Moraine Valley has produced many successful student-athletes who have gone on to do great things across the world in and out of athletics. This is a special series to highlight those alumni.

Ron Ryan still has a framed photo of him wearing a Moraine Valley baseball uniform in 1983. He played on the college's first baseball team and credits much of his success to that experience.

Sports have always, and continue to be, part of Ryan's life. Born and raised on the south side of Chicago, Ryan attended St. Bede the Venerable Catholic School and St. Laurence High School with plans to head to Arizona State University. A motorcycle accident two weeks after graduation changed his plans.

Because education was instilled in his family, he attended Moraine Valley instead. Friends helped him get to school because he couldn't walk for several months. He took some business and accounting classes but realized he wanted to work with kids. It wasn't until his third year at Moraine Valley that the college started a baseball team. And Ryan had to be part of that.

"I was told I couldn't play football because I couldn't break my femur again, so I went out for baseball and made it. It was cool being part of the first team. Junior colleges have scrappy dudes. We had a helluva team," he said.

The athletic director at the time, Doug Gehrke, helped Ryan become eligible to play, for which he is eternally grateful. The team wasn't able to qualify for the state or national tournament at the time, but Ryan is convinced his team was good enough to compete with the best. They had tryouts inside the gym basketball court and played mostly away games because the college didn't have a home field yet.

"It was a great group of dudes. There wasn't a bad egg on the team. Everybody got along because everyone loved the game. Thirty guys wanted to play. There were no [upperclassmen]. It was a level playing field," he said.

Mostly a third baseman or left fielder, Ryan could play just about anywhere on the field. He credits Moraine Valley with helping continue his education and baseball career at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "I wasn't the greatest high school student, but once you get to college and play ball, the competitive juices come out just like on the field," he explained.

He went on to earn two master's degrees (Governors State University and Chicago State University), was in the Army National Guard for nine years, taught and coached at District 159 in Matteson then worked at Rich Central High School, where he also coached football and baseball. He was principal at Owensboro Catholic School in Kentucky and coached baseball at Brescia University in Kentucky as well as for the Evansville Otters semi-professional team in the Frontier League. Since 2003, Ryan has worked as the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club of Evansville, Indiana, what he deems the "Chicago Park District on steroids." He works with 350 kids in this afterschool program.

Baseball has always been in his blood and continues to infiltrate his life. Besides being a bat boy for the Chicago White Sox in the 1970s (WGN ultimately made him a Cubs fan), he has two sons-in-law who started playing ball at community colleges and now are involved with Major League Baseball. He also keeps the game alive through the Boys and Girls Club, where he started the Reviving Baseball in the Inner Cities program.

If you want to share your Moraine Valley Athletics alumni experience, email Vizzam@morainevalley.edu.