Ryan Looman cut his teeth in coaching before he knew he was going to be a teacher.
Now that he’s an administrator in the Mayfield school district, the 41-year-old from Ashtabula has realized his fire to coach remains.
With that in mind, Looman has been approved as Mayfield’s new girls basketball coach, taking over for former coach Cullen Harris who stepped down after this past season. Looman was previously the Wildcats’ head coach, leaving that post in 2021 to take an assistant principal’s job in Twinsburg.
Now he’s back in Mayfield and hungrier than ever to break out his head-coaching clipboard.
“I’m ecstatic,” Looman said. “Coaching is one of those things I love doing. It’s why I got into coaching even before I knew I wanted to teach. To have this opportunity to do it again is amazing.”
Ryan Looman
Oftentimes, administrators are not candidates to coach. But when Looman went to Twinsburg as an assistant principal in 2021 and doubled as the Tigers’ girls basketball coach for a few years, it showed he was up for the challenge.
The challenge?
“I think it’s all about time management and prioritizing,” he said. “As a teacher, your day is more on a schedule. You’ve got your planning period, your lunch… You know when you have time during the day to get things done. As a principal, you never quite know what the day is going to look like when you walk into that building every day. … Maybe I’ll be breaking down film when the kids are in bed or getting up early before work starts to do things.”
Looman credits members of Mayfield’s administration for affording him the opportunity to lead the Wildcats again.
“The support of (Principal) Brian Linn, (outgoing AD) Keith Leffler and our superintendent Dr. (Michael) Barnes has allowed this to move forward,” Looman said. “It’s not every day you see administrators allowed to coach in their district. I think it’s awesome they’re allowing this to happen.”
Mayfield is coming off a season in which it finished 10-12 (5-5 in the Western Reserve Conference). While leading scorer and all-News-Herald performer Sydney Montgomery graduated, returnees include rising seniors Alexa Januszewski, Bri Gati, Maddie Williams and Shaniya Cook – a quartet Looman raves over.
“Those four seniors are good leaders in our program,” Looman said. “They’ve consistently been in our workouts and shootouts. We also have a good mix of sophomores and juniors and four freshmen that have been bright spots, too.”
Mayfield enters the Suburban League this coming school year, coming on the heels of the Western Reserve Conference’s breakup. Gone are league games against Riverside, Chardon, North, South and Kenston (though Kenston joins them in the Suburban). In are league games with the likes of Twinsburg, Nordonia, Aurora, Copley and others.
“There are going to be very few nights off in this new league,” Looman said. “Our mindset has got to be being at our best whether it’s in open gyms, weightlifting, games. … that’s what is going to be demanded of us in our new conference.”
Looman will be assisted by R.J. Paglio, Ava Ryncarz and Hannah Peterson. Paglio formerly coached with Looman at Mayfield, Peterson played for Looman at Mayfield and Ryncarz was a standout at John Carroll.
Familiarity with the program is a strength as the new coach steps in.
“I’ve been to practices and games the last couple years. “I know a lot of the coaches in the area, and I know a lot about the kids we have coming back and their strengths. When this job opened up, I had an idea of what I like to do and how it fits the kids we have.”
Now that he has the job, he feels at home.
“I don’t know if my wife would say this, but I think I’m a better person when I’m coaching,” he said. “I love doing it. You always have that coaching bug in you. When I came back to Mayfield I didn’t know this opportunity would be here. But I’m ecstatic it is.”