interview with Virginia Hall of Famer Debbie Ryan. Click here. |
JED: Late 70s, early 80s, you’re trying to break through in the ACC and beyond and establish the Virginia basketball name nationally. Looking back, was there a moment, a game, a season where you thought “We can do this; I can achieve the vision for this program that I’ve set for us?”
RYAN: I think there were a lot of games like that for us. We had a really good season in 1986 when we had Hot Dog Night and won 20 straight games. We knew then that we were pretty good and on the right track. Were we ready to break through and go to the Final Four? No, we weren’t to that point, but we were knocking on the door of greatness in women’s basketball. There were other times, like when we went to the ACC Tournament Final in Fayetteville. We lost the game, but I really felt like we were right there, we’re right ready to take off. And sure enough, the next couple of years we were off and running with Dawn Staley, Tammi Reiss, Heather and Heidi Burge, Audra Smith … those players pole vaulted us into the national limelight, and there was no turning back from that point on.
JED: That was during a time in which women’s basketball wasn’t on national television all that much, and yet you’re coaching some of the greatest players in the game and becoming the hunted program in the entire country. What was that like to be at the center of the program when Virginia basketball launched into a stratosphere that perhaps no one could have ever imagined?
RYAN: Those were cherished moments. Not only did I get to coach great player, but I got to coach great people. Those teams had tremendous kids who ended up being great people for the world. I can’t begin to tell you how much fun I had. I gave them a lot of room. I let them find their own way. And I’ll be darned if they didn’t find the right way. They really did know what they were doing. It really was a great era for this program and for me.
JED: Now we fast-forward into present tense. You’ve been doing this for 31 years, so the natural question is what keeps you motivated, what keeps you hungry?
RYAN: Without a doubt it comes back to the players and the people that I have the opportunity to work with. With the players, there’s energy and vibrancy about every day of their lives. Whether you’re dealing with a catastrophe or a player bringing in a B+ on a paper, you’re dealing with the energy of 19, 20, 21 year olds that’s hard to beat. And they’re at a really critical time in their lives where they really soak up every piece of advice that you’re giving them. It’s a joy and it’s a privilege to be able to work with the athletes and the people here at the University of Virginia.
JED: Over the course of 31 years, you could have coached professionally, could have coached elsewhere. Was there ever the thought of looking around and exploring or has Virginia always filled up Debbie Ryan’s entire heart?
RYAN: I think that’s pretty obvious. And yeah, there have been opportunities to leave. But when you think about what you have here and you compare it to someplace else, it isn’t even close. It’s such a special place in so many ways. There just aren’t many places like UVa, and the people that are part of the woodwork here are special. I just never really found anyplace else that satisfied me and my competitive hunger like the University of Virginia does.
JED: There are so many people, regardless of age, who never quite figure out what they want to do with their lives. They switch careers all the time, and yet they never find something that they’re truly passionate about. You, on the other hand, found something that’s filled up your whole heart, that you passionately love, and you’ve been able to do it for over 30 years. Do you ever sit back and think “I’m pretty lucky?”
RYAN: Absolutely. I mean, how many people get to find their passion and then live their passion. There aren’t many people that get their chance to do that. I was one of the fortunate ones who got that chance, and I couldn’t be happier.
“Cavalier Conversation” is a new feature on TheSabre.com. Jed Williams, former sideline reporter and women’s basketball play-by-play voice for the University of Virginia, will sit down for one-on-one interviews with some of UVa’s most recognizable names. The question and answer segment will appear on the site along with the full audio interview. This is a free sample and this feature will normally be available through the Sabre EDGE subscription service. Join life on the EDGE today to enjoy in-depth coverage of your Cavaliers!
