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CAREER SUMMARY

Birth
August 16th 1960
Taylor BC, Canada

Clubs
WHL: Edmonton Oil Kings, Great Falls Americans, Saskatoon Blades; Oberliga: EC Peiting; CWUAA: University of Alberta; NSWSL: Macquarie Bears

Goodall Cups
1988, 1989

World Championships
1990, 1992, 1993, 1994 Ice Hockey (Head Coach)


BORN AUGUST 16TH, 1960, in Taylor BC, Canada, he has been on the ice since he was a toddler, rising through the junior hockey ranks in North America and Europe before arriving on Australian shores in the late-1980s. He had played Junior-A hockey in the WHL for the second edition of the Edmonton Oil Kings (1978-79), the Great Falls Americans (1979-80), and the Saskatoon Blades (1979-80). He played the 1980-81 season with EC Peiting in the Oberliga, the third level of ice hockey in Germany, and then the University of Alberta in the CWUAA in 1981-82.

By 1988 he was installed in Sydney's Macquarie Bears where he won top point scorer of the NSW Super League. He won 2 Goodall Cups that year and the next, and succeeded Dan Reynolds as head coach of the Australian national team in 1990. He coached the Mighty Roos to a D-Pool silver medal in Cardiff in Wales that same year against Great Britain and Spain; bronze in Hull in England in 1992; Slovenia in 1993; and Spain in 1994, to complete 4 consecutive international campaigns. He led the national team to 23rd in the World in 1992, the most successful coach of the time.

He has said his time as coach of the national team was "a great era given the caliber of competition at the time and awesome group of intelligent players". Remembered by many as their best coach, he considered the defeat of Hungary 8-1, after they were just relegated to Australia's division in the 1992 Worlds, "the best collective execution of a game plan by a group of players that I have been a part of". [1] Hungary had been "mocking our players in pre-game skate while we were still tweaking our system". [1] In the 1995-96 season, he returned to Canada where he was assistant coach of the Medicine Hat Tigers in the WHL. In 2016, he was still playing with the Sydney Bombers, the founder and CEO of TopMe, a mobile recharge app, and a sports consultant.

01. Historical Notes

02. Citation Details

Ross Carpenter, 'Switzer, Ryan (1960 - )', Legends of Australian Ice, Melbourne, Australia, http://icelegendsaustralia.com/bio-switzer.html, accessed online .

03. Select Bibliography

Edmonton Journal, Canada, c1991, "Ex-Oil King high on Aussie hockey"

The Australian, newspaper, November 19 2011, "The spice of ice"

04. Citations
[1] Switzer, Ryan, Legends of Australian Ice, Facebook comment, June 2016

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G A L L E R YArrows at right scroll the images
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With the Macquarie Bears (standing left), New South Wales Super League, Sydney, 1987. Courtesy Glen Foll.

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Player with New South Wales, 1989 Goodall Cup Champions

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'Ex-Oil King high on Aussie hockey' Edmonton Journal, c1991

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Coach of Australia, 1992 Div 2 Worlds, Humberside, England

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Coach of Australia, 1993 Div 2 Worlds, Ljubljana, Slovenia

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Coach of Australia, 1994 Div 2 Worlds, Barcelona, Spain

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In Sydney Bombers strip. Picture: James Croucher for The Australian, 2011

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With John Gregory (left) at Canterbury Olympic Ice Rink, Sydney, Nov 2015