Newman University Athletics

Ryan Smith is entering his 21st year with the Newman wrestling program in 2024-25, his 17th as head coach.

In the 2023-2024 season, under Smith, Dylan Sheler qualified for the DII National Championship and Jace Fisher was awarded with All-MIAA honors.

Beginning with the Jets’ first foray into NCAA competition, Smith has continued the process of building a solid program at Newman. That process took its biggest step forward with Noel Torres earning the school’s first NCAA championship when he won the 184-pound class in 2018.

Dustin Reed brought home the team’s first NCAA All-American honor by finishing fifth at 125 pounds at the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships in 2016, and followed that up with a seventh-place finish in 2017. Tyler Mies joined Torres as an All-American in 2018, finishing sixth and helping the Jets to a 12th-place finish at the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships. In 2019, Kameron Frame joined this elite group finishing sixth and Tyler Mies secured his second All-American honor by finishing fifth while the Jets once again placed in the top twenty at the national championships.

More recently, in the 2022-2023 season, Jevin Foust earned MIAA Freshman of the Year and Jace Fisher punched his ticket to the NCAA Championships in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.  Fisher was named NWCA Division II Rookie Wrestler of the Year Finalist the previous season.

Smith has coached seventeen national qualifiers and eight MIAA individual conference champions.

Smith closed out his wrestling career at Newman during the Jets’ first season as a program in 2004-05 after spending his first three years at Labette Community College in Parsons, Kansas and his junior season at Dakota Wesleyan in Mitchell, South Dakota.

After finishing out his eligibility, Smith immediately joined Newman’s coaching staff, where he was an assistant for 3 years prior to taking the head job. He received his bachelor’s degree in business management from Newman in 2005, and his master of business administration from Newman in 2008.

In addition to his duties with the Jets, Smith serves in the Kansas Air National Guard and runs his own consulting company, Crawdad Enterprises. He and his wife, Kami, have three children: Brynley, Cooper and Kyan.