Three Coaches Achieve Long Colgate Careers

They were young and ambitious. While they lacked coaching experience, they brought energy, enthusiasm, and hunger to build a winning program.

It was a few years into the start of the new century, and Colgate’s then-director of athletics, David Roach, needed a new men’s soccer coach. One year later, he had two more head coaching vacancies to address, this time for tennis and volleyball.

All three positions were filled with up-and-coming first-time head coaches. Each one made a convincing case for why they were the right person for the job.

Colgate believed in them, and gave them the freedom to learn.

Two decades later, those three coaches — Ryan Baker, Bobby Pennington, and Erik Ronning — are still here, managing their programs with the same drive and vigor they had displayed when they first arrived at Colgate.

Each head coach has gone on to taste success. Each head coach has experienced proud moments, not just from competition, but from watching their student-athletes achieve great things in life. 

And in a profession where turnover is common, each head coach chose to stay at Colgate.

Read on to learn more about their Colgate careers, how they keep the job fresh, and why they chose to stay with the Raiders.

Ryan Baker, volleyball head coach 

When Baker took over the job on July 1, 2006, he inherited a program that was rebuilding and in need of continuity. 

The Raiders had gone through multiple coaching changes over the previous decade. Spirits were low among the returning players in Baker’s first year, and now they had to adjust to a 25-year-old coach who was only a few years removed from being a college student himself.

“I remember my first day and my first year vividly,” Baker said. “I felt like I was drinking out of a fire hose.”

Before joining Colgate, Baker had spent a year as the head coach at D-III Clarkson, where he led the Golden Knights to a winning season. That stint followed a year as an assistant coach at Colgate.

When Baker interviewed for the head coaching job at Colgate, he already had an understanding of the program and the University. He knew what needed to change.  

“Colgate took a huge chance on me, which is one reason why I am so loyal to them,” Baker said. “I was the youngest D-I head coach in the country at the time. My loyalty runs deep to Colgate because they took a chance on a bright-eyed, inexperienced head coach. They allowed me to make mistakes. They allowed me to grow my voice. They allowed me to push the envelope.” 

In his first season as Colgate head coach, the Raiders finished 14-15. A year later, they reached the conference finals. While Baker was still learning on the fly, he had the support of his student-athletes from the beginning.

He went on to take the program to new heights, achieving things that had never before been done in Colgate Volleyball. At the top of his accomplishments are the five conference titles (including four in a row) that his teams have won. He is second in program wins with 340. 

Yet many of his fondest moments have little to do with the result on the court. What stands out to Baker has been watching his student-athletes develop and mature and go on to live successful lives.

“I love watching the lightbulb moments when things click on the court or off the court, the moments where I can see a change in them,” Baker said. “I’m also extremely proud of my players post-Colgate. Watching them raise families, have great careers, give back philanthropically, watching these women do what they love after Colgate is probably what I’m most proud of.” 

The sport has changed over the years, which has required coaches to adjust. The game is faster, players are hitting harder and higher. And technology allows coaches to watch any prospective player in the world on their phones. 

“I learned from my mentors that you have to meet people where they are,” Baker said. “Where people were 20 years ago is not the same as where they are now. I still value relationships like I did 20 years ago. My core hasn’t changed, but how I coach and how we train has absolutely evolved.

“Technology has changed recruiting a lot. But I still believe there is nothing like sitting court side and watching how players behave and interact with their teammates and how they handle the hard things. Those are the things I can’t see on my phone. I want to see an athlete in person and watch all the intangibles.”

Now, entering his 21st season at the helm, Baker said the fire is still burning. 

“I always said, when the fire is not burning as bright, it’s time for someone else to take over the program,” he said. “The players keep me young. They make me laugh. They make me smile. They make me cry. I have the best job in the world. And my staff, I have been able to surround myself with amazing assistants over time who challenge me, who always look for new ways to train. I am far from bored.”

Baker tries to stay in touch with as many of his former student-athletes as possible. He reunited with members of his first team at Reunion Weekend. He still receives Christmas cards, baby photos, wedding invitations, and random congratulatory messages from his former players. 

In addition, he still hears from his old boss, David Roach, who will text him to congratulate him for another year at Colgate. 

Baker, who hails from nearby New Hartford, N.Y., said Colgate has always treated him and his family as their own. That loyalty has kept him from going elsewhere. In addition, he appreciates Colgate’s habit of always evolving. It has pushed him to be better.

“If you had asked me 20 years ago when I started here, would I still be here?” Baker said. “I was young and ambitious. I thought, ‘I’d be here for a little bit, hopefully build something and move on.’ And here I am, and loving it even more than I did when I started.” 

Bobby Pennington, men’s tennis head coach

It was a June day in 2006 when Bobby Pennington visited Hamilton, N.Y., to interview for the job of running Colgate’s men’s and women’s tennis program.

He arrived in the morning, met with the Colgate athletics administration, toured the campus, and learned more about the tennis teams. One thing he recalls clearly was that administrators were interviewing candidates for two different positions. While administrators met with Pennington in one room, they were also interviewing Baker in the room next door.

At the time, Pennington had completed two seasons as head coach of the men’s and women’s tennis program at D-III Juniata College in Pennsylvania. It was his first time as a head coach. Now, he was looking for a new opportunity, and the prospect of coaching a D-I program at a school such as Colgate intrigued him.

He was offered the Raiders job a week later, and Pennington accepted. He began the role on July 1 — the same day Baker started his post.

“I was definitely apprehensive and nervous,” Pennington said. “I was the head coach of a Division-III program. To make the jump to a Division-I program, I was definitely nervous at the time.”

Pennington stepped into a program that had gone through four head coaches in five years. His goal was to bring stability and a winning attitude, much like what he experienced as a tennis player at Kalamazoo College in Michigan, where he was part of a dynasty.

At Colgate, success came quickly for Pennington. It gave the young coach a huge boost in confidence.

“I was fortunate that in my first year, I had two winning seasons,” he said. “Both teams were top three in the league. That showed me I could do it.” 

Two decades later, Pennington is still the head coach. It’s a feat he never would have imagined as a 25-year-old who was about to start his Colgate career.

“It’s definitely very humbling,” Pennington said. “It’s a big accomplishment. You see so much turnover nowadays in college athletics, whether it’s Colgate or elsewhere. I give credit to a lot of people, ranging from the players to their parents who have been so supportive of me, and to the Colgate administration. It has been a really long ride, that’s for sure.”

He credits the Colgate athletics leadership for believing in an inexperienced coach back in 2006.

“I’m really grateful for the opportunity,” he said. “Looking back at it now, I see how unique and special it was to get that opportunity at that age. They took a chance on me.”

Pennington is approaching 400 victories. He is the longest tenured women’s tennis head coach at Colgate, a feat he reached in 2024-25 after 19 seasons. He has coached some of the most successful teams in program history — like the men’s team that finished 15-5 in 2017-18.

Plus, he’s experienced special moments on and off the court that have a place in his heart. While victories are special, so are the bonds he’s formed and the progress he’s seen in his student-athletes over the years.

“There are definitely a number of individual success stories that I’m really proud of,” Pennington said. “We’ve had kids who walked on to the team and became starters. We’ve had a few Rookies of the Year and a Player of the Year on the men’s side. Those are special. We’ve had great individual achievements, whether it’s a player who stuck with it for four years and waited until their fourth year to start or whether it’s a kid who played No. 1 for all four years and had an amazing career.”

Pennington has also seen eight of his assistant coaches move on to run collegiate tennis programs of their own.

There are a few things that have kept Pennington at Colgate. First and foremost is his family. His three children have grown up in Hamilton and have loved it.

Other reasons are the culture of the tennis program and the relationships he has developed, not just with his student-athletes, but with their families.

He tries to stay in contact with as many of his former players as he can. For special events like Reunion Weekend, he often connects with student-athletes he hadn’t seen in years. 

Pennington does various things to keep the job exciting. He schedules road matches in other parts of the country against tough programs, a task that requires the head coach to raise funds. Last season, the team played against two opponents in San Diego. The season before that, they traveled to the University of Miami. 

The team looks forward to such trips each season, and Pennington does everything he can to make it happen.

The job has changed as well. For 19 seasons, Pennington coached the men’s and women’s teams. Then a year ago, Colgate split the program in two, with Pennington coaching the men’s side while a new head coach ran the women’s side. 

The change has allowed Pennington to devote all his energy to one squad and ensure he can travel with the team for every road match. (In the past, when the men and women played away matches at different locations at the same time, Pennington would travel with one team while his assistant coach traveled with the other). 

In addition, Pennington has evolved over the years, catering his coaching style based on the student-athletes in his program.

“I’ve learned that the players, they see what they get,” Pennington said. “They know I’m genuine, and that I want this to be the best four years of their lives. When they see that, they play really hard for me.”

Erik Ronning, men’s soccer head coach 

Erik Ronning didn’t realize at first that he had reached 20 years on the job. It was only after he hit another milestone — his 50th birthday a year ago — that he began reflecting on life. Then he saw that two decades had passed since he began his Colgate coaching career.

“When you get to that milestone, you reflect on life, you reflect on a lot of things,” Ronning said. “At that milestone, I was like, ‘Wow, I have been here a long time. This is a career, not just a job.’”

Now, Ronning is gearing up for his 22nd season at Colgate. Much has changed since his first day on the job, while some things have stayed the same. 

One thing that’s different — and different by leaps and bounds — is how he runs his program.

“In my first year, I was learning on the fly,” Ronning said. “I had no idea what I was doing. I was all adrenaline, all passion. I was instilling my values within the team, what I envisioned Colgate soccer to be. I was working literally from seven in the morning to eleven at night. It was a whirlwind.”

These days, Ronning is still learning. He continues to evolve and adjust to keep up with changes in collegiate soccer and the expanding skills of today’s players. It’s what keeps the job fresh.

But now, he runs his program with a deeper understanding of the game. He knows what kind of player he wants to recruit, and how to push his players to persevere when things don’t go their way. He knows the wisdom of allowing his assistants to be the best versions of themselves.

Another thing that has changed is his mentality as a coach.

“Back then, I was all about winning,” Ronning said. “We all want to win. But today, I focus on more than just results, results, results. We talk more about performance. We talk more about doing the little things — about details — because that leads to success.”

Ronning was a four-year starter and captain of the Raiders before he graduated in 1997. Afterward, he was a Colgate assistant coach for four years before he joined Northwestern as an assistant coach.

Like Baker and Pennington, Colgate took a chance on Ronning, who had never before been a head coach. He began the job at Colgate on July 1, 2005, inheriting the program from his mentor and predecessor, Mike Doherty. 

While the program was in solid shape, Ronning made adjustments while hammering away at establishing a mentality among his players that’s built on grit, resilience, and hard work.

If there’s a loose ball, he wants his student-athletes to chase it down, even if it’s a lost cause.

While the focus is to create better soccer players, Ronning also wants his student-athletes to leave his program as better people with skills that will help them later on in life.

“My successes are what my student-athletes have been able to accomplish,” he said. “Results and championships are a product of what we have been able to do.”

Ronning has 163 wins, making him the program’s all-time winningest coach. He has won six Patriot League titles, each one leading to an NCAA tournament berth. One of his most memorable victories came in 2017, when the Raiders beat No. 13 Michigan in a comeback win that propelled Colgate into the Sweet 16. 

The coach has experienced his share of losses and failures as well. But he has learned to value those tough moments, using every obstacle and hardship as a teaching opportunity for his student-athletes.

Then he looks at how his team responds. And he has seen some great things.

For instance, there’s the 3-2 road win over No. 16 Providence in the first match of the 2022 season. It was an enormous response from the Raiders, who had gone winless the previous year, and had entered the Providence match eager to prove they were an improved team.

The win over the Friars is as memorable to Ronning as any other throughout his career.

“The strongest thing about our team is our continuity and culture,” he said. “What I really bring to the table, what I model is not only the value set, it’s the toughness and grit. Kids who can respond in tough times. Kids who will fight back when they get knocked down. That’s how I build a team. 

“Soccer is a short window. It’s memorable, it’s great. But those relationships we build will last forever. You are going to have to rely on those guys for a long time. Soccer is a small part of what we do. It’s about building a culture.”

Ronning said he has enjoyed every minute of his tenure as head coach. 

“You don’t stay at one place for so long unless you believe in the place that you’re working for, the mission of the department, and you have a tremendous amount of pride and passion for the institution,” he said. 

“College coaching is tough and transient and even more so now than it has ever been,” he said. “It says a lot for Colgate. It says a lot for the environment we are in. The student-athletes we coach and recruit. The community that is a part of what we do. I can’t picture myself anywhere else.”

Since his first day as head coach, Ronning has tried to teach his student-athletes to respond in the face of adversity. But he has also reinforced the idea that Colgate Men’s Soccer is not just a program, but a family.

“If there’s ever a legacy that I leave, it’s that the feeling surrounding this program is going to be that if you sign up for Colgate soccer, you sign up for life,” he said. “It’s something special and bigger than yourself.”

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