Ryan Schalk enters his third season as the head coach of the Saginaw Valley State softball team. He has compiled a record of 72-38 in his two seasons at the helm.

The 2024 Cardinals celebrated a season of thirds. The team won its third-straight GLIAC Tournament Championship and 30 or more games for the third year running, with a record of 35-22. SVSU also grabbed a share of the GLIAC regular season title on the way to the third consecutive NCAA Regional appearance.

2023 saw similar success as 2022, with Schalk leading the team to a Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) Tournament Championship and a berth in the NCAA DII Softball Regional where the team made the finals. The Cardinals compiled a 37-16 overall record and a 14-7 mark in league play.

The 2023 team recorded the most walks in a season, with 190, while several players set career marks and placed in the top 10 in the SVSU record book.

Schalk helped lead nine Cardinal softball players to conference awards including three first-team honors, four second-team honorees, and two honorable mentions. SVSU had three players make the NFCA Midwest Second Team and four make the College Sports Communicators All-District squad.

Schalk joined SVSU after serving as the assistant coach for Grand Valley State University in 2022. Schalk helped guide GVSU to the GLIAC regular season championship and a berth in the NCAA DII Super Regionals. GVSU fell to SVSU in the GLIAC postseason tournament championship game in 2022.

Before his season with GVSU in 2022, Schalk was an assistant coach with the University of Toledo from 2019-2021. He was the head coach at Alverno College in 2018 and led the softball program at Muskegon Community College from 2009-2016 in both assistant and head coaching roles.

Career Highlights
• NJCAA National Championship
• Mid-American Conference Tournament Championship
• GLIAC Tournament Championship
• Three GLIAC Regular Season Championships
• Two NJCAA Division II District G Regional Championships, three MCCAA State Championships, and two MCCAA Western Conference Championships
• Coached the 2021 MAC Player of the Year
• Head coach of a team that set a single-season program record in walks, while increasing win percentage, runs scored (50+ more), batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, and stolen bases
• Guided an offense to single-season program records in runs scored, RBI, batting average, on-base percentage, and slugging percentage
• Mentored a hitter who set single-season records in slugging percentage, doubles, and walks
• Head coach of a team that led the MCCAA in runs, hits, triples, RBI, and stolen bases and set program records in batting average and home runs
• NJCAA Division II National Coaching Staff of the Year
• 2012 NFCA Division II East Coaching Staff of the Year
• 2016 MCCAA Coach of the Year
• 2014 and 2016 MCCAA Western Conference Coach of the Year
• Head coach of a team that won 40 games and the MCCAA State Championship while being ranked as high as 9^th in the nation
• Coached a team that led the athletic department in GPA with a 3.723 mark in the Fall of 2019, a program record 3.812 in the Spring of 2020, and a 3.718 GPA in the Fall of 2020
• Coached and mentored several All-Conference, All-Region, and All-Americans