Baseball

Ryan Cougill enters his 2nd season at the helm of the Reivers baseball program.

In Cougill’s first season at Iowa Western, the Reivers had the greatest start in program history rattling off 19 straight wins.  19 total Reivers moved onto the 4-year level, including 16 division 1 transfers (Tennessee, Louisville, Oregon, Arizona, Oregon State, Nebraska, Wichita State, Charlotte, Florida International, New Mexico, Stephen F. Austin, Western Michigan, Southern Indiana, Tennessee-Martin, Boston College).  Tyler Stone, Brandon Rogers, and Bradyn Smith earned NJCAA All-American accolades. Tye Wood, Ryan Reyerson, Ethan Louthan, AJ Singer, CJ Richmond, Josh Wakefield, Rogers, Smith, and Stone garnered All-Region accolades.  Singer was named ICCAC defensive player of the year and Smith was voted the ICCAC most valuable player.  28 of Cougill’s players garnered Region 11 Academic All-Region Honors. 

Before Iowa Western, Cougill spent the past 10 seasons as the head baseball coach at Yavapai College.  Cougill led the Roughriders to a record of 353-188 and back-to-back JUCO World Series appearances in 2015 and 2016; his team reached the pinnacle of Division 1 junior college baseball in 2016, by winning the JUCO World Series 5-2 over San Jacinto College. 

While at Yavapai, Cougill garnered west district coach of the year honors on two occasions as well as National coach of the year accolades.  During his tenure at Yavapai, Cougill saw more than 120 players move onto Division 1 or professional baseball, including 4 alumni making it to the Major League level. (Chance Adams, Willie Calhoun, JoJo Romero, Christian Encarnacion-Strand).

Prior to being a head coach at Yavapai, Cougill spent four years as the recruiting coordinator with the Roughriders under Sky Smeltzer.  Future MLB players during this span included Parker Markel, Kirby Yates, Merrill Kelly, and Ken Giles.

Cougill spent the 2008 season as the infield coach at New Mexico Junior College, where they earned a WJCAC title and finished 2^nd in the nation in fielding percentage. 

Before NMJC, he served under his father and Hall of Fame coach at Reed-Custer HS in Braidwood, IL in 2007, Joliet Junior College in 2006, and Western Illinois University in 2005.

Cougill played for hall-of-fame coach Wayne King at Joliet Junior College from 2001-02, where he earned All-Conference honors in his freshman and sophomore campaigns. He then transferred to Western Illinois University.  Cougill was named to the All-Mid-Continent Conference team in 2003 and 2004. Cougill left his mark at WIU finishing his career amongst the top of the record books in single-season hits, runs scored, and career batting average.

Cougill earned his B.S. in Kinesiology from Western Illinois University.  He and his wife, Jennifer, reside in Council Bluffs. Together they have two sons, Colter and Wyatt.