Texas A&M has hired Ryan Mallam, the former head coach at Indian River State College, as their new assistant coach, the school announced this morning. Mallam will replace Doug Boyd, who has resigned to move on to private ventures in the Northeast.
Mallam was the head coach at Indian River for two years, leading both the men and the women to two National Junior College Championships in those two years, becoming the latest part of the legendary Junior College tradition at the program. He was also an assistant there for a year under current Auburn top assistant Frank Bradley.
In terms of NCAA experience, Mallam was the head coach at Division II Limestone College in 2009, where he lead the men’s team to a 4th-place finish at the Division II Championships, including champion sprinter Goran Majlat. He was also a four-year letterwinner at South Carolina until 2000.
“The people I talked to during the process kept using the same theme when describing Ryan: innovative, hungry and he cares about his athletes,” Holmes said. “I’ve followed his career for several years, and everywhere he’s been his swimmers have always performed at an extremely high level. We’re looking for him to make an immediate impact with the expertise that he brings to our program. I’m extremely excited about his addition and having him and his family become a part of the Aggie family.”
Among other former Indian River coaches to make the leap to bigtime NCAA programs include Chris Ip, the last coach at Clemson and a current assistant at LSU, and Jim Montrella, a 17-year coach at Ohio State and later an assistant at USC, as well as an inductee into the ASCA Hall of Fame. Dan Colella, the head coach at Duke, was also a one-time assistant at Indian River.
Mallam won out over several fairly high-profile applicants that we heard discussed over the last week.
Coach Gibb would be an awesome fit for IRSC, outstanding guy
Anyone heard any word on who IRSC will interview / hire to replace Ryan Mallam?
I recall reading that Daytona State was shutting down their program.
I imagine Don Gibb [former FSU and So. Carolina Head Coach] would be a great fit.
What do you guys think?
Congratulations to Ryan! I’m sure this will be a great move for him and the Aggies. Hopefully Ryan’s assistant at IRSC, Adam Epstein, will get a chance at the Head Coach job! The kids there really respect him and he’s done a great job with both the college and the club team there.
Who were the other “fairly high profile” coaches interviewed?
Congrats to Ryan and A&M! Wonder who will replace him at the RIVER
Also Frank Bradley over at Auburn on the list of former IRSC coaches doing it big
Great Hire for Texas A+M, good coach always dreaming up different methods to try and help his kids succeed. Always adapting to change and studies the sport more than anyone I know
Excited to see what he does at the Divison 1 level
Any word on who will fill Mallams position?