Note: This originally ran in The Seattle Times shortly after Mike Ryan’s passing, on Nov. 28, 2012.

Today’s local soccer landscape is associated with Hope Solo, Sounders FC and, yes, large, loud crowds. Yet to reach the zenith and become the continent’s capital of the sport required a huge amount of underpinning.

Several unsung individuals have served as pillars, and none played a more prominent role than the late Mike Ryan. From his arrival in Seattle 50 years ago to his passing last week, Ryan went about building a foundation spanning virtually every area of the sport. Whether it’s youth, college, women’s or professional soccer across Puget Sound, you will find his handiwork.

“Mike did a world of good and Seattle soccer is his legacy,” says Jimmy McAlister, one of Ryan’s star pupils, a breakthrough professional and now Seattle United coaching director. ‘There are a lot of legendary players for the (original) Sounders, but we didn’t get this started. The cornerstones of this success were guys like Mike Ryan.”

For sure, Ryan was not alone. He loved telling tales of the old days, when he joined the likes of Jack Goldingay, Tom Webb, Karl Grosch, Karl-Heinz Schreiber in getting things started.

The Future Was Youth

A young Irishman new to America and soon to be discharged from the Army, Ryan reveled in the charged atmosphere featuring teams of Hungarians, Germans, Scandinavians and Brits playing Sundays at Lower Woodland Park. Yet he also knew that for soccer to thrive going forward, it must become mainstream.

“Immigrant soccer could not sustain itself,” he said. “Attracting youth was essential to the game’s growth.”

In the early Sixties, youth soccer then was confined to CYO (Catholic Youth Organization) teams. Beyond that, nothing. Ryan, who played for Buchan Bakers, persuaded Balint Ducz to sponsor a second team, to be coached by him and comprised of teenage boys. It was a baptism by fire but within three years, the Buchan youngsters had learned, matured and become the state’s top side.

In 1966 he joined others in organizing the Washington State Junior Soccer Association. Ryan served as the first president. Soon teams began sprouting everywhere.

He invited involvement and, “Nobody ever turned Mike down,” says former Seattle Pacific coach Cliff McCrath. “You had to help, dig in, and get something rolling.”

Foremost, A Teacher

Ryan loved teaching the game more than coaching. “With coaching you have a goal, like a championship,” said he. “I just want people to love the game.”

“He was an immaculate teacher,” recalls McCrath. “He understood the game like few others. It was like he was born into it. The implicit particles of the game were in his blood stream.”

Paul Mendes encountered Ryan shortly after arriving in Brazil and at age 15 soon was recruited to Ryan’s men’s team. He then followed him to the UW, where he coached from 1966-76.

“Mike was a big part of my life for those years,” says Mendes. “He was fully dedicated to the game. He was an old-school coach, not very complicated. He was all about work ethic and full commitment.”

Nothing deterred Ryan. Mendes recalls Ryan addressing a group when, “off to the side, someone took a hard shot and it hit him square in the head. So hard it knocked him down.” Barely missing a beat, Ryan rose to his feet and resumed talking. “He was Irish and he could take it, I guess.”

Ryan prized discipline. It was essential that players be on time, wearing clean uniforms, polished boots with shirts tucked in and socks pulled up.

“They were lessons that serve you well your whole life,” says McAlister, who first played for Ryan at age 11. “And he never let you know if he thought you were a good player. You had to earn it everyday. No special treatment for the top players because the role players help you win just as much.”

Often Difficult and Demanding

Debbie Barlow played 13 years for Ryan, who served as the first president of the Washington State Women’s Soccer Association. “He was unique. He was difficult, demanding and a yeller,” says Barlow.

Some players found his abrupt manners a turn-off, but they kept trying out for his teams. For the most part, Barlow didn’t mind the hollering. “It wasn’t personal. He had invested a lot of time and energy in teaching us. It was usually something to the effect of, ‘I coached you to do better.’”

There were instances of humor, albeit unintended. His command to break into small groups was, “Go get in threes,” although with his brogue it sounded like “trees.” He often forgot names. “If he thought your name started with a B, you were called Bonnie,” says Barlow.

Even the opposition fed off Ryan’s passion. Michelle Akers, a future world player of the year, remembers, at age 16, her U19 club beating his national champion FC Lowenbrau in a training game. That sent Ryan into, “a frothing mad fit on the sidelines,” says Akers.

“I loved it and rose to the occasion to play against a top team and impress Mike,” she says. Later on, Akers played under Ryan on the national team  “I enjoyed Mike’s intensity to win, his passion and expectation to be the best.”

His gruff ways probably contributed to his brief stint as first head coach of the U.S. women’s national team. “I yelled a lot but I wanted to leave a dynasty behind,” Ryan told Soccer America in 2000. “I believed in them from Day 1. I told them they were the future coaches of the nation.”

Taking Teams to the Top

From 1980-82 his women’s teams won a total of five national championships in the open and over-30 divisions. When those teams reunited two years ago, Ryan expressed his pride in seeing them coach and teach the next generation, their daughters, not only about soccer but excellence.

“We laugh now, but it was the only way he knew how to coach,” Barlow says. “He didn’t allow for excuses. He didn’t care about the rain, the field, the referee, whether we were tired, and he never scouted the other team. Just do your job. If we had the right players, he believed we would win.”

Other than the UW job, which was part-time, “(Ryan) didn’t make a dime,” says Barlow. His profession was steel molder. After work he was often volunteer coaching three teams at once.

“Mike coached top end and recreational teams, and put the same energy into both,” says McAlister. “Mike would coach anybody–women, men, high school, college, national team and U8 rec team. He loved to be out there on field.”

Barlow came to his bedside along with other teammates in the final weeks. “He was in rare form, sharing photos and stories from his recent trip to Manchester United, telling jokes, Irish blarney stuff,” she said. “He was hilarious.”

McAlister knows that some folks believe Seattle’s soccer tradition started recently, or perhaps when the original Sounders came to town in the Seventies. But that’s not true.

“It started in the Sixties and with guys like Mike Ryan going door to door, just trying to put together teams of 11 players. They were the cornerstones, people who put in tons and tons of hours without getting paid. Without those guys like Mike, we wouldn’t be where we are today.”