Mike Van Ryn left the Roadrunners after one season at the team's helm. Tucson won its first AHL division championship with Van Ryn.
The loss of Tucson Roadrunners coach Mike Van Ryn after one season — one AHL division-championship season — is disappointing but not a surprise. Minor-league coaches are as transient as minor-league ballplayers. In the first 30 years of the Tucson Toros, a Pacific Coast League franchise, the Toros had six one-season managers: Billy Adair, Larry Sherry, Hank Aguirre, Carlos Alfonso, Tim Tolman and Tim Ireland. Van Ryn joined the NHL’s St. Louis Blues as an assistant coach.
