Ryan Smith comes to West Hills from Avenal High School where she served as a school counselor since 2019. She's competed in the Women's Professional Rodeo Association for 9 years, and also competed in college rodeo as a member of Fresno State University's Rodeo team for 4 years. When asked how she was feeling about being a part of West Hills College and the community of Coalinga she said she is "really excited. This has been my dream job for so long. I love Coalinga. In fact, when I was 18 years old and a student at West Hills, I asked the West Hills Golf coach of all people how to become the West Hills College Rodeo Coach."

In addition to her role as the Head Rodeo Coach, Ryan is also an Academic Counselor. "I love academics so to be a faculty member, as well as a coach is even cooler." Her background is in Marriage and Family Counseling and Child Therapy, and she is thrilled to be able to use her Master's Degree to truly help her students and ensure that they are equipped with all of the resources necessary to reach their career and educational goals.

When asked about her goals for the year she said, "Coming back to some semblance of normalcy after Covid is going to be big. We're all really excited to be competing again and I don't think I've ever seen the sport appreciated as much as it was at the Lassen College and Feather River College Rodeos.

"Ultimately, my goal for this season is to build a strong relationship with the team. I was really impressed with their performance at Lassen College and Feather River College, but I was more impressed with how they conducted themselves as people. This is a great group of really kind, helpful, and supportive kids and I am so excited to support their rodeo performance as well as help them, academically, in any way that I can. I want to make sure that every student and student athlete who comes into contact with me will leave West Hills a better person, and will be one step closer to achieving their career and life goals. Rodeo is my number one passion, but my second passion is academics and to be afforded the opportunity to focus on both, as a career, is a dream."

Associate Dean of Athletics, Joseph Hash, said he is "excited to have Ryan at West Hills. We're really happy that she comes to us with a solid rodeo background as well as a background in counseling. It's unique for us to have a coach also be an academic counselor and we're really excited to have her available to not only her team, but all of the student athletes.

"In the short time that she's been with us, she's attended two rodeos, started sprucing up the rodeo grounds, and started the search for a new assistant rodeo coach. She's really hit the ground running in a short period of time and we're happy to have her."