Ryan Patty will enter his third season as the director of volleyball operations at Illinois State in 2016. Patty’s main responsibilities with the team include coordinating team travel, scheduling, managing the team’s social media accounts, and organizing community service projects.

The Illinois State volleyball team has enjoyed a successful run during Patty’s time, with back-to-back 20-win seasons, and Missouri Valley Conference regular-season and tournament titles in 2014.

Prior to his time at ISU, Patty served as an operations/scouting intern for the Buffalo Bills of the National Football League. Patty assisted the director of player engagement and the scouting staff in monitoring the free agent waiver wire, organizing training camp arrivals and departures, and assisting the facilities management staff. Prior to his internship with the Bills, Patty served similar internships with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Indianapolis Colts and Pittsburgh Steelers.

The native of Latrobe, Pennsylvania, earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees at West Virginia. During graduate school, he served as a video graduate assistant with the school’s football team. He was in charge of filming all practices and games, in addition to maintaining all film. He also served as a student equipment manager and recruiting assistant during his undergraduate years.

No stranger to the game of volleyball, Patty is a former middle blocker, who competed at the Junior Olympic and national level for over six years. He additionally served as a volunteer assistant at the high school level and has served as an instructor at volleyball camps.

Both of Patty’s degrees are in sport management. He also completed three minors as an undergraduate, in business administration, communications, and sport and exercise psychology.