University of Tennessee Athletics
Manager of the Year
January 23, 2015 | Swimming & Diving
Jan. 23, 2015
"He's a natural leader. He views himself as having a responsibility to lead people. He always has. When (a person) finds a team with a similar code (to their own code), leadership becomes less of a responsibility and more a part of their identity."
Head Coach Matt Kredich isn't the only one that knows that Ryan McFall has evolved into a natural leader for the Tennessee Swimming and Diving program.
If anyone spends any amount of time around a Vols' practice, McFall certainly is one of the guys that sticks out.
He knows what he wants. He's very well-spoken and is never afraid to let a teammate know what he's thinking about, with full intention on making him a better swimmer and man. Being a leader is so ingrained in who he is, thanks to his intense passion he has for his team and for their goals.
Good signs for a potential law student and future politician.
"Hopefully, law school in the fall...that has been a goal since the end of freshman year," said McFall. "My sister played a big part in that. I'd like to then go into a public administration kind of role, get involved in politics and then work my way up the ladder and then hopefully run for opposite."
McFall's character and attitude can easily sum up the men's focus this season. Despite the win-loss record this season, one quality about the men's team in particular is that they are unfazed, solidified in their goals and possible achievements and not letting anything derail them from reaching the place they set off for during the offseason.
"This year has shown a lot of instances of greatness. When a great team gets up and throws down a great race, everyone on our team shakes it off. We're able to put blinders on, go on and execute our mission. The next step is to go full throttle with the blinders on. As we get better, there's nothing that can stop us. We're just going to keep rolling (and) it's going to just build and build."
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Rewind a few years back and McFall is starting his freshman year of college, like many others coming from all over the world to Rocky Top. Fresh out of Springfield, Missouri, the new Vol swimmer made his way to Knoxville with the burden of having to live away from home, away from his family, to which he to this day is extremely close.
"I'm very close with my mother, my father and my sister," said McFall. "My parents divorced in my junior year of high school and that created a huge strain in my household the next two years leading into my freshman year. That created a sense of not wanting to leave my family behind, but coming to a school like Tennessee was always been one of my dreams. I thought I had made the wrong decision my first semester. I thought I had left my parents behind."
To the joy of the Vol program and many Vol fans alike, McFall's familial support system back home in Missouri encouraged him to stick it out, reminding him that the time to come back home between semesters was just around the corner.
"Every time I talked to my parents, all I got was how proud they were of me," said McFall. "How proud they were of me for following my dreams (and) how proud they were of me for sticking it out one more week, one more month, saying that I was going to come back the next semester, for trying it out. Every time we had conversations like that, it got into my head. Every time we talked, (the message) resonated and kept building and building and building. Even though they were so far away, they were still a phone call away. They were really never that far away."
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McFall's decision to stick around and pour into the Vol program reaped some benefits soon afterwards. At the end of that season, a certain Vol upperclassman took the young McFall aside and gave him a lasting dose of encouragement that has fueled McFall through this season.
"My freshman year, Ed Walsh sat me down and I guess he noticed something (because) he told me, `when I leave, this is your team,'--that always resonated with me," said McFall. "I've always seen myself as behind-the-scenes. I want to make sure that everyone is okay. I want to make sure that the team is doing alright. I want to make sure that everyone is where they need to be. That's just translated into me being seen as a leader. Ever since Ed told me that, I've kind of seen it as running the team: not so much as a leader, but as a manager."
A man clearly affected by the coaching and leadership of years past, McFall exhibits what being a Tennessee Volunteer means. Cliché? Maybe, but the rise of the men's program during his time in Knoxville shows no coincidence that the selfless system instilled in the Vols has proved valuable.
"(Being a Vol is) never thinking about yourself--that's the big one," said McFall. "It's always thinking `what's the guy next to me doing? How's he getting better? What are the coaches doing to make the team better?' It's very rarely `What am I doing to make myself better? What is going on around that is making me better, not what am I doing?'
"That creates a system of people working for the person next to each other. When you work for the person next to each other, it makes it a heck of a lot easier for you to work for yourself. When you work for yourself, it translates back to the other person. Once you start working for each other back and forth, you start growing and you start building and you build off each other."
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That system has proven beneficial both in and out of the pool. Growing up with a sister in Springfield, McFall has found a team that is all pointed towards the same goal, but he's also found another family in Knoxville, full of brothers that have made his experience much fuller and livelier.
"When you come to college, you're thrown into a situation where all you have are the guys that you move in with," said McFall. "Then, as you get going, you start to learn that everybody brings something to the table, whether it's humor or somebody you can talk serious to--it can be anything. Especially during my last two years, the guy's team has been one collective unit. I could take any three or four guys from the team and we could go to dinner and I'd have a hilarious time.
"Everybody just builds off of each other, everybody knows where everybody stands and we're all open with each other. It's just like having your closest brother, but you have 20 or 25 of them. I had never had that and it's such an awesome thing to be part of something with such magnitude."
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Now that McFall and the class of 2015 will be leaving the Vols after the season is over, that unit and closeness which has bound the team together seems to be a promising sign for McFall and the departing seniors. Everyone is on the same page as friends and everyone is on the same page as competitors, boding well for the future of the men's program.
"The only thing that I'd want is to be able to know that that same message is being repeated (and) that same attitude is being fostered, that same messaged is being preached to the upcoming guys," said McFall. "(Senior teammate) Tristan Slater gives great pep talks at meets. His constant message is `Be relentless. Be a warrior.' Those are the two things that stick with me. It's already been instilled into this current group of guys. After we leave, we want the guys that are left behind to be able to instill that into the guys coming in.
