Ryan Sawyers joined the Boilermaker coaching staff in August 2008. He will work primarily with the Purdue pitching staff and assist with the defense.Purdue Baseball Camps
Coaching Staff
Assistant Coach Ryan Sawyers
Ryan Sawyers joined the Boilermaker coaching staff in August 2008. He will work primarily with the Purdue pitching staff and assist with the defense.
Sawyers, who was a volunteer assistant for the Boilermakers during the 2004 season, returns to Purdue with a league title in tow after leading the Springfield Sliders of the Central Illinois Collegiate League to the championship in 2008. He was the Sliders' head coach in their first season in the league and led the team to a CICL-best 30-17 regular season record.
Prior to joining Schreiber's staff at Purdue and his summer appointment in the CICL, he most recently served as an assistant at Garden City Community College in Garden City, Kan. During his three seasons (2005-08) with the Broncbusters he sent numerous players on to the Division I ranks and professional baseball, while also helping to lead them to a NJCAA Region VI runner-up finish in 2007.
He began his college coaching career with a three-year stint at Shepherd University (2000-03) where the Rams won three consecutive division titles and finished runners-up at the 2002 NCAA II North Atlantic Regional. Under Sawyers' direction the Rams led the West Virginia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in ERA in 2002 & 2003.
After Shepherd Sawyers spent a season as an assistant at Allegany College and has also served as the head coach for the Front Royal Cardinals in the Valley Baseball League and as the pitching coach for the Chillicothe Paints professional team in the Frontier League.
His collegiate playing career includes pitching two seasons at West Virginia Wesleyan College where he was named WVIAC Pitcher of the Year in 1999 and led the team in strikeouts both years. He also helped pitch Allegany College to a Junior College World Series appearance in 1997.
Sawyers, who holds a bachelor's degree from West Virginia Wesleyan and a master's degree from West Virginia, returns to Purdue with his wife, Jaime, son, Brady, and daughter, Chelsea.
Assistant Coach Jeff Duncan
Jeff Duncan is in his first season on the coaching staff of the Purdue baseball program.
Duncan, who will work with the outfielders, team defense, hitters and base running, as well as assist with recruiting, joins the Boilermaker staff after spending the 2009 season as an assistant at Auburn University. He has additional coaching experience as the Illinois Sparks' head coach in 2008 and eight years as an instructor at the Diamond Sports Academy in Mokena, Ill., from 2001-08.
Duncan spent nine years as a player in professional baseball within the New York Mets, San Diego Padres, Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers organizations. He played two seasons in the Major Leagues with the New York Mets, spent six years at the Triple A level or higher and was named to three different all-star teams during his professional career.
Collegiately, he started every game as a true freshman and was named the runner up for the Big 12 Freshman of the Year at Iowa State in 1998. Duncan transferred to Arizona State as a sophomore and was named the top newcomer and All-Pac-10 in a vote by league coaches in 1999. He batted .360 during his college career and was a seventh-round selection by the Mets in the 2000 draft.