Slippery Rock University Athletics

- Highlights: Three-time All-Region and three-time All-PSAC men's soccer player, two-time team captain, SRU Soccer Ring of Honor inductee, member of the U.S. National Beach Soccer team and played in the first FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup.
 
Ryan Gillespie was a three-time All-PSAC honoree and a three-time All-Region selection as a defender on The Rock men's soccer team from 1990-93. He also spent the 1994 season as an assistant coach with the SRU women's soccer team and the 1995 season as an assistant with both the men's and women's soccer teams.
 
He earned his undergraduate degree from SRU in 1995 and returned to The Rock to earn a master's degree in exercise science in 2002.
 
After his stellar collegiate playing career, Gillespie continued playing soccer and was able to play the game at some of the highest levels when he turned to Beach Soccer. He made the U.S. National Beach Soccer Team and played with that group from 2004-06, where he helped the U.S. place third in the FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup qualifier in 2005.
 
That qualifier earned him the chance to play in the inaugural FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup in 2005 in Rio de Janeiro. He also played in the 2004 Beach Soccer World Championships and was a member of the runner-up team in the North American Sand Soccer Championships in both 2002 and 2003.
 
Gillespie suffered a serious injury in 2020 when he broke his neck after a fall. After surgery to repair his neck and extensive rehab, he returned to playing soccer just 10 months after his injury and he continues to play today. Just this year, he picked up a title in the North American Sand Soccer Championships Men's Open Elite Division.
 
A native of Perkasie, Pennsylvania, Gillespie currently resides in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he is the owner and general manager of PEAK Athletics, a health, wellness, fitness and sports performance center he founded in 2017. He also serves as a board member for the Superb Futbol Club in Wilmington.
 
Gillespie is the father of three teenage children, Tessa, Keiran and Shane.