NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State’s Director of Athletic Performance Ryan Swenson announced the addition of Ryan Koester to his staff on Friday. Koester will serve as an Assistant Athletic Performance Coach, working with football and track and field.
“We’re thrilled to have Ryan (Koester) as a member of our staff,” Swenson shared. “His depth of knowledge and drive to continually help student-athletes showed throughout his interview process. We know he will have an immediate, positive impact on both the Redbird football and track and field programs. We can’t wait for him to get started.”
Prior to Illinois State, Koester was a strength and conditioning coach at Bystol Performance Center. Koester has experience at the collegiate level, serving working directly with the University of Illinois’ women’s golf program while assisting with the implementation of strength and conditioning programs for several other sports.
While earning his master’s degree from the University of Montana, Koester coordinated and designed strength and conditioning development for student-athletes within the women’s golf and cross country teams. He also led team training sessions independently for basketball, soccer, volleyball, tennis, softball and track and field student-athletes. Additionally, Koester has had stops at the University of Iowa and Loras College, where he was a member of the baseball team.
The West Chicago, Illinois, native graduated with his bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology with a minor in coaching from Loras College in 2018, before receiving his master’s degree in Health and Human Performance, Exercise Science from Montana in 2020. He maintains certifications through the NSCA (CSCS) and USA Weightlifting.
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