Jake Ryan - Baseball Coach - Southern Illinois University Athletics

Jake Ryan

Title:
Catching Coach / Assistant Hitting Coach
Email:
jake.ryan@siu.edu
Phone:
618-453-3794

Jake Ryan enters his fifth season on the Saluki baseball staff in 2026, serving as Southern Illinois’ Catching Coordinator and Director of Player Development. Ryan works closely with the Saluki catchers and hitters, while also playing a key role in recruiting efforts - particularly on the West Coast.

Since joining the staff in fall 2021, Ryan has helped guide the Salukis to a resurgence in the Missouri Valley Conference, highlighted by a 2022 regular-season championship and back-to-back 40-win seasons for the first time in school history. SIU has averaged 36 wins per season during his tenure.

Offensively, the Salukis have flourished with Ryan as part of the coaching staff. In 2025, the Saluki offense broke several long-standing program records, including:

Home runs: 113 (first in MVC, fifth nationally)
Slugging percentage: .555 (first in MVC, seventh nationally)
Home runs per game: 1.98 (first in MVC, fifth nationally)

Ryan has worked closely with SIU slugger Matt Schark, who smashed 24 home runs in 2025 - second-most in the nation - and drove in 80 runs, capping a career that tied the program's all-time home run mark (36, shared with 2022 alum JT Weber).

A proven developer of catchers, Ryan has coached an All-MVC catcher in every season since arriving in Carbondale. In 2023 and 2024, he guided Cole Christman to back-to-back All-MVC Second Team honors. Christman posted a .995 fielding percentage and dramatically improved his ability to control the running game, increasing his caught stealing rate by 13 percent from his previous year at John A. Logan College.

In 2025, Ryan oversaw breakout seasons from John Lemm and Mason Schwalbach. Lemm, who earned Second Team All-MVC honors after launching 19 home runs, reduced his passed balls from nine in 2024 to just three in 2025. Schwalbach, a junior college transfer from McHenry, also cut his passed balls from 13 to three in his first season under Ryan’s guidance.

On the recruiting trail, 2026 marks Ryan’s third year on the road for the Salukis. His efforts have helped attract some of the program’s most impactful talent, including Gabe Petrucelli, a top-40 second baseman in the 2025 class.

Prior to joining SIU, Ryan coached at L.A. Pierce College (2020–21), where he led the offense, recruiting, defensive positioning, and catcher development while also directing the strength and conditioning program. His younger brother, Dirk, was among the players he coached.

Ryan also brings valuable summer ball experience, including time in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League with the Wareham Gatemen (2021), where he worked alongside coaching legends Jerry Weinstein, Ron Polk, and Don Sneddon. That team featured multiple future MLB Draft picks, including Paul Skenes, Tommy Troy, and Jimmy Crooks. He also managed in the Sunset League in 2020 and led the San Francisco Seagulls to the GSCBL Championship in 2022.

A former catcher, Ryan played collegiately at Cal State Dominguez Hills, Western Kentucky, Cuesta College, and College of the Canyons. He prepped at Chatsworth High School in California, where he earned First Team All-League and All-City honors and helped lead his team to a City Section title game at Dodger Stadium.

Ryan holds a bachelor’s degree from Cal State Dominguez Hills and earned his master’s degree in sport and recreation management from SIU in 2022.

Ryan comes from a baseball-rich family. His father, Craig Ryan, was a second-round MLB Draft pick by the Baltimore Orioles in 1974 and hit more than 90 professional home runs over an eight-year career. His twin brother, Tyler, was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2019, while his cousin, Casey Ryan, was a 2017 pick by the Chicago Cubs. His younger brother, Dirk, played his final collegiate season in 2024 and now works in the family business in Burbank, California. His sister Katelyn owns a business in San Diego.