ROCK ISLAND, Ill. — Augustana College released an interview with inaugural men’s and women’s water polo coach Ryan Pryor.
Named head coach at Augustana in mid-June, Pryor most recently enjoyed a successful six-year run as the women’s head coach at Virginia Military Institute (VMI). He will handle both the women and men’s programs for the Vikings. Game action for the 27th and 28th varsity programs on the school’s docket will begin in the 2021-22 school year.
A native of Holland, Michigan, Pryor is a 2007 graduate of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor with Bachelor of Arts degrees in both English and communication studies. He also received his Juris Doctorate from Michigan’s Law School in 2010. He was a member of the club water polo team at the University of Michigan during both his undergraduate days and his time in law school.
An accomplished player, he was a four-time All-Big Ten selection with recognition in 2005, 2007, 2008 and 2009 with Collegiate Club All-America honors his final season (2009).
His coaching career actually started while in Ann Arbor, as he was the head coach for the women’s club team during the 2010-11 school year leading the team to a 27-1 record, the Big Ten Division Championship and a third place finish at the Women’s National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by the University of Notre Dame.
Following law school, he moved East to serve as an assistant coach for men’s and women’s water polo at Connecticut College from 2011 through 2014.
During his time in New London, he assumed interim head coaching duties for the Camels during the 2013-season leading the men to a 3-26 record with a Fourth Place finish at the Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Championship hosted by Johns Hopkins University. In women’s competition, he guided Connecticut to a 15-10 record and the 2014 Collegiate Water Polo Association (CWPA) Division III Championship – the program’s second of four consecutive CWPA Division III titles.
After a brief stint at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island as the assistant men’s coach, Pryor took over as the head women’s coach at VMI in September, 2014.
In his six seasons with the Keydets, Pryor compiled an overall record of 89-69 but it should be noted that in the last four seasons that mark was an impressive 70-35. From 2017 through 2020 only seven National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I programs had a higher winning percentage than VMI. When the season was cut short this spring due to concerns over the Coronavirus, the Keydets were cruising along with a 12-1 record.
Three times during his tenure in Lexington, VMI set school records for single season winning percentage and in 2017 the Keydets achieved the school’s first ever NCAA Top 25 national ranking. He is one of only seven coaches in the 125-year history of VMI athletics to post a winning record with at least five years as the head coach (and the first since 1985).
He was the 2017 “Coach of the Year” in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) and was the recipient of the Nathaniel Pendleton Distinguished Coaching Award.
His teams performed extremely well in the classroom as well, posting a cumulative grade point average above 3.00 in seven of the last eight semesters. The Keydets won the Jameson Award in 2016 and again in 2019 that is given annually to the top academic team in the VMI Athletics Department.
