Ryan Buchanan became the coordinator of club sports and game event manager in the spring of 2016. He joined the Aurora University athletics staff in the fall of 2007 as the events manager and assistant baseball coach.
Buchanan will be the head of the ACHA Division II hockey program while overseeing all club sports at AU.
He was given the distinction of building the AU hockey program from the start as a ACHA program to the debut as an NCAA program for the 2014-2015 season. In his first two seasons running the bench for the Spartan ACHA program he held a 36-16-1 overall record and reached the ACHA National Tournament in 2014.
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Buchanan grew up in Peoria, Ill playing both high school and club/travel hockey, playing for Midget AA NIHL Elite and Richwoods Community High School. After completing his college career he worked as an assistant and head coach for six seasons (2006-2012) at Naperville North High School. At Naperville North, Coach Buchanan worked under former NHL player and Chicago Blackhawk Brian Noonan. Additionally, Buchanan worked as an assistant coach at Montini Catholic High School
A NCAA Division III All-America first baseman in his collegiate playing career, Buchanan started at first base for Benedictine University for three seasons, earning team MVP honors in both 2002 and 2003 and All-Northern Illinois Iowa-Conference (NIIC) accolades in the latter of those two campaigns. In 2003, he batted a team-high .415 with nine home runs and 53 runs batted in, paced the squad with 68 hits and 17 doubles, and was a first-team All-Region pick and a third-team All-America honoree by the American Baseball Coaches Association. That followed up a 2002 campaign in which he posted career highs of 13 home runs and 56 RBI.
During his playing career, Benedictine made NCAA Division III Tournament appearances in both 2000 and 2003, and won the NIIC title in 2003. A native of Peoria, Ill., Buchanan earned his bachelor's degree in communication arts from Benedictine in 2004.
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AURORA UNIVERSITY COACHING RECORD
| YEAR |
OVERALL |
CONFERENCE (Place) |
| 2012-2013 (unaffiliated) |
0-12 |
|
| 2013-2014 (ACHAÂ D3) |
36-4-1 |
|
| 2014-2015 (NCAA) |
1-15-1 (NCAA) / 7-16-1 (Overall) |
|
| 2015-2016 (NCAA) |
2-22-1 |
2-17-1 (10th) |
| 2016-2017 (ACHAÂ D2) |
18-2-1 |
|
| 2017-2018 (ACHAÂ D2) |
34-1-0 |
16-0 |
| 6 Years |
97-57-4 (.627) (Overall) /Â
3-37-2 (.095) (NCAA) |
18-17-1 (.514) |
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