Life Lessons on and off The Court.

Ryan Looney’s, ’98, skill at building teams has proven successful—and those successes culminated into an opportunity to be the head coach of an NCAA Division 1 basketball team. There were a lot of stops along the road to the Division 1 job, but that was never the plan.

“Each time we moved, there was an opportunity that presented itself,” he said.

The first opportunity was a graduate assistant coaching position at University of Wisconsin, La Crosse, where he earned a master’s degree in athletic administration. When he graduated, he was asked to follow his boss to Minnesota State, Morehead, to be the full-time assistant coach. It wasn’t long before he was back in La Grade as head coach at his alma mater.

At 27, Looney wasn’t far removed from being a player on EOU’s basketball team.

“Being a head coach and running my own program where I played was a dream come true,” Looney said.

He said he learned quickly that hard work and passion pay off. His first year with the team, 2004, the Mountaineers didn’t have a lot of wins, but the team’s breakout season of 2005-06, produced the best record since 1969. 

During the 2006-07 season the Mountaineers finished with an overall record of 23-8, advanced to the finals of the 2007 Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament, and were ranked as high as No. 17 in the NAIA national poll. 

In 2007-08 the Mountaineers finished with an overall record of 26-6, won the school’s first conference championship in 38 years, advanced to the NAIA National Tournament for the first time in school history, and were ranked as high as third in the NAIA national poll. That year, Looney was recognized as the Cascade Collegiate Conference Men’s Basketball Coach of the Year. 

During the 2008-09 season, the team finished with an overall record of 25-8, won the Cascade Collegiate Conference Championship, advanced to the Elite Eight of the NAIA National Basketball Tournament, and were ranked as high as No. 6 in the NAIA national poll.

He then spent seven years at Seattle Pacific, an NCAA Division II school. Looney led the Falcons to a 22-6 record in 2009-10 and became the school’s first coach to earn a conference championship spot in their inaugural season. The Falcons compiled a 20-10 record in 2010-11 en route to an NCAA Division II Tournament. In 2011-12 the team reached the Sweet 16 of the Division II Tournament. During the 2012-13 season the Falcons finished with the best overall record in program history at 27-4, won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, reached as high as second in the NABC national poll, and advanced to the NCAA II West Region Final. 

During the 2013-14 season the Falcons finished with an overall record of 26-6, won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Championship, won the Great Northwest Athletic Conference Tournament Championship, reached as high as second in the NABC national poll, and advanced to the NCAA II Tournament. Looney was recognized as the 2014 GNAC Coach of the Year and the 2014 NABC West Region Coach of the Year.

Looney and his family then headed south to Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego where the wins kept coming. Looney spent three seasons at Point Loma, leading the team to its first Division II National Championship game. The Sea Lions won their first regular season conference title in 2019. In three years, Looney finished with a 69-28 record.

His continued success caught the attention of Idaho State University, a Division I program and a job Looney said he couldn’t turn down. Unfortunately, his first few seasons have been constantly interrupted by the COVID-19 virus.

“My first season COVID hit,” Looney said. “It’s been an interesting time. Everything about coaching basketball is totally different.”

For 15 months he wasn’t allowed to leave campus to recruit or to bring students to Idaho State for a visit.

“It can be difficult to build a program until we start to resume some sort of normalcy,” Looney said.

The success has been up and down, Looney said. The 2020-21 was the best season the school had in 30 years, but this year they are struggling with injuries, COVID infections and quarantines.

Luckily, things are loosening up. Looney said this past fall his staff was allowed to start in-person visits with potential recruits, most he brings in from the Pacific Northwest, but he’s had experience with players from Spain, Denmark and countries in Africa.

“The foreign students add a different dynamic,” Looney said. “It’s fun for those guys to come to college in America and learn a different culture, as it is for the Americans to learn about where those guys come from as well.”

Coaching college ball requires early mornings, late nights and a lot of time on the road, but Looney said there are plenty of rewards and benefits—like when a former player yells his name from the stands at a game.

“It’s about the relationships built that go well beyond playing the game,” Looney said. “The most 

satisfying things are when a former player sends a wedding invitation or an email about a promotion, or a note that a baby is coming—those things bring a smile to my face.”