Football
Favorite athlete: Matt Ryan
Favorite team: Penn State
Favorite memory competing in sports: Playing football in high school and being with my teammates.
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that happened while competing in sports: We had a play where the tight end had a choice in the route he wanted to run. I think he could either run a post or a fly. When he was in the huddle though, he forgot his choices and yelled, ‘what are my choices?’ and the rest of the season we all made fun of him for it.
Music on iPod: All kinds
Future plans: College to become an architect
Favorite motto: ‘Preparation today determines performance tomorrow.’
One goal before turning 30: Own my own house
One thing people don’t know about me: I write left handed, but I am right handed in everything else.
Ryan Coleman has a nose for the football, and the Quakertown senior’s tenacity in pursuing his opponents resulted in a team-high105 tackles over the course of the Panthers’ 12-game schedule this fall. Do the math – the senior linebacker averaged 8.8 tackles a game.
In recognition of his outstanding season, Coleman was named the Panthers’ Defensive MVP and also earned second team all-league honors at linebacker. Those numbers and accolades are impressive enough on their own, but they become downright remarkable when you throw into the equation that the 5-11 senior weighs just 165 pounds.
“Honestly, if you look back at him his sophomore year or so and you look at his size, you thought maybe he would end up being a defensive back or maybe a wide receiver type kid moving forward,” coach George Banas said. “But we were always flooded in those positions, so we really never made that move.”
It’s a good thing they didn’t. Coleman emerged as one of the league’s top linebackers, no small feat in a Continental Conference that boasts a North Penn squad that will be playing for a state title.
“After every game or before every game when I talked to opposing coaches, they were like, ‘Wow, that Coleman kid – he really flies around, he really brings it,’” Banas said. “To be acknowledged that way in our league - the coaches were really impressed obviously to give him a second team honor.”
Coleman proved that he earned it. He was either first or second on the team in tackles in all except two games this season. In both of those games, Coleman had seven tackles, modest numbers by his standard only.
What made Coleman so successful?
“He is able to be quick enough to get by the big linemen that were coming out trying to block him, and he would beat them to the point of attack and then – with leverage and the right technique – be able to get to the ball carrier and take him down,” Banas said. “He just came up with big plays for us.”
Mention those accomplishments to Coleman, and the unassuming senior is quick to deflect credit to his teammates.
“I credit a lot of that to the defensive line and all the other people around me as well as the coaches,” he said. “The defensive line does a good job of holding up the linemen from getting to me, which helps me to be free to make more tackles.”
Coleman has been playing football since he was in second grade. He also began playing baseball around that same time, but football has always been his sport of choice.
“Baseball was kind of boring and not as fast paced,” he said.
He played community baseball through 10th grade but gave that up to focus on football. Although he was never one of the biggest players on his team, Coleman has always played linebacker.
“When I was younger, I played linebacker and guard, but when you’re young, everyone plays bigger positions than what they actually were,” he said. “I tried corner, but I’m not really that fast, so it didn’t work out.”
He admits he’s taken some good-natured ribbing about his size.
“People didn’t really say I couldn’t do it,” Coleman said. “They just joked – you’re only 160 pounds.
“A classic line from my coaches was, ‘We have 102-pound Ryan Coleman’ and making a joke in the locker room, but no one really said I couldn’t be a linebacker.”
Banas admits that Coleman is hardly your prototypical linebacker.
“When you look at him outside of pads, you’re like, ‘Really?’” the Panthers’ coach said. “But he worked hard in the offseason, improving his leg strength and even his shoulder strength through full body workouts we had done.”
Coleman saw significant varsity time at linebacker as a junior.
“He made some really nice improvements last year, and coming into this year, we thought he was our number one,” Banas said. “He was the only one penciled in at inside linebacker, just because of his nose for the ball. You just can’t coach that, and you need it at the linebacker position.”
During the offseason, Coleman worked out with his teammates three days a week, lifting and conditioning, and the results speak for themselves. Against both Central Bucks West and Souderton in back-to-back weeks, he had 11 tackles.
“He just led our defense by example,” Banas said. “He did all the play calling for us, understood the signals.
“He’s a real smart kid, and when you talked to him and you tried to explain what the offense was trying to do, he would understand it and take what we were giving him as far as the game plan and be able to put it into motion because he understood where we were coming from.
“The kids looked to him, not so much verbally but more just his work ethic and putting in the time and effort. Obviously, the results showed.”
According to Coleman, playing football added to his overall high school experience.
“I’ll never forget Friday nights on the field and all the fans and our student section cheering,” he said. “The overall atmosphere walking through the hallways seeing our football posters on the wall – it was great.
“Also, (I enjoyed) just being with my teammates and having fun off the field and on the field.” “
Off the gridiron, Coleman is a member of the National Honor Society and the Anti-Smoking Committee. He excels in the classroom where he is enrolled in honors and AP classes. Coleman hopes to pursue a career as an architect and has his sights set on attending Penn State. Football is not part of his future, although Banas believes it could be.
“He would be a real easy fit for a lot of D-3 schools that have the (high) academic requirements,” the Panthers’ coach said. “I’m sure the coaches are going to say the same thing we did, ‘Oh really – this kid wants to play linebacker?’ But I think he definitely could play at that level and help out.
“He’s one of the easiest kids to coach. His attitude is always positive, and he always has a big smile on his face. He’s just a really good kid.”
