Becoming UnDone 007 | From Rocket Scientist to Legendary Arizona Gymnastics Coach: Bill Ryden’s Journey
What would you do if you were an aeronautical engineer—a literal rocket scientist—but you just couldn't quite shake the feeling that there was more to life then lending your considerable brainpower to the creation of weapons of mass destruction?
If you are Colorado native Bill Ryden, you'd set your first professional career aside and get back in the gym. Growing up in the Rockies as a self-professed adrenaline junkie, Ryden spent his youth racing dirt bikes. But eventually he found his way into a gym, where he quickly fell in love with the sport--especially the high bar.
After a highly successful collegiate and brief exhibition career as a competitive gymnast, Bill thought he'd hung up his grips for good and turned to the life of a working stiff at Lockheed Martin. But the lure of the gym kept calling him back, and a chance to jump back into the sport as a coach was just too much to resist. A job offer at the University of Arizona in 1990 changed his life forever.
Leaving the safety and security of the engineering world for the uncertainty and grind of college coaching was tough, but he followed his heart. Mentoring, coaching, and pushing young gymnasts to success in the gym and in life consumed the next two and a half decades of his life, eventually being named Head Coach of a Pac-10 program in 1998 where he stayed until 2015.
But it wasn't all sunshine and rainbows from there. It was road trips and recruiting trails, exhilarating wins and gut-wrenching losses, and relationships--always relationships that made the journey simultaneously so very hard yet so very rewarding. And like every wild motorcycle ride at Mach speed with his hair blowing in the wind he'd taken years before, as exciting as it was, eventually it had to end.
Hear Bill tell his story of dirt bikes and trampolines, Cold War science and chalked grips, and just how happy he is to have coached in an era BEFORE transfer portals and NIL agreements in Episode 7: FEARLESS
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Becoming Undone is a NiTROHype Creative production. Written and produced by me, Toby Brooks. If you or someone you know has a story of resilience and victory to share for Becoming Undone, contact me at undonepodcast.com. Follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn at becomingundonepod and follow me at TobyJBrooks. Listen, subscribe, and leave us a review Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.