Ryan Saunders was announced as a men's basketball assistant coach on May 18, 2022. The 2022-23 season marks his first with the program. Saunders joins the Phoenix after spending the last two seasons laying the foundation of the men's basketball program at Converse University as the program's first-ever head coach.
In their inaugural season in 2021-22, Saunders led the Valkyries to six wins, including five victories in conference matchups. He also coached the team to its first-ever win - a 93-82 decision against Mars Hill. Converse ended 11th overall in the Conference Carolinas standings last season, finishing ahead of North Greenville and Erskine.
Prior to Converse, Saunders spent five years at Belmont Abbey College, where he served as an assistant coach before being promoted to associate head coach in 2019-20.
During his time at Belmont Abbey, Saunders helped lead the team to a national ranking as high as No. 20 in the NCAA Division II national rankings in the 2019-20 campaign. In 2020, the team finished with a 21-10 record, good for second place in its conference. Additionally, Belmont Abbey was runner-up in the Conference Carolinas Tournament Championship and earned an at-large bid to the 2020 NCAA Tournament. He assisted with Belmont Abbey's turnaround from a two-win season prior to his arrival to back-to-back twenty-win seasons in 2018-2019 and 2019-2020.
He recruited and coached one All-American selection, a Conference Carolinas Player of the Year, and a Conference Carolinas Defensive Player of the year, as well as eight all-conference selections, six all-tournament honorees and three all-regional selections during his five years at Belmont Abbey.
Saunders began his career at his alma mater, Barry University. As an assistant coach at Barry from 2007-2015, Saunders helped guide the men's team to the NCAA Tournament three times and helped recruit a team that advanced to the NCAA Division II Elite 8 in 2016.
A graduate of Barry University, Saunders was a three-year captain of their NCAA Division II men's basketball team. As a student-athlete, he led Barry to its first-ever Sunshine State Conference regular season championship, its first two NCAA Division II Tournaments and finished his career as the program's all-time leader in assists.
QUOTE FROM HEAD COACH BILLY TAYLOR
"I am excited to be reunited with Ryan. We had tremendous success in building Belmont Abbey to a championship-level contender, and we will work just as hard to pursue excellence here at Elon. Please join me in welcoming Ryan, his wife, Amanda, and their daughter, Parker, to Elon."
