McKenzie Ryan grew up in Las Vegas, Nevada where she began playing softball at age 6 with Northwest Girls Softball program. She joined club ball at the age of 10 where she went on to play in some of the biggest tournaments in the nation. While playing for Lil Rebels, one of the most successful club programs to come out of Las Vegas, she played in USA Preps, Triple Crown and PGF tourneys, qualifying for the PGF Platinum bracket several times. Though her club career was primarily on the West Coast it took her all over the nation to play top teams. She attended Palo Verde High School where she helped lead the team to a state championship in her senior year in 2017. From there her softball journey continued to Tyler Junior College where she secured a starting spot as a freshman. After her team clinched the Regional Championship, they headed to St. George Utah and took 4th in the nation at the NJCAA D1 Softball Championship and McKenzie finished the year with a .343 batting average. That year McKenzie earned NFCA Academic All-American, and 3rd team NJCAA All-American.
After her Junior College career she was given an opportunity to become a Fighting Hawk and to go play for the University of North Dakota. When COVID cut her junior year short, a door opened to go and play in the first ever Florida Gulf Coast League, a premiere summer league for college softball athletes. The top colleges from all over the nation were represented. Here McKenzie played for the Impact where she held a season batting average of .385 with 6 home runs as a starter and team leader. After a great summer of softball, she finished out her college career with North Dakota where they finished second in our conference getting to play against some big-name schools such as LSU, The University of Florida, and The University of Georgia and living out a childhood dream of playing on the SEC network.
McKenzie understands what it takes to be a driven college athlete, an accomplished student athlete and what it takes to work hard to achieve goals and dreams. Mckenzie has a strong work ethic and an ease about her that transfers over to coaching and instructing. McKenzie enjoys giving back to the game, as she has given time to help coach her previous club team and given lessons to girls of all ages but enjoys helping those focused on getting to the next level.
She enjoys running a small bookkeeping business, stays busy with her strategic finance career and loves to be outside. She loves living in Boise where she can hike, snowboard, paddleboard, train for half marathons and enjoy all four seasons with her family. Please ask her about her homemade sourdough and other goodies she enjoys baking!
