Green Bay men’s basketball head coach Will Ryan has announced his assistant coaching staff, which includes Jared Swanson, Freddie Owens and Brandon Pritzl. The three assistant coaches combine to bring in a wealth of Division I coaching experience, successful collegiate playing careers and they also carry strong Midwest and Wisconsin connections back to the Phoenix program.
Coach Ryan and his new staff will begin working with the team in the coming weeks.
Coach Ryan on Assistant Coach Jared Swanson:
I am excited to welcome Jared Swanson to the Phoenix basketball family and look forward to having him join me on the sideline. His coaching background, as well as international playing experience, will be key factors to aiding and assisting in the development of our student-athletes. His organizational skills, professionalism, and overall basketball acumen will be instrumental to our success.
JARED SWANSON COACHING BIO
2019-20: Associate Head Coach, Northern State University
2017-19: Assistant Coach, Ohio University
2014-17: Director of Basketball Operations, Ohio University
2013-14: Director of Basketball Operations, San Jose State University
2011-13: Director of Basketball Operations, North Dakota State University
2010-11: Graduate Assistant Coach, Boise State University
Swanson comes to Green Bay after an impressive season on the sideline at Northern State, where he helped lead the Wolves to both a NSIC Regular Season and Tournament Championship finishing with a 26-6 record. NSU earned a spot in the NCAA Tournament before it was canceled prior to the start.
Three Wolves earned NSIC All-Conference honors (Fox, King, Stark), with Parker Fox being named the NSIC Defensive Player of the Year. In addition, Fox earned All-Region accolades from both the D2CCA and NABC.
In nine years at the Division I level, Swanson has mentored/developed 21 All-Conference award-winning student-athletes, including five all-first team honorees, three freshman of the year, and one conference player of the year.
In 2015-16, the Bobcats produced the second biggest turnaround in program history, going 23-12 overall with a trip to the CBI semifinals with Swanson and Ryan both coaching on the bench under Saul Phillips.
Prior to his time at OU, Swanson spent one season at San Jose State and two seasons at North Dakota State as the Director of Men’s Basketball Operations. The Bison went 41-24 in his two seasons, earning a berth into the College Basketball Invitational each year.
Swanson began his collegiate coaching career as a graduate assistant at Boise State University. The Broncos went 22-13 overall and advanced to the semifinal round of the CBI. From 2008-10, Swanson spent time as an assistant coach at Heritage High School in Vancouver, Washington and as the head coach at Payson High School in Payson, Arizona.
Before starting his coaching career, Swanson played four seasons of professional basketball in Australia, garnering two League-MVP awards, while leading the league in scoring two years.
He is a 2003 graduate of Concordia College with a bachelor’s degree in Social Studies Education, and 2011 graduate of Idaho State University with a master’s degree in Physical Education in Athletic Administration. Swanson played collegiately at Fergus Falls Community College where he was an all-state and all-region selection, as well as the 2000 Fergus Falls Student-Athlete of the Year. Swanson moved on to the University of North Dakota and then to Concordia College. He closed out his college career as a MIAC first team selection for the Cobbers.
—
Coach Ryan on Assistant Coach Freddie Owens:
“I am thrilled to welcome Freddie Owens to the GB coaching staff and am very excited to start working with him. Freddie is a proud Wisconsinite with an infectious personality, who I know will bring great energy to our program. His coaching and playing experiences speak for themselves, and I’m confident that our student-athletes will learn a lot from him, both on and off the court.”
FREDDIE OWENS COACHING BIO
2019-20: Assistant Coach, Loyola University Maryland
2015-19: Assistant Coach, College of the Holy Cross
2014-15: Assistant Coach, Utah Valley State University
2013-14: Assistant Coach, Oregon State University
2009-13: Assistant Coach, University of Montana
2008-09: Graduate Assistant Coach, Iowa State University
2007-08: Assistant Coach, Adams State College
2005-06: Student Assistant Coach, University of Wisconsin
Owens, a two-year starter and four-year letter winner at Wisconsin where he was co-captain of the Badgers’ 2002 and 2003 Big Ten regular-season and 2004 Big Ten Tournament championship teams, joins Coach Ryan from Loyola Maryland where he spent the past season as an assistant coach owns over 15 years of coaching experience.
In his four seasons as an assistant coach and defensive coordinator at Holy Cross, the Crusaders finished in the top two of the Patriot League in scoring defense in each of the last three seasons by giving up an average of just 66.4 points per game. During the 2015-2016 season, he helped Holy Cross to their first Patriot League Tournament Championship title and NCAA Tournament appearance since 2007, while also winning their first NCAA Tournament game since 1953.
During his time at Oregon State in 2013-2014, he helped the Beavers rank third in the Pac-12 Conference in scoring offense, averaging 75.8 points per game. Oregon State also secured a spot in the post-season CBI Tournament and scored conference wins over four NCAA Tournament teams by beating UCLA, Oregon, Stanford and Arizona State.
Prior to Oregon State, Owens was an assistant coach at Montana from 2009-2013, where he helped the Grizzlies win two Big Sky Conference regular-season championships in 2012 and 2013 and three Big Sky Tournament titles in 2010, 2012 and 2013. The Grizzlies advanced to the NCAA Tournament three times and recorded four-straight 20-plus win seasons.
During his time assisting on the sidelines in Missoula, Montana, the Grizzlies amassed a 93-33 overall record, went 56-12 in Big Sky conference, including a 38-2 conference record over a two-year span. While at Montana, he was instrumental in the development of Will Cherry and Kareem Jamar. Cherry was a three-time All-Big Sky First Team member and two-time Defensive Player of the Year in 2012 and 2013. Jamar was named the Most Valuable Player of the Big Sky Conference Tournament in 2012 and conference Player of the Year in 2013.
In 2008-2009, Owens served as a graduate assistant at Iowa State University under Greg McDermott, and prior to his time with the Cyclones, he was an assistant coach at Adams State College where the Grizzlies finished with a 18-10 overall record and ranked in the Top-10 of NCAA Division II regional rankings during the 2007-2008 season.
In 2016, he founded the Milwaukee Coaches Association (MCA), a group which consist of over 500 members and hosts annual basketball clinics in his hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The purpose of the MCA is to serve as a platform for coaches to come together and exchange ideas as it relates to becoming better coaches and mentors to their student-athletes. Each year the MCA clinic draws collegiate and professional coaches from all over the country as guest speakers.
Owens, a Milwaukee native, attended Milwaukee’s Washington High School where his team finished as state runner-up in 1996 and 2000. He received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a master’s degree in Higher Education from Iowa State University.
—
Coach Ryan on Assistant Coach Brandon Pritzl:
“I am very happy to welcome Brandon Pritzl back to his home state. He will be a great addition to the GB program and will do an outstanding job working with and relating to our student-athletes. Brandon is an energetic, young and up-and-coming coach who has had success both as a player and coach. He has a very good understanding of our program’s history and is very familiar with basketball in the state of Wisconsin.”
BRANDON PRITZL COACHING BIO
2016-20: Associate Head Coach, Assistant Coach, Hillsdale College
2014-16: Graduate Assistant, Ohio University
A native of De Pere, Pritzl returns to the Green Bay area under Coach Ryan, where he was the Fox River Classic Conference Men’s Basketball Player of the Year and All-Area Player of the Year in 2010, his senior year for the Redbirds. His family has a legacy of basketball success, as his father, Brian, played at St. Norbert, and his younger brother, Brevin, played an important role in his team’s success during a five-year career at Wisconsin from 2015-2020.
He was promoted to the Associate Head Coach position at Hillsdale in March, where he has helped guide a Charger program that’s had four straight winning seasons and three straight seasons of 19 or more wins over the last four years.
Pritzl has been an integral part of a team that won a G-MAC regular season title in 2019-20 and made the finals of the G-MAC tournament in 2017-18, earning a bid to the 2018 NCAA Division II tournament in the process.
Pritzl came back to Hillsdale after spending two seasons as a graduate assistant with Ohio where he served on the same staff as Coach Ryan. While with the Bobcats, Pritzl was responsible for many aspects of the program’s day-to-day operations, including ticket management, keeping recruiting databases up to date, and working with the Jump Program and the school’s summer camps.
As a player at Hillsdale from 2010-14, Pritzl was a key part of two 20-win teams. He was a three-year starter at shooting guard and was twice named to the GLIAC All-Defensive Team (2011-12, 2013-14). In his career, Pritzl scored 843 points and started 81 games while helping lead the Chargers to their first overall GLIAC regular season title since 1981-82 and their first regular season crown at the Division II level in 2011-12.
https://greenbayphoenix.com/news/2020/7/14/mens-basketball-ryan-announces-assistant-coaching-staff-jared-swanson-freddie-owens-brandon-pritzl.aspx
