After 16 years teaching and coaching at the school, Ryland Wickman, a Special Education teacher, as well as football, softball and varsity flag football head coach, was named the San Diego Flag Football Coach of the Year. The award followed the LA Chargers 2024 Coach of the Week program, which recognizes high school football and flag football coaches from across California, and awards each recipient $1,000.
As the week-four winner of the flag football section, Wickman was “really stoked” to attend the Dec. 15 LA Chargers game with his varsity team, where the award was announced.
“This year, [the committee] kept [my award] real hush, so I didn’t find out until I was actually at the game,” Wickman said. “I brought up all my seniors and CIF players, so they could watch too, and we all went to the game. It was a really nice memory for their lifetimes too.”
Though the honor was dedicated solely to Wickman, he extended the tribute to his team.
“This just shows how much the team grew throughout the year,” Wickman said. “This is a brand new team from last year, and for us to start the year like we did, and then to be able to finish in the CIF finals again like last year, I think it just shows how much our team grew throughout the year, and that’s just a matter from our athletes and our coaching.”
Athletic Director Charlenne Falcis-Stevens attributed his effectiveness as a leader to his “passion for the sport.”
“He’s passionate about the sport, but he wants what’s best for the athletes,” Falcis-Stevens said. “He wants to grow the sport, and if anything else, he’s done a phenomenal job of getting his athletes involved, creating team camaraderie. He took a group of girls that had some knowledge of the game and went all the way to the CIF final again this year, so two years in a row … it’s a big accomplishment.”
Even so, awards such as these are not granted without roadblocks along the way. With Wickman as coach, he is predicting the school’s flag football team to be set for success.
“I think the biggest hurdle this year was just to continue to grow, continue to believe in the system like they did,” Wickman said. “I told them, I think after our first game — after we lost six to nothing — if they stayed on the path and believed and bought in, then at the end of the year, we would be the best team around and be better than the team the year before.”
Flag football has only been a CIF sport at the school for two years and already found themselves as the CIF Division I runner-ups last season.
“Flag football is such a new sport, and it’s one of the fastest growing sports in our youth and high school in the U.S. right now,” Falcis-Stevens said. “Girls that play flag football are also athletes in soccer, basketball, lacrosse, track and field [and] softball, [so] it brings in all of these skills they get from other sports into flag football … We don’t have a lot of sports on this campus where girls [that are athletic] can just go out and play for their school and not have a whole lot of knowledge of the game … So for him to be able to take all of these different skills that these kids have and teach them … how to understand the game of football, that is its own science. It’s a skill not a lot of coaches have.”
Since the award decision was announced, Wickman said that he has “already gotten emails from coaches up in Orange County in LA about maybe playing a game against each other.”
“Now, they’ve seen and heard our name, so it just helps our Torrey Pines brand to get our name out there,” Wickman said.
No matter what, Wickman claimed his philosophy on coaching will always remain in the best interest of his players.
“We want to create a good balance of learning and having fun,” Wickman said. “I find if I could get my girls to have fun out there, they don’t even realize that they’re running and conditioning and stuff because they’re having such a good time and figuring things out. I think it’s a great game that girls are loving.”
