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Biography
Yes, I know what you’re thinking “The Sports Honcho? Who does he think he is?” Well, when you immerse yourself in every sporting event from the Professional Bowlers Association tournaments to The Super Bowl and attend game after game…you BECOME THE SPORTS HONCHO…and I’m also the Founder of ZipCodeSports.com.
My name is Ryan Willard and I am married to my beautiful wife, Holly, with two awesome boys, Jake and Drew. I graduated from the University of Utah with a BS in Mechanical Engineering in 2000 and have worked as an engineer in several companies and industries ever since. I have traveled with most of these companies and extensively with my previous employer when I came up with the idea for ZipCodeSports.com.
My love for sporting events started when I traveled to see the Tarkanian UNLV basketball team play the Aggies at Utah State University in 1991 – and I’ve been hooked ever since. I’ve made several trips following University of Utah football, including the 2005 Tostitos Fiesta Bowl in Arizona…where the undefeated Utes destroyed the Pittsburgh Panthers. I have also attended several NCAA Regional Tournament games at the University of Utah’s Huntsman Center, including the 2OT Arizona vs. Gonzaga game in 2003. You’ll never find me at home during the University of Utah Football and Basketball seasons, or during the Real Salt Lake soccer season.
The idea of ZipCodeSports.com grew with the same fanaticism that I share with you, my fellow sports fans – that wherever we go, we’re always up for a game.
I used to travel a lot for business and instead of sitting parked in my hotel all night, I wanted to get out and see who was playing. The problem was that I didn’t always know when and where the games were. I found it was easy to find major pro and college sports events from sites like ESPN, CSTV, CBSSportsline, and Yahoo Sports, but not for other levels and divisions. Minor league games and most college sports are tough to locate unless you know the specific schools, teams, or leagues in that area. Even after spending weeks in an area I still couldn’t find any local sporting events, and when I finally did, I couldn’t time it right to attend a game!
About 20 business trips later, I only coordinated two successful excursions: the March 2005 NCAA Men’s Basketball championship game in St. Louis, when North Carolina defeated Illinois, and later in 2005 for an NBA playoff game between Denver and San Antonio. But these were major sporting events – and at a 2 games/20 trips ratio – that’s only 10%! – Pretty pathetic average for any sports fan’s stats.
So I decided to start ZipCodeSports.com where you can find any game, any sport, at any level, anywhere.
