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SUPERIOR — Ryan Hendry may not be a teacher at Superior High School, but after his first year as the Spartans baseball coach he has been given a teaching opportunity.
In the weight room, Hendry has been a partner for all of the Spartan coaches in his work as a strength and conditioning coach.
Athletic director Ella Olson said, “After last season we had a meeting with the head coaches, mainly to ask them what they wanted, and the biggest thing was more weight training.”
But it was difficult for the coaches to find extra time to spend in the weight room.
Olson and the whole athletic department made the decision to hire Hendry, she said.
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“Ryan is a Spartan through and through, and best of all he wants to see the best in all the kids, for every sport,” she said.
For 16 years, Hendry has been an assistant coach for the boy’s hockey team and helped with the baseball team before becoming the head coach last season. That experience helped build his relationships with other coaches before he started his new role.
“It kind of started with coach (Bob) DeMeyer. He asked me to get involved with the strength and conditioning for football. Apparently, they were looking for someone to help with all the other sports, too,” Hendry said.
Since Hendry has experience in strength and conditioning, he’s able to help athletes in ways that some of the coaches may not have been able to with the workouts he writes up, but, “the time he’s been able to put in the weight room has been the best resource for the coaches,” Olson said.
The communication through coaches has helped Hendry have a positive impact on the teams, according to Olson. Hendry and the coaches have worked out a schedule that is pretty concrete and Hendry said he feels he is there to help the teams in their own ways.
“It’s obvious he has a passion for lifting just as he does for hockey and baseball and helping grow the kids,” Olson said.
For Hendry, this passion has helped open new doors that have allowed him to help more kids.
“The cool thing for me is I’m seeing more of a variety of athletes, not just dealing with hockey and baseball players," he said. "It’s really cool to see it from all aspects of the different sports."
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One of his main goals is to get each team in the weight room at least twice a week.
“Seeing kids get an increase in confidence as they’re able to do things — I guess confidence is one of my biggest goals ... to give them that,” he said.
He has been doing an amazing job, according to Olson.
"As far as performance, he is crushing it,” she said.
Since Hendry is hired by the school he gets the same hourly stipend that coaches would get for being in the weight room.
After the upcoming baseball season Olson says they will revisit the position in hopes to bring him back in the same role next year.
