LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) – After 27 years as the head men’s basketball coach at Spring Arbor University, Ryan Cottingham announced his retirement earlier this month. He retires with 437 career victories, the most in Spring Arbor history, but his impact extends far beyond the basketball court.
Cottingham, a Spring Arbor alum and former player, returned to the school in 1998 as an assistant coach.
“When the assistant job at Spring Arbor opened, it was paying $1,000,” he said. “So, I was able to get a teaching job at the local high school and after I was there for a year at Spring Arbor as an assistant, the head coach was offered another job and so he jumped.
“So, I was in the right place at the right time and knew the right people. The Athletic Director at Spring Arbor at the time, Hank Burbridge, gave a young 27-year-old an opportunity that I thought I was ready for but really didn’t have any idea what I was getting myself into.”
Cottingham had a lot to learn in those early years, including how to pitch his program to potential recruits who were only about 10 years younger than him.
“My focus was all on outcome when I first started. You think it’s all about winning and your identity is in winning, and I was able to realize as time went on, the winning is a byproduct of doing things the right way.”
For Cottingham, the right way meant pouring into the young men in his program and aiming to value relationships over results.
Evidence of this aim can be seen in Jeff Beckman, who played for Cottingham from 2016-2020, and then stayed with the program as an assistant coach for the next three years.
“Outside of my dad and a few other men that have known me since I was two years old, [Cottingham is] one of the greatest influences on my life,” said Beckman.
These days, Beckman is the varsity girls basketball coach at Parma Western, and he says Cottingham is a big reason why.
“When I was a sophomore [at Spring Arbor] he knew I wanted to get into coaching and him and Brandon Baum, his assistant, they took their sons and some other kids and they formed an AAU team, and then they let me coach it. So, they took care of all the logistics and just let me coach and get into it that way. Coach Cottingham would take me to Michigan and Michigan State in the summer and meet those guys and just set me up with an incredible resume and knowledge base.”
“I don’t know my record because it’s not important,” said Cottingham. “I’m a husband first. I’m a father. I’m a Christ follower. I want to just be an incredible role model for young people and just try to give back as people that have impacted my life, I want to be able to just use my gifts and talents to impact others. I want to inspire people to grow in their faith, their character and their leadership at the end of the day, because to me, that has lasting eternal significance.”
While winning wasn’t what mattered most to Cottingham, he could certainly be intense in the pursuit of victory, and his teams won plenty.
Ahead of the 2018-19 season, his Cougars were picked in the preseason poll to finish 8th out of 10 teams in the Crossroads League. Instead, they went 30-7, won the league title, and went on to win the NAIA Division II National Championship.
“The NAIA Tournament at that time was unique,” said Cottingham. “Thirty-two teams go to one site and games start as early as 8:30 in the morning. Well, we drew the first game on the first day… We ended up winning five games in seven days and it was just an amazing experience with a phenomenal group of young men and their families.
“We’re out in South Dakota and we just spent 11 days together on this journey and on the charter bus and, you know, we were talking earlier and I always say, ‘big time is where you’re at.’ It doesn’t matter. We’re talking about U of M cutting down the nets and how cool that is for Coach May and his staff and the state of Michigan, and it’s a pretty cool thing. But it was pretty special to our guys at Spring Arbor in 2019, and we’ll never forget that!”
Cottingham’s story shows you can make a big-time impact right where you are by learning to love a place and invest in its people. The impact Cottingham made will carry on as he walks away, because Beckman and dozens of others will carry his influence forward.
“He has had a profound impact on my life,” said Beckman. “One that I’m forever grateful for. Basketball, family, life, everything, and there’s 50 more guys just like me. The basketball, that stuff can be missed, but the fact that he’s molded young men into great men who love Jesus and are good at things in their own career, I think that’s the ultimate prize right there.”
“When you get those texts and those phone calls, I’m just very thankful, very appreciative,” said Cottingham. “It’s like yeah, thank you Lord for using a guy from a small town in Three Rivers who got to come back to his alma mater in Spring Arbor and do his best just to love people really well, and got to use a kids’ game to try and make a difference.”
All photos in this story are courtesy of Spring Arbor University Athletics.