Gould heading up girls’ basketball at Auto Park Sports Complex

Courtesy of The Pilot News.

PLYMOUTH — A Marshall County product will be the Director of Girl’s Basketball Operations at the Auto Park Sports Complex.
A Triton and Grace College grad Ryan Gould has been coaching for 20 years at nearly every level including college, high school, and travel basketball. Three years ago Gould came “home” to take over the women’s basketball program at Marian University’s Ancilla College and will now be taking over more responsibility at the Auto Park Sports Complex.
Gould is part of a sports family. His brother Kyle is the head baseball coach and Athletic Director at Taylor University but for Ryan, basketball was his first love.
“We moved to Bourbon when I was a seventh grader and my dad was the pastor of The Country Church on 331,” said Gould. “My mom was a teacher at Triton Elementary. Being at a smaller school and smaller community you were able to be involved in a lot of things and that was a big part of my experience going from one sport to another with my friends.”
“The first year that I was there I didn’t know anything about high school sports at all,” he said. “Back then it was one class basketball and Triton hosted the sectional, so walking into that gym where there wasn’t a seat anywhere and the parking lot was overflowing I thought ‘Man, I want to do that.’ I got to be a ‘tag along’ manager for the high school team in the eighth grade. I rode the bus with those guys, I went everywhere with them and those guys became my heroes.”
“I was a basketball guy,” said Gould. “Basketball was my thing. There were a lot of really great athletes in Marshall County in the late 90s and early 2000s. Plymouth was kind of in their heyday with Michael Edison and Michael Delp and there were just great players everywhere. I played in the Blueberry Festival 3 on 3 tournament on a team with Brody Ewert and Kevin Ault. I mean I was out there playing on a team with Mr. Basketball. It was just a great time and that’s the only way you really connected with guys from other schools was through sports and that’s why I’ve always kept that to help other kids have those experiences.”
After a long coaching career that includes a 21-9 team in 2023 at Ancilla and a trip to the district tournament semi-finals, Gould knows the importance of the experience at a young age.
“What we are trying to do at the Auto Park is get some kind of a home base for these local kids to have someplace to play and make those connections,” said Gould. “A lot of our kids are driving to South Bend or Fort Wayne or Elkhart to try and find a team to play on and this is an opportunity to create something here for kids and families to have that closer to home. The Auto Park Sports Complex is a beautiful facility and we want to find a way to maximize that.”
“It’s a way to get people in the gym at a young age and play with a group of friends,” he said. “I think it helps the high school teams in the area to have their players in the gym at a young age working on their game and being taught the right way to play. We are excited about that.”
The vision for the program is simple, get local kids playing together to grow their skills.
“I think the Auto Park Complex is a hidden gem. It has everything that we need. We don’t have to drive an hour and a half to find what is all right here for us,” said Gould. “The Auto Park hosted a Club One tournament in the spring and the amount of people that brought into Plymouth was big. It gets more people into the community going to restaurants, going to shops. A couple thousand people on a weekend coming to a tournament at the Auto Park Complex benefits the community when you have something for the youth to be a part of locally.”
“The biggest thing for us right now is trying to have a team at every grade level,” said Gould. “If we have at least one team at each grade level to give everyone a chance to try out and be a part of it we can get a group of kids and parents that are about working hard and having fun. We can provide a structured season where everyone can see themselves getting better.”
“It’s going to take a strong group of people who see that vision and want to be a part of it.”