Aquinas College

Ryan Campbell joined the Aquinas Athletic Department in the summer of 2019 and serves as the head coach of the AQ women's volleyball program. Campbell is the 10th coach in the history of the AQ women's volleyball program.

Over his seven seasons as the Aquinas head coach, Campbell has accumulated a career record of 176-76 with a .698 winning percentage. Over his 17 seasons as a head coach in the NAIA, Ryan has amassed a 440-190 career record, good for a .698 winning percentage. 

Most recently, the Saints maintained a dominant run under Campbell with back-to-back national tournament appearances in 2024 and 2025. In 2025 the Saints had a perfect 20-0 conference record, finishing 33-7 overall. AQ hosted the opening round of the NAIA National Tournament before advancing to the final site in Sioux City. In 2024, AQ posted a program-best .930 winning percentage while going a perfect 18-0 in WHAC play to capture the conference title. The Saints earned a national rank of 10 before going on to host the opening round of the NAIA Tournament. Dating back to 2023, the Saints have not lost a WHAC regular season match.

Campbell has led the Saints to the NAIA National Tournament four times since joining the Aquinas volleyball staff. AQ saw the national stage in 2023 after a second-place finish in the WHAC standings and tournament, closing the season with a 31-9 record. He first accomplished the feat during the 2020-21 season, when the Saints posted an impressive 21-4 record, finishing second in both the WHAC regular season and tournament. With a .840 winning percentage, the No. 25-ranked Saints secured a national tournament berth. 

Coach Campbell has also directly contributed to a lot of individual success for his volleyball athletes both on and off the court. Since taking the helm of the program prior to the 2019 season, AQ women's volleyball has had 22 All-WHAC First Team athletes and six All-WHAC Second Team athletes. During the 2025 season, Lauren Chioini earned the WHAC Player of the Year, Natalie West earned the Newcomer of the Year, and Bella Hommes earned Libero of the Year for the second season, under Coach Campbell's leadership. Chioini, Hommes, and CeCe Pelak all earned First Team All-Region honors while Chioini was named Second Team All-American. In the 2024 season Mallory Keller was named both the WHAC Newcomer of the Year and Player of the Year and 2nd team All-American after an outstanding season as Aquinas' outside hitter. This year also saw Lydia Harper earn Setter of the Year and 2nd team All-American, rounding out a historic sweep of major conference awards for the Saints.

Since 2019, Aquinas has accumulated a total of 19 WHAC Attacker of the Week awards, 13 WHAC Defender of the Week awards, 20 WHAC Setter of the Week awards, and several national players of the week.

Off of the court, Campbell has coached 61 WHAC All-Academic student-athletes, along with multiple NAIA All-Academic teams over the past seven seasons.

Ryan has been recognized as Coach of the Year following his outstanding 2024 season with the Saints. Coach Campbell has now earned two outright conference titles after two perfect runs in conference. 

Prior to becoming the 10th Saints head coach in program history, Ryan coached for Cornerstone (CU) for 10 years. Campbell is the winningest coach in Cornerstone volleyball history with a 264-117 overall record in his time with the Golden Eagles. CU was named the WHAC regular season champions before the Golden Eagles went on to win the WHAC Tournament title in 2017 and 2018, advancing CU to the NAIA National Tournament in all three seasons. 

Since Campbell took over the CU program in 2009, the Golden Eagles averaged 26 wins per season. During one stretch in his tenure, Cornerstone won 35 consecutive home matches and achieved an NAIA top-10 national ranking. Campbell coached five NAIA All-Americans at CU, along with the WHAC Player of the Year, Setter of the Year, and Libero of the Year at some point during his coaching career.

In 2016, he was named the WHAC Coach of the Year, as well as the American Volleyball Coaches Association (AVCA) Mideast Region Coach of the Year. Campbell was selected as an AVCA "30 Under 30" award recipient in 2009 and also earned the WHAC Champions of Character award winner. In total, Campbell — a CU alum — spent 13 seasons at Cornerstone, including three seasons as an assistant coach/student assistant before taking over as the Golden Eagles head coach.

Campbell attended Cornerstone and graduated with an undergraduate degree in physical education with minors in health and coaching. He then went on to continue his education at Cornerstone, obtaining his master's in management. 

Ryan resides in Cedar Springs with his wife Rachel and their four kids, Thomas, Jonah, Mara, and Caleb.