Schmidt replaces Sirianni as assistant baseball coach at Barton County
Ryan Schmidt returned to his alma mater at Barton County Community College when he was hired to replace assistant baseball coach Jay Sirianni. Schmidt, like Sirianni, will be in charge of the Barton pitching staff among his other duties. Schmidt comes to Barton after serving a similar capacity with Fort Hays State University. Sirianni is now an assistant coach in charge of the pitching staff at the University of Texas-Arlington, an NCAA Division I school.

Schmidt played with the Cougars in 1997-98, playing both pitcher and 1st baseman. From there, Schmidt moved on to the University of Kansas where earned the team's player of the year award as a pitcher his junior season. Schmidt was named 2nd team All-Academic Big XII his senior season of 2000.

Prior to his 2-year stint as the pitching coach at Fort Hays, Schmidt spent time coaching in high school for two seasons. He assisted with the Wichita Collegiate High School program in 2002 and Shawnee Mission North High School program the previous season.

He received his bachelor's degree from KU in Education in 2000 and completed a master's degree in Sports Administration from Wichita State University this past year.