Back to School- Coach Ryan McManus!

I'm aware that quite a few current football players and athletes from other sports follow me on Twitter.  For that reason, I'm always searching for high-profile folks to share a little of their story with you.  As a Winston-Salem resident and Wake Forest season ticket holder, I can tell you that there aren't many players I've respected more from the stands than this week's Back to School participant, Ryan McManus.  I'll let him tell you why:

1.     Identify yourself! (Name, high school, year of graduation, current occupation)

Ryan McManus, D.H. Conley High School class of 2005, Offensive Graduate Assistant at Wake Forest University

2.     You won the Wendy’s High School Heisman award as a senior, playing both football and baseball while in high school.  It’s almost a misleading name for the award, since to win you have to be a well-rounded student and member of your community.  Other than athletics, what else were you involved in?

Outside of school I was really involved in Young Life. I was an active member for all 4 years of high school and really involved with my youth group at church as well. School wise I was a member of a handful of clubs and honor societies. 

 

3.     I have a lot of football players that follow my blog.  Think back to game day at Conley and take us through your typical day.  What was that like?

Game day my senior was a lot more fun than my junior year. We were terrible, didn’t win a game so it was almost embarrassing walking around with your jersey on. But my senior year I ate it up. We were having some success, people were coming to our games and we just got new uniforms as well. I loved walking into school with the jersey and wristbands on, feeling the excitement about the game that night.

One of my really good girlfriends’ locker was right beside mine so I could always count on a good luck note in my locker on game days. Also, my little sister was a freshman my senior year and she was in a computer design class, so she would make cool good luck signs for me as well. If we didn’t have a team pre-game meal everyone would load up in our cars and go get food, that was always a blast because we had some very different characters on our team but we got along real well. Cars full with our music real loud going to get food was always an experience.

4.     Did you ever feel additional pressure since your dad is a well-known football coach and your uncle Danny played for that school in Tallahassee? 

I never felt any additional pressure from my dad. I think I put a little extra pressure on myself just because I wanted to perform at a high level. It’s cool coming from a football family and having both your dad and uncle play quarterback in college, I had some pretty good resources to turn to if I ever needed advice. My dad was the one pushing me to relax and have fun and enjoy my time out there all the other stuff takes care of itself.

5.     I’ve helped raise two teenagers, and I’m astounded how much “stuff” a regular student has to do in order to keep their head above water.  How would you advise a student with extracurricular activities to maintain some sort of balance?

I think it’s good to be involved with a lot of different activities, they make you a more rounded person and can open a lot doors for you in the future. There needs to be a bit of prioritization, clearly being involved in twenty different groups and activities and then having your grades or performance suffer is not ideal. Find the things you are passionate about and do those to the best of your ability.  

6.     Serious question; and I ask this of everyone:  Justin Bieber or One Direction?

Ha, tough one, Justin Bieber

7.     What was the most difficult part of the transition from high school to college?  Did you have an advantage because of your family’s involvement in athletics?

Honestly, the toughest part was being away from my family. I was a Momma’s boy so it was tough; I was pretty homesick the first few weeks. I sort of knew what to expect being around college football all my life. I knew how everything operated, but it was tough getting adjusted to the mental aspect of college football and how big the playbook was.

8.     You’re now a Graduate Assistant Coach at your alma mater.  What does that job entail?

It is a little bit of everything. I’m working with Coach Himebauch and the Offensive Line which is a new territory for me. Trying to coach them on technique and hand placement etc. During practices myself and Delon Lowe (the other Off. GA) are running the scout team defense trying to get them to give the best look possible. We also break down all the opponents on film, we are in meetings and involved in the game plan.

During the game we are both up in the press box. I am Coach Himebauch’s eyes up there seeing how the defense lines up and what their D-Line is doing. Also, if we have recruits that come on campus I will hang out with them and show them around. They allow us to be pretty involved so we are pretty much like the full time guys.

9.     You backed up Ol’ Whatshisname at quarterback for four years, yet you were always on the field in some fashion.  It was a little disconcerting to my buddies and I in the stands, watching a Wake Forest quarterback come blazing down the field on special teams.  I think you even were credited with two career tackles. Was that your choice?  Did you volunteer for that?  Is that what you tell young players to do when they whine about playing time?

My true freshman year being on the scout team I was on pretty much every scout special team and I realized that would be my way of getting on the travel squad. During spring ball I asked to be on the kick off cover team, I figured I could run down there and throw at someone’s knees and get a tackle, so they let me work with the kick off cover team some during the spring.

Going in to camp of ‘06 my red-shirt freshman year Coach Lambert gave me the chance to be on the punt return team and I had some good practices and scrimmages and ended up being a backup on that team and then eventually a starter, and that got me on the travel squad. I kept working on as many special teams as I could and loved every minute of it. ‘06 was also when I started working in as a holder. I didn’t hold until the ‘07 season but any opportunity to get on the field I tried to take advantage of it. I do tell young guys that that is the fastest way to get a seat on the bus.  And yes I did have 2 tackles in my career one at Duke and one against UNC.

10.  Your redshirt freshman year at Wake Forest was the greatest season in the history of Wake Forest football.  Young fans thought that what was happening was really cool, and longtime fans knew that they were watching something special and historic.  Since your dad had coached at Wake, I imagine you had an inkling of your impact on the Wake community.  What about your teammates?

      As that season progressed we all felt that we were part of something special and with each win it kept getting bigger and bigger. One of the coolest things about that year is hearing stories of how special it was to lifelong fans and older players that weren’t able to have the success that we did. Seeing Arnold Palmer choke up when he talked to us during pre-game meal because he was so proud of what we had accomplished is something I will never forget.

I want to thank Ryan for participating in our Back to School series.  This is a name we're going to hear more and more as he ascends the coaching ladder.  Finally Friday! wishes him great success this season and in the future!  Do you guys have any ideas on who you'd like to read about?  Drop me a line at finallyfriday@outlook.com and let me know!