Since taking full control of the Bradley women’s golf program in the fall of 1997, head coach Bo Ryan has taken the team from obscurity to the edge of the national spotlight.
Bradley’s women’s golf team has reached unprecedented heights of success under Ryan’s leadership. In his 13 years plus as head coach, Ryan has transformed a team that never finished higher than fifth in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament, won no tournaments and produced no all-conference players into a team that has won four MVC titles (1999, 2002, 2003 and 2006), has won 12 tournaments and finished in the top three a total of 30 times since the start of the 1998-99 season, while producing 16 all-conference players. His Braves have been ranked as high as 39th nationally and have the first three NCAA post-season appearances for women’s programs at Bradley.
A two-time MVC Coach of the Year (1999 & 2006), his 2000-2001 squad had a record-breaking season, winning tournaments at Arkansas, Illinois State and Missouri State while establishing a school record for 18-, 36-, and 54-hole scores with rounds of 295-306-306—907 at the Arkansas-Little Rock Invitational. Moreover, Bradley featured five of the MVC’s top six scoring averages during the fall 2000 season, including sophomore Jil Swenson’s league-leading 76.8 scoring average. The only disappointment that year was a second place finish in the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament as a triple-bogey by the Braves No. 1 player on the 51st hole of play dropped the Bradley to second place. The Braves missed their first-ever NCAA Tournament bid by two strokes.
Still, under Ryan’s guidance the Braves regrouped and gained the University’s first NCAA bid for any of its women’s teams by winning the 2002 conference tournament. In 2003, Bradley became the only current MVC member to repeat as women’s golf champions by stunning a heavily favored Illinois State team. The Braves were the only conference team to beat ISU in a collegiate event during the 2002-2003 season.
In 2005-06, the Braves won three of their final four regular-season tournaments and placed in the top five in nine of 10 events. Meaghan LeBlanc won individual titles in three of those events, including defending her individual title at the State Farm MVC Tournament. In addition to capturing the team’s fourth Valley title in the last eight years, the Braves also claimed team titles at the NIU Snowbird and the Saluki Invitational.
But to Ryan, who was educated in the Springfield, Ill., school system and who earned both his B.A. and M.S. degrees from Western Illinois University, golf is the game we play, but we attend Bradley for the education it offers. "We can never lose sight of our number one reason for being at Bradley, and that is for an education," says Ryan, who has seen every player graduate that he has recruited.
Adds Ryan, "Golf may leave you one day, either by choice or not by choice, but they can never take your education away."
Ryan’s commitment to the educational side of the student-athlete can be traced to his team’s success in the classroom. The women’s golf team had a 3.51 overall grade point average during the 1999-2000 season, the highest GPA for any of the 15 NCAA sanctioned sports at Bradley. A year earlier, the women’s golf team recorded a 3.43 GPA, again the highest GPA amongst BU’s intercollegiate teams. Senior Laura Patrick became the first Bradley player to be named to the National Golf Coaches Association NCAA Division I All-Scholar Team in 2000. Meaghan LeBlanc also earned the honor in 2005, becoming the second Brave to capture the honor.
In 2001, Bradley became only the second team in MVC history to place four players on the conference Scholar-Athlete Team as Patrick, Mary Anne Locher, Kelly Dillon and Jil Swenson were so honored. The Bradley women’s golf team also recorded a team GPA of 3.72, the highest GPA ever recorded by an athletic team at BU since grade point averages started being tracked in the mid-1980s.
Known as a "players coach", Ryan possesses a unique ability to communicate with his team members about both golf and school issues and relate to each one on a personal basis as well. A regular on the local amateur tour, Ryan has participated in several state, regional and national golf events.
Ryan helped host and orchestrate the 1993 and 1999 women’s Missouri Valley Golf Championships as well as securing the site and directing the 1996 MVC Men’s Golf Championship at Annbriar Golf Club in Waterloo, Ill.
A 24-year veteran of the Bradley athletic department, Ryan came to Bradley in 1986 after spending seven years in the sports writing business. He spent one summer as a caddy on the LPGA Tour and spent another year in Arizona to find out just how good his golf game could become, an experience which Ryan remembers fondly. "I quickly knew if I wanted to eat, and I like to eat, professional golf wasn’t my calling," he admits. "It seems every time I shot a 70, everyone else was going around in 65."
Ryan’s forte is teaching the short-game and the mental approach to the game.
Bo and his wife Liz, a former Gateway/MVC All-Conference softball player, who can hit a golf ball a mile, but can’t putt a lick, have four daughters: Keegan, who is a sophomore on the women's golf team; 17-year-old Cagney; 13-year-old Delainey and 11-year-old Chandler.
The Ryans reside in nearby Morton.