MELISSA JACKSON – YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY WOMEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 992

Website – https://ysusports.com/sports/womens-basketball

Email – mdjackson02@ysu.edu

Twitter – @CoachJackson21

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Melissa Jackson is entering her first season as Youngstown State’s Head Women’s Basketball Coach in 2024-2025. She is the ninth head coach in the history of the Youngstown State University women’s basketball program.

Jackson previously spent 15 seasons at Akron and the most recent campaign at Cleveland State. Her final five seasons in Akron were as the Zips’ head coach, and she is the only coach in the program’s history to have a winning record.  Jackson held three different positions over her 15 seasons at Akron from 2008-23 and was part of the Zips’ best period in program history. She was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator on Jodi Kest’s staff from 2008-12, and she was elevated to the role of associate head coach alongside Kest from 2012-18.  Jackson’s role in Akron’s success under Kest helped her earn a promotion to Akron’s head coach before the 2018-19 season, and she helped the Zips assemble a 72-69 record and 40 MAC victories in her five seasons.

Jackson spent the first four years of her coaching career at Delaware from 2004-08 after graduating from the University of Richmond where she was a 4 year basketball student-athlete.

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Be sure to take some notes as you listen to this episode with Melissa Jackson, Head Women’s Basketball Coach at Youngstown State University.

What We Discuss with Melissa Jackson

• How getting cut in 4th grade spurred her competitiveness and helped her improve
• “You don’t really see a ton of people just hooping it up on the blacktop anymore.”
• “I think there’s so many more opportunities for young females that want to get into the game.”
• “That’s a big thing for us on the women’s basketball side of the world is just making sure we keep those great athletes trending towards basketball.”
• Navigating the recruiting process that ended with her attending the University of Richmond
• How injuries in college led her down a path to coaching
• “Coaching is definitely a hard profession to get into. It’s a hard profession to stay in as well.”
• The influence of her coaches at Richmond, Joanne Boyle and Lindsay Gottlieb, who helped her get an internship with a big AAU program and get her first coaching job at Delaware
• “I knew my role was to recruit and just to try to do it at a really, really high level.”
• “You’re going to want to have great relationships with your parents, but you really keep the basketball side of it, especially at the college level, with the student athlete and the head coach.”
• “That first impression is so important, how you carry yourself, how you treat your players. You want them to know that you care about them, but also that you’re here to make them better and push them to be the best version of themselves.”
• Learning on the fly as a young coach
• Moving to Ohio to become an assistant coach at Akron after getting engaged
• The importance of loyalty in an assistant coach
• How being the acting head coach for one game at Akron against Bowling Green convinced her that she wanted to be a head coach
• “I think just being ultimately prepared and I think that’s where your confidence comes as a head coach.”
• “I feel like when you’re a head coach, you never sleep.”
• Taking over as the interim head coach at Akron and then going through the process to become the full-time head coach
• Keys to transitioning from an assistant coach to a head coach in the same program
• “What I brought to the program at Akron right off the bat was just a sense of family, a sense of culture.”
• Living your standards and not just talking about them
• 5 Standards of the Program – Family, Passion, Toughness, Commitment, Gratitude
• Using informal and yet intentional conversations to build relationships with players
• “When you’re a head coach, it’s a lonely place.  You’re making a lot of decisions. People don’t want to talk to you some days.”
• The support for women’s basketball at Youngstown State
• The roster management tasks that are required when taking over a new program
• Knowing what you need and what you don’t need on your staff
• “I tell our players, as long as your academics are in order, your basketball is on point,  I have no problem with you earning from your name, image, and likeness.”
• Spending the summer working on offense and looking to dial in on the defense this fall heading into her first season at YSU
• “I think I’ve had a lot of success in my coaching career because I’ve done it the right way and I haven’t skipped steps. And so just staying true to that in a world where everybody wants instant gratification and wants winning to happen really, really quickly. Just remembering that it is a process.”
• The excitement and support her family has for her team and players
  

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THANKS, MELISSA JACKSON

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TRANSCRIPT FOR MELISSA JACKSON – YOUNGSTOWN STATE UNIVERSITY WOMEN’S BASKETBALL HEAD COACH – EPISODE 992

[00:00:00] Mike Klinzing: Hello and welcome to the Hoop Heads Podcast. It’s Mike Klinzing here with my co-host Jason Sunkle tonight. And we are pleased to be joined by Melissa Jackson, the head women’s basketball coach at Youngstown State University. Melissa, welcome to the Hoop Heads Pod.

[00:00:16] Melissa Jackson: Thanks Mike. Really appreciate you guys having me on.

[00:00:19] Mike Klinzing: Thrilled to have you on. Looking forward to diving into all the things that you’ve been able to do in your career. Let’s start by going back in time to when you were a kid. Tell me about some of your first experiences with the game of basketball. What made you fall in love with it?

[00:00:34] Melissa Jackson: Yeah. Oh, wow. I was really fortunate to grow up in the gym.

My dad was a junior high boys basketball coach. So at a very young age, I was in the gym after school with him on the sidelines with the ball in my hand. I think I can’t really remember what age exactly, but, but very, very young. So I think that’s where I first fell in love with it.

And maybe it wasn’t by choice at first but quickly just really loved the game and. Would eventually go watch him coach and even go on bus trips with the guys. And just was really, it was a big part of my life at a very young age. And then I had a unique experience. I went to a parochial Catholic school.

Growing up for elementary school and the fourth grade team we had tryouts and I tried out and thought I was really good and but ended up not making the team. They only took like three fourth graders back then. And so had my first taste of defeat at a very young age. But I think it was really good for me because My dad told me I have to get better and work harder and all the things that coaches say.

And so I kind of spent the whole year doing that. And then fifth grade came around and actually made the team and was a pretty good player from there on out.

[00:01:56] Mike Klinzing: What did, in that year, what you can remember, what did getting better look like for a girl going from fourth grade to fifth grade. What did you do?

Did your dad help you? What was the process like?

[00:02:10] Melissa Jackson: Yeah. From what I can remember and recall, it was a lot of just one on one time with him, whether it was up at the playground or in the gym after he had practiced working on different things. The downfall to it is I had to be a cheerleader.

So I don’t think I really enjoyed that. I didn’t make the team. So whoever didn’t make the team had to go cheer them on. And I think that was a big motivation for me that I didn’t want to do that in the next year. And so, yeah, just learned at a really young age about being persistent and having a goal.

And that was something that I really wanted to prove people wrong and was able to do that.

[00:02:51] Mike Klinzing: How old were you when you realized how lucky you were to have the kind of gym access that you did? Because so often we’ll talk to coach’s kids, and they have a similar story to you.

Like I grew up in the gym and I could go in there kind of whenever I wanted or my dad or my mom would take me and I’ve got this access. And then you get to like high school and all of a sudden you realize like, Hey, not many kids really have the key to the gym that they can go in anytime. So when did you kind of realize how lucky you were in that situation?

[00:03:17] Melissa Jackson: Yeah. I don’t think I realized till later on in life. I think probably going into my freshman year at college. So when I was finally done with my high school career and that was the summer that we were getting ready to embark on this new challenge at the University of Richmond.

And all of a sudden, I didn’t have my high school gym access as frequently as I normally did. So that’s when I kind of realized, Oh, okay. It’s a luxury to have that. And luckily my dad still had a lot of connections and I was able to get in multiple gyms during that summer. And it was, I would say a little bit harder and that’s probably when I realized, Oh, wow, his connections are really helping me out here.

[00:04:00] Mike Klinzing: How different is the way that you grew up in the game and the way that you tried to get better as a player when you’re at the middle school, high school level compared to the players that you’re recruiting today. What does it look, how does it look different and how do you kind of compare and contrast your upbringing in the game versus theirs?

[00:04:22] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, I was talking about this with somebody a few weeks ago. I don’t know if, if nowadays  boys or girls whoever, I don’t know if they play as much, right? I remember growing up, I lived on the playground  in the summertime, I would leave at 9am and my mom wouldn’t see me till it was dark.

And I would come home and my hands would be completely filled with dirt and she would send me right up to take a shower and I don’t know if that happens as much now. I think there’s a lot more of that individual one on one training, which is not a bad thing. But you really don’t, when you drive around whether it’s Bay Village or Westlake or Rocky River, or even suburbs of Youngstown, you don’t really see a ton of people just hooping it up on the blacktop anymore.

Now I see pickleball courts being built instead. So, I think that’s probably the biggest difference, but there’s still unbelievable players that are coming out and there’s probably not a right or wrong way to do it,  but I think that’s probably the biggest thing I’ve noticed.

[00:05:35] Mike Klinzing: For female players and young girls in terms of the opportunities that they have to play. So I have two daughters. My one daughter is going to be a junior at Denison. She didn’t play basketball. She only played up through ninth grade. And then my other daughter is going to be a freshman at Strongsville.

And I look at their experience as young basketball players comparatively to some of the girls that I knew back again, a long time ago when I was in high school and college. And just, it felt like at that time there was just so few opportunities and we can debate the pluses and minuses of again, training and the AAU system and all that kind of stuff.

But just in terms of opportunity, how does that compare for again, the girls that you’re recruiting today versus kind of what your opportunities were, where you’re kind of having to do it on your own, like you described.

[00:06:25] Melissa Jackson: I do. I think there’s so many more opportunities for young females that want to get into the game that love the game.

And I think it’s at a much earlier age you’re seeing Younger AU teams than I’ve ever seen.  whether it’s like they’re starting at third grade and they’re now getting on the circuit where we get to watch them as college coaches much, much earlier than I think I’ve ever seen them.

So for us it starts early.  I was watching a couple of seventh graders this summer and am I recruiting seventh graders? No, but I’m trying to make sure I know the names and who’s the up and coming in our area and just make sure we have.  our eyes on them.

So I will say there’s definitely much more opportunities for that. I think there’s also just more opportunities in all sports, you know? And I think that’s a big thing for us on the women’s basketball side of the world is just making sure we keep those great athletes trending towards basketball and, and not having volleyball coaches or soccer coaches try to poach some  I know that’s definitely a hot topic right now and so anytime I talk to young girls, I’m like, yep, stick with what you love. Basketball. Keep it going.

[00:07:41] Mike Klinzing: You got to poach them from soccer because soccer starts them out at like three years old and you can just roll them out there and have everybody kicking a ball. So I completely can understand that.

Thinking back to your time as a high school player. When did. playing college basketball get on your radar? Was that something that you always dreamed about from the time you were young when you first picked up the ball? Or was it something that came to you as you started to develop and become a better player in middle school and high school?

[00:08:08] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, I think as I developed, I don’t think I’ve had a really young age. I was dreaming about being a college basketball player.  I would just, I definitely fell in love with it like I said, my dad was the coach. And so I was around it a lot. And luckily I was able to get pretty good.

And I think probably my going into my ninth grade year I was selected on a, I would quote unquote better AAU program. That had people not just from my hometown, but it was from like the Northeast Pennsylvania area. So it was really like more of a select group of individuals.

And so we were considered the best of the best. And I think that’s when we kind of realized, okay, okay, I might have a shot at this or maybe have a chance. But it was going to take a lot more hard work and diligence and just competitiveness to want to do that. So I think that was probably going into my freshman year and then was really lucky to have a great high school career.

Be heavily recruited. And I started as a freshman on my high school team, which was a big deal back then cause they were pretty good, but that’s kind of when it all started.

[00:09:20] Mike Klinzing: When you think about the recruiting process and kind of what you went through, what do you remember in terms of your decision making, the amount of information that you had to go on and sort of, Who was the guiding force in the process?

Was it your dad, your parents, your high school coach? Just what did that look like for you?

[00:09:43] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, it was crazy. Like when I think back on it  and I’m sure it’s even crazier for these young ladies now because we have such more access to them with social media and I didn’t have a cell phone back then.

I’m dating myself, but coaches would have to call my house phone.  and I had an email address which was my parents. So I would get emails from college coaches through them. But yeah, I remember September one was the big day of your junior year that college coaches could call and so again, didn’t have a cell phone.

So at like 8 AM, they started calling the house phone and there was no call waiting either. It was okay. You get a busy single. Yeah. So very, very different.  even the AAU ranks we would go out on the circuit, we would play, but then that’s when college coaches could talk to your AAU coaches after games.

So there would be long lines. to talk to our AAU coaches after the games. The college coaches would handwrite you letters back at the hotel. So I’m so glad that those rules don’t exist anymore, because I would be up till all hours of the night handwriting kids notes at this point. But luckily the NCAA stepped in and made some sense of that.

So yeah, a very crazy recruiting process, was recruited by a lot of schools.  I really enjoyed the process, probably more than most high school kids. And probably is one of the reasons why I’m a college coach today, but. Really got to know some great people through the recruiting process, some great coaches that I’m still in touch with at this point in my life and went on a ton of visits and but it was really my dad who helped me through it.

Navigating all of that and really trying to figure out a school that I was picking just not on basketball. It really had to be academics, campus, location. So he really helped me navigate that process.

[00:11:41] Mike Klinzing: What were you thinking about as a high school senior, in terms of what you might’ve wanted to do for your future career, were you thinking about coaching at all?

Were you, had you made a decision? Unlike again, most 18 year olds, even if you’ve made a decision, the likelihood that you stick with that decision is pretty low. But just what were you thinking as you were heading into college in terms of what you might’ve wanted to do for a career?

[00:12:06] Melissa Jackson: I had no idea. I was a clueless freshman.

I picked the University of Richmond. not just because of basketball. I picked it because it was a great academic institution. It was in the south, so it was warm weather. It was about five and a half hours from home, so it wasn’t too far. It was close enough that I could get home. It had a gorgeous campus.

But, yeah, definitely had no idea going in and Richmond’s a very small liberal arts school has about 3,000 students there still to this day. They only have about 40 majors. So it was very selective on what I was gonna And they were one of the best business schools in the country. So everybody just kept telling me, well, go be a business major.

That’s what you should do. You’re going to Richmond, you have to be a business major. And so I went in as a, as a business major and quickly found out in my first accounting class that that was not for me. And failed miserably and got  a first taste of adversity from an academic standpoint.

But luckily they had amazing academic advisors and I had amazing college coaches that really helped me through that process and navigate that and finally settled in on political science. Thought I was going to be a lawyer, go to law school, had aspirations of maybe being like a sports agent or something like that, staying within, sports.

But then my college coaches really steered me to get into coaching. And I think a big part of it was I had a very injury plagued career in college. So I got to see the side of the game from the sidelines from that lens and really was able to help my college coaches even when I wasn’t playing when I was injured and I was on the sidelines and they allowed me to come in the office and do some recruiting and all that.

And so they really pushed me to get into the profession and forever grateful that they steered me that direction.

[00:13:57] Mike Klinzing: You feel like while you were playing, maybe this is even pre-injury, but do you feel like you thought the game as a coach, as you look back and reflect, or were you still kind of looking at it a playing standpoint?

Because I know for myself, when I was playing, I never really thought of myself as, I just didn’t think about the game in terms of coaching. I always thought about it and looked at it through the player lens. So eventually when I started coaching, it was a difficult transition for me to kind of figure out, okay, I got to start looking at this from a coaching viewpoint instead of just looking at it from a player.

So I don’t know how you felt while you were playing. Obviously, once you’re hurt and you’re on the sideline, you’re a mess with the coaches. Obviously, that shifts it. But when you were just strictly playing, how did you kind of think about your thought process?

[00:14:45] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, I think I did have some, some definitely coaching instincts in me.

I was a point guard. So I think that, I mean, it helped being in the gym with my dad growing up and even sitting in on him, his scouting sessions and, and all that I can remember. But when I got to college, I definitely thought the game from that aspect I remember just things like, okay, how are they defending ball screens?

Okay, we have to do this or So I think I was maybe a little bit more advanced in that area. Probably not to the extent that I am right now, but I definitely, probably definitely had some instincts there when it came to it, but I think having the ball in your hands and I loved to see the floor and pass.

And that was probably one of my, my biggest strengths is trying to pick defenses apart and how we can exploit some of that stuff.

[00:15:38] Mike Klinzing: So you were fun to play with is what you’re telling me.

[00:15:40] Melissa Jackson: Well, yeah, I think my teammates would say that. So I definitely was not a ball hog. I was a much better passer than I was a scorer.  I will say.

[00:15:49] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, it is funny. I’ve had a couple of conversations recently on the pod, Melissa, just talking with different coaches. And one of the questions I usually ask them in terms of like recruiting is what, what do you look for? Obviously there’s a. level of talent and skill and whatever that you’re looking for.

But what are some of the kind of intangible things that you feel like makes a player a really good fit for your team? And a couple of guys recently have said to me, Hey, we really look for players who pass the ball. And John Jakes, who’s the head coach at Cornell, he told me, he goes, I only recruit guys that I’d want to play with.

And I had never heard anybody say it. I mean, I think that’s what a lot of coaches mean sometimes, but to hear him say that it’s, I’d only recruit guys I’d want to play with. I instantly reacted to that because I’ve spent so much time kind of like you when I was a kid playing pickup basketball. And there’s some players that you would just get on the court with and I’d play two possessions with them.

And I’m like, I never want to be on this person’s team again, because they just dribble the ball a million times and they only pass as a last resort. And so I just think, again, when you. start talking about what’s the secret to winning basketball. We can dive into all kinds of X’s and O’s and whatever this and that.

Ultimately, man, if you can have an unselfish team and players that are willing to pass the ball, I mean, there’s nothing better than that in the game of basketball.

[00:17:06] Melissa Jackson: No, absolutely. I’m trying to teach my 11 and 8 year old that daily right now.

[00:17:11] Mike Klinzing: It’s hard. It’s a hard mentality to instill.  And I think it’s even harder today because again, kids don’t, they don’t have the amount of gameplay that you had or that I had, or even that Jason had. Where you’re just going out and you can, you can do things that are not under the watchful eye of your parents. Like you said, your mom had no idea where you were for eight hours at a time and you were just out playing and you could do things and not have to worry about a coach or a parent looking over your shoulder and critiquing you all the time.  It’s a totally different era for sure.

[00:17:43] Melissa Jackson: For sure. Yep.

[00:17:45] Mike Klinzing: All right, so as you start to realize through your conversations with your coaching staff at Richmond that coaching is something that you want to pursue, as you start heading towards graduation and figuring out, okay, what am I going to do? How do those conversations evolve and what do you do?

What’s the job search process like for you as you try to, again, when you graduate, you’re out there in the job market, what do you, what do you do to try to find that first job? Yeah.

[00:18:15] Melissa Jackson: Yeah. Oh. Wow. It’s hard, right? It’s definitely a hard profession to get into. It’s a hard profession to stay in as well.

But again, really, really fortunate to have unbelievable mentors at a really, young age and critical age coming out of college that, that steered me in the right direction and forever grateful for my head coach, Joanne Boyle who then went on, she was the head coach at Richmond, but then went on to be head coach at Cal Berkeley and then at University of Virginia as well. And then my assistant coach played a huge role as also Lindsey Gottlieb. I’m sure you know that name. She’s the head coach at USC right now. But she was with the Cavs. So that was really cool when she was here as an assistant coach.

And we were only 45 minutes away cause she decided to live on the East side, so. But those two really helped me through that process, I will say. And it really started going into my senior year because I had some thoughts about coaching. They actually got me an internship working with a big time AAU organization that put on a lot of tournaments in the Philadelphia area. So I was able to kind of see behind the scenes of what that world is like and how those tournaments were run and was able to meet a ton of AAU coaches, a ton of college coaches that, that walked through the door and buy all those packets and was able to mingle with some of them.

So they set me up there with the internship and then when graduation finally rolled around and was trying to look for a job, they were imperative of putting my name out there and trying to get me some interviews. And I tell my staff this all the time cause it doesn’t happen.

But I was really, really lucky at the very young age of 21 to land my first job as an assistant coach. So I skipped a step. I was not a grad assistant. I went right in Full throttle to be an assistant coach at the University of Delaware. And they were one of the, at the time, one of the best mid major programs in the country.

So. forever blessed for that opportunity and again, it was my coaches at Richmond that knew the Delaware staff and gave me a great recommendation. And I got the interview and was lucky enough to get the job.

[00:20:36] Mike Klinzing: What do you think were your strengths coming out of the gate? What were you good at?

Obviously, I’m sure it was a little bit overwhelming stepping into that job, but what do you think you were good at right out of the gate?

[00:20:47] Melissa Jackson: I think when I look back on it what they needed probably at the time at Delaware was some youth on their staff. They were super successful, but they were maybe a little bit older head coach and associate head coach, Tina Martin, and Janine Radice. And so when I got the job, I was literally on the recruiting trail up and down the East coast almost every day that we could be out. I knew that was my role and I was going to do it really, really well. And I was just a sponge, I think they probably saw that in the interview that I just was really eager to learn and but also very passionate about the game and love the game and but also coming from a program at Richmond that had amazing coaches.

I think there was a level of respect that they knew that I had coming in and I was going to do things the right way. I knew my role was to recruit and just to try to do it at a really, really high level.

[00:21:44] Mike Klinzing: When you step into that job as a recruiter, how long did it take you to get a feel for being able to watch a player and then be able to translate watching them in whatever environment you were watching them, whether it was AAU or with their high school team or whatever, to be able to discern, okay, this is a player that can play at our level.

This is a player that we can get. How do you just, how do you learn? What’s the learning curve like for figuring that out?

[00:22:15] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, I think I was lucky because Richmond and Delaware were really similar. Richmond, we were in the A-10 and then Delaware, I was going to the CAA, so very similar, probably level of conference.

As well as kind of the whole recruiting the East Coast there. So I had seen a lot of these players or played against them maybe in high school even, and knew a lot of their AAU coaches. So I think that probably helped I wasn’t coming from UConn and needed to now recruit it at the mid major level or wasn’t coming from division three or a lower level.

So that was definitely an easy transition, I will say. And then Delaware was really unique in that they played this unbelievable matchup zone. And so I meeting with my head coach and my associate head coach, they were really specific on what we needed from a recruiting standpoint.

We needed people to play the matchup zone. We needed length, we needed athleticism but if they didn’t fit defensively, they weren’t going to be on our recruiting board. So I think that helped me as well. I wasn’t just out there recruiting like a million names we were very specific to their style of play and but also just the level of play was really similar.

[00:23:35] Mike Klinzing: How about conversations with parents at 21 years old? What did that look like for you?

[00:23:39] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, that was different. I think that was maybe one of the hardest things and so I would just shake my head and defer to the head coach as much as I could.  I think the luxury of us at the college level is we don’t deal nearly as much with parents.

I’ve learned that at all the stops I’ve been is. You’re going to have you want to have great relationships with your parents, but you really keep the basketball side of it especially at the college level with the student athlete and the head coach.

And so that’s kind of something I’ve always taken. And it’s my philosophy as now I’m a head coach. And so we’re lucky at this level. We really don’t deal with them as much. I think the hardest thing when I was 21 years old was I was younger than my seniors when I first started.

So, garnering their respect when I first stepped in and I had that first workout or first practice you just got to go in and be super confident. And but I think that was probably the hardest thing because I had 22 year old seniors that were, one was a player of the year and she was unbelievable.  But trying to make sure I garnered that respect early on.

[00:24:52] Mike Klinzing: Do you feel like that came with the position and then you had to hold on to it or do you feel more like you had to earn it no matter what your title was?

[00:25:01] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, I think you have to earn it. Yeah.  I always tell all my young coaches that first impression is so, so important.

And how you carry yourself, how you treat your players. You, you want you, especially with workouts, you want to you want them to know that you care about them, but also that you’re here to make them better and push them. To be the best version of themselves.

[00:25:26] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely. That makes sense. When you think about your growth as a coach and you talked about just being a sponge and wanting to learn. So obviously one of the places that you’re learning from is your coaching staff there at Delaware. And you’re probably reaching back out to your college staff as well at Richmond.

Where else did you go? How’d you go about learning and trying to grow? as a coach during those first four years? Or was it just to the fact where you’re so busy and you’re so enmeshed that it was just you’re just taking things in from your staff at Delaware or were there some other outside areas that you went to or people that you went to be able to grow?

[00:26:07] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, that’s a great question. Early on, probably not. I was so, like my head was spinning, here’s my first job and I’m thrown into the fire and I’m doing a million things that I’ve never done before. But kind of learning on the fly. And I think we had a great working relationship at Delaware.

So obviously I talked a lot about our head coach, Tina Martin, but our associate head coach, Jeanine Radice really was such a big mentor to me at a really young age of like, just showing me the ins and outs of everything. And I think then just being able to watch more and more basketball as a player you’re watching the scouting report that the coach is presenting to you, but you’re not doing the extra film behind the scenes.

So now as an assistant coach, I’m watching a lot more film. I’m learning a lot more about scouts. And so I really try, I love to watch films, even to this day, like that is, I absolutely love to watch films. So I think at a young age, I probably dove into that and tried to learn as much as I can from people on how they’re doing things or what this program’s running or different styles of play probably within the job that I was doing at Delaware.

[00:27:24] Mike Klinzing: So after four seasons at Delaware, you get an opportunity to go to Akron. Tell me about how that opportunity presents itself.

[00:27:33] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, this is a, I don’t know if it’s a crazy story or people probably think I’m crazy for doing it. Because here we are, I’m at one of the best mid majors in the country. We’ve gotten an at large bid we’ve been to WNITs.

Elena Delle Donne, I’m sure you know that name was at UConn but she’s a Delaware native and there was rumblings that she wasn’t happy at UConn and she was going to transfer back to Delaware. And so I’m hearing all this. And at the time my boyfriend is a Cleveland, Westside native. We met at the University of Richmond.

So he was a practice player. And we’re doing long distance and he’s like, okay, when are you going to move out to Ohio? And I said, I will not move out to Ohio unless you give me a ring because I’m at a great program. Elena Delle Donne’s about to transfer. But I need a ring. And so he finally proposed.

And so then I had to go back and really make a tough decision. Do I move out to Ohio that I really didn’t know much about and take a risk and leave, leave a great program, leave a great situation. And thought long and hard about it,  but I prayed on it and God has a way of sending you where you need to be.

And so, I took the leap and literally contacted every college coach you can imagine in the state of Ohio and some turned me down, some gave me some interviews. But it was really fortunate to, to hook up with Jodie Kest at University of Akron and got an interview and, and really got the job like the next day.

[00:29:13] Mike Klinzing: Well, one thing, there’s no shortages of colleges at all levels in the state of Ohio. So that’s one positive. You, you had lots of, you had lots of places you could at least, you could at least try to re to reach out to. And so when you get the job, There at the University of Akron, how is your role similar or different to the role you had at Delaware?

[00:29:34] Melissa Jackson:  In four years, I had moved up a little bit at Delaware and had a little bit more responsibility. And so now at the University of Akron, I’m kind of walking in and I just wanted an opportunity here in Ohio. And, and so I come in as the third assistant and really was just willing to do whatever she needed me to do.

And, have the opportunity and then quickly we had two other assistants that that summer actually got other jobs. So Bob Bolden was on our staff. He’s the head coach at Ohio. I worked with Bob for like a month and then he got a head job, a division two head job down south.

And then another assistant also got another job. So I quickly moved up.  I thought I was going to be the third assistant and then came in and moved pretty quickly and garnered a lot more responsibilities. So that was great.  like I said God has a way of, of making things work out and was really, really fortunate.

Again, I think to earn the trust of Jodi and what we were trying to do there and build and quickly became the recruiting coordinator. And  I think we did a really good job in the time that we were there.

[00:30:48] Mike Klinzing: When you think about what makes a good assistant coach and during the years where you served as someone else’s assistant coach.

What did you learn that helped you when you eventually became a head coach in terms of what you look for in your assistant? So I guess the question is, what are the characteristics that you think are important in a good assistant coach?

[00:31:10] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, I get that question a lot and I always go back to one word and loyalty being really, really loyal to your head coach  whether you disagree, agree on what they’re doing or what the program is doing, I think just always remain, remaining loyal to your boss to the university, to the program. So I really talk a lot about that. And I think just staying at University of Akron for 10 years and working for Jodi was a great, great run for me.

I learned a lot  but I was, I really tried to remain loyal to her and to the university. And to what we were building. And I think that’s one of the biggest reasons why I’ve had success throughout my whole career is I really try to be consistent with that loyalty factor.

[00:32:07] Mike Klinzing: Did you, as you’re going through your assistant coaching career through your years at Delaware, and then through those 10 years at Akron, are you starting to, or at what point are you starting to develop sort of your with maybe the idea that, Hey, someday I maybe you’ll get an opportunity to be a head coach.

Were you putting together the proverbial three ring binder, maybe in a digital form, but just how were you preparing yourself for maybe that eventual head coaching opportunity? And how were you thinking about that as you were, as you were an assistant?

[00:32:44] Melissa Jackson: Yeah. I’ll be honest. I didn’t think about being a head coach probably until maybe five, six years into my stint at Akron. Probably when I kind of became the associate head coach and got even a little bit more responsibility than I had.  Maybe a couple of people had mentioned, Hey when are you going to make that jump? Do you want to be a head coach?

Those questions started coming from, from one, my husband, from some of my mentors as well.  They were kind of pushing that and there were a couple opportunities that popped up when I was at Akron as the associate head coach and whether they were power five jobs at the time, or to be an assistant and move up a level, or there was even a head coaching job, that opportunity that popped up.

And it just wasn’t the right fit for me and for our family, but it definitely made me start to have. Thoughts and ideas. Okay.  do I want to do this? And it really wasn’t until probably I think my eighth year at Akron that Jodi had some family stuff that she was dealing with. And so I actually had to take over a game and be the acting head coach for that game at Bowling Green in a really hostile, tough environment.

And really got my first taste of.  leading the charge in the locker room to being on the sidelines in a heated rivalry game and coming out with a victory. And after that, I was hooked. I was like, okay, this is what it’s all about. Right. And that’s when I really was like, okay, I want to pursue this and try to position myself  to in a position where I’m valued and wanted. And then I really started to if this opportunity ever happens how do, how am I going to want to run my program and take things that I’ve learned from, from Jodi at Akron to Tina at Delaware to my coaches at Richmond.

And then also I was. Always at the time, a big Richmond men’s basketball fan when Beeline was there and then Wainwright, and then obviously Chris Mooney’s there now still. And so I’ve always kind of studied the Princeton offense, especially when Mooney got the job.  It really started under Beeline because I would actually sit in on, in on his practices when I was a student.

And so always kind of have studied that kind of on the side and, I knew that when I took over my program that that was something I was going to implement. And ever since I’ve been a head coach that’s the style of play that we’ve run and we’ve been pretty successful with it.

[00:35:21] Mike Klinzing: So I’m going to get to how you ascend to the head coaching job at Akron here in a second, but I just want to ask a follow up question to what you were just talking about. And you mentioned it a little bit. Earlier when we were talking about how do you, how do you garner that respect from the players?

And you talked about kind of how you carry yourself and, and that type of thing as a head coach, how have you prepared yourself or what’s your method for preparing yourself to be able to teach your staff what you want them to be able to know so they can convey to the players what it is that you want them to teach and then for you to feel confident in what you’re doing offensively and defensively, what’s your what’s your preparation like in terms of how you step out onto the practice floor and know, hey, I know exactly What I want to teach, how I want to teach it.

What does that look like? And I know there’s probably a long process that goes with that, but just if you can kind of parse it down into how do you just prepare yourself to step on the floor confidently and knowing that you can teach the things you want to teach, if that question makes any sense.

[00:36:32] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, no, I love the question and I think you’ve said it while asking it, it’s just ultimate preparation and just being really, really prepared and even when you’re prepared some things hit you I could go into a game and all of a sudden they, they run zone at us and they’ve never run zone. but just trying to be as, as well prepared as you can. And being as when it comes to staff, just all being on the same page. And so, I’m a big. staff meeting person. I don’t know if my assistants love it, but I love practice prep. I love meeting before practice.

I love having us all be on the same page, ask questions in the office before we get on the court.  I’ve always been a big believer in that. Like I said, I’m a big film scout person, so my routine is I get up at like, I don’t sleep, Mike. So I feel like when you’re a head coach, you never sleep.

But I get up at like four 30, five o’clock and I’m like, my, my head’s in the screen, watching, watching a lot of film and whether it’s practice of our own team making sure we, we continue to get better or obviously it’s scouting opponents once we get into the season. So. I think just being ultimately prepared and I think that’s where your confidence comes as a head coach.

So even when I was a first time head coach and again, my head was spinning when that happened, just relying on those experiences and that preparation and Sometimes you got to fake it to make it. And I don’t think I’ve done that as much as people think, but just really trying to be as well prepared as you can.

[00:38:18] Mike Klinzing: Yeah, there’s no question. I can remember back at points in my career where I’m like, Oh, I really like this, whatever, out of bounds player or something. I’m coaching a JV team and then I go out there and I’m trying to teach. I’m like, Oh yeah, I really. I’m not sure I know exactly what I’m supposed to be doing here.

And then to your point, I’m like, I better, I better fake it though and make it seem like I know what I’m talking about, even though it doesn’t quite look the way I remember it looking when I was looking at it on film. And so those are things that you learn obviously over the course of your career that, Hey, I better, I better know exactly what I’m doing when I step out on that floor, both for myself and for the benefit of my team.

Tell me a little bit about the. The head coaching position at Akron, how does that come to pass? What’s the process like? And again, how excited were you when you get the job?

[00:39:03] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, it was definitely a process, I will say but really grateful for the process. So Jodi at the end of the season decided to, to kind of step away and retire at that point from Akron and from basketball for a little bit.  I don’t know if we all saw it coming, but obviously being there for 10 years and, and having just the ins and outs of the program.  I knew a lot about the program, knew a lot about the university, knew a lot about the people.

The athletic director at the time, Larry Williams. Entrusted me as the interim acting head coach whatever you want to call it. And but definitely didn’t give me the job right off the bat. I had to earn it. And he kind of, when that happened, he told me I’m going to take the next couple of weeks and see how it goes. And obviously interview some other candidates. And but when he said that, I knew that this was my opportunity. And at that moment I treated the program like it was mine. And it took about, I think it was like two and a half, three months of process.

But I did, I recruited like it was mine.  I did workouts like it was mine. I really, I think ran the program very smooth and was a seamless transition. And so I think he saw that and he saw the vision and the plan that I had laid out. And so he was really, really maybe impressed by it.

And so he offered me the job about two and a half, three months later. And again, forever grateful for that first opportunity, but also, like I said, grateful for the process because I learned a lot in those weeks and months leading up to it, although it was stressful because I didn’t know what was going to happen.

 I’m glad he made me go through that and really earn the position.

[00:40:54] Mike Klinzing: As you take over a program that you’ve been with for 10 years, there’s obviously a way that things have been done over the course of that time. How do you go about changing some of the things that you felt needed to be changed and as part of the previous staff, obviously you’re a hundred percent bought in talking about the loyalty piece of it.

I always think it’s kind of like you gotta walk almost, I don’t know if it’s a fine line, but you obviously don’t want to come in and be like, well, everything we were doing before, let’s throw all that out the window and now completely change the vision. But yet, obviously over the course of 10 years, there were things that you were seeing, you were watching that you thought, Hey, maybe we can try this a different way. So how did you walk that line?

[00:41:50] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, I think it’s now looking back on, I think it’s one of the hardest things to do is take over a program that you’ve been the assistant at especially when you’ve been there for so many years and 10 years in my case  maybe I wouldn’t have said that when, when it happened but now looking back on it and having obviously, another head coaching opportunity here at Youngstown. I think that was probably one of the hardest things because of that there are standards and expectations that are already established. And you’re in the eyes of student athletes, you’re an assistant coach and now you’re moving over six inches to being the head coach.

And so what I think worked for me was I knew I had to be Melissa Jackson. Like I could not be Jodi Kest. I could not be Tina Martin. I couldn’t even be Lindsay Gottlieb all those people. were unbelievable mentors and I learned so much from each and every one of them and I probably took a lot from each.

I knew I had to be myself. And I think that’s what really won the players over. And I knew probably within two, three days that I had complete buy in from them. But I also knew being in 10 years, what it needed at the time. And I think that was really important. And so I think looking back on it, what I brought to the program at Akron right off the bat was just a sense of family, a sense of culture.

We really changed the culture there and instilled these five core values that they’re my five core values that I instill with my teams today. And we really set the standard and we kind of not just talked about the words every day, but we really lived them.  And I think it propelled us to a lot of success down the line.

[00:43:44] Mike Klinzing: Can you give me an example of one of those core values and then how you take it from words on a page or in the locker room into a daily practice, if that makes sense?

[00:43:58] Melissa Jackson: Yeah. Oh, if I could just pick one, I don’t know.I love them all.

[00:44:02] Mike Klinzing:  Share them all. You can do it. Do give us an example of each one. I’m good with that.

[00:44:07] Melissa Jackson: No, I think two come to mind our number one core value is family. And I know a lot of programs talk about family and say they’re a family and it’s probably an overused word.

But what we talk about with our program and with our core value family is like, it’s not just about how you treat each other, like when we’re winning or somebody is having a great day. Like we really make sure that we are a family, like when somebody’s struggling or something happens at home and they need to get back to it.

Maybe we’re hitting some adversity mid season we really try to make sure that we’re tight knit and that’s when our core value family shines.  I think that has brought us a lot of success. And then another one is passion. And we, I literally talk about this core value almost every day within our program.

We even stat it as a game goal. So we have a game goal board in our locker room. And our number one goal is a passionate bench. And my teams know if they don’t show passion or that bench is not passionate, like they don’t get that goal for that game, but they also know like we can get that goal every single, so every 30 games that we play this season.

We better have a passionate bench every single time. And so we talk a lot about that. We talk about just being enthusiastic, energetic having energy to bring you bring to practice when one of your teammates sacrifices themselves by taking a charge or diving on the floor, the whole team is running over there to pick them up.

And just having a real hunger to compete. So those are probably my two favorites that we really try to live out every single day.

[00:46:02] Mike Klinzing: Just what are the other three? You don’t have to give an example, but just give me the other three.

[00:46:06] Melissa Jackson: Commitment. And I think that’s such an important world, word in this world that we’re living in right now.

So we really try to be committed. Not just to the court, but to our academics. And then obviously to the community that we’re going to give back to we talk about toughness but just not, not just being physically strong we deep dive into being mentally tough, but even emotionally tough.

I think that’s a big factor in the success that you have both, both on and off the court being emotionally tough. And then the last one is gratitude and just always showing as much gratitude you can have for all the opportunities that you’re given each and every day.

[00:46:50] Mike Klinzing: Tell me a little bit about how you build relationships with your players and whether or not you felt like it was or is different. Building a relationship with a player as an assistant coach versus as a head coach, whether you want to just describe specific ways that you do that, or just in general, how do you build the kinds of relationships that allow you to A, get the most out of your players as basketball players, but also B, get the most out of them as people and make them into somebody that’s going to be a lifelong friendship, a lifelong connection.

[00:47:27] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, I think it’s so important, building those strong relationships and it’s just being intentional about how you do it too.  I, obviously when you’re an assistant coach, I feel like it’s a little bit easier. Maybe I just know as a head coach, they don’t like to pop in your office as much.

I’ve noticed that much, but especially going back last year and being an assistant for a year or so but yeah, just really getting to know them off the court more so than anything. And but also in those meetings and when you’re getting to know them is trying to establish their goals for life after basketball or after college, or maybe what are some of those goals that they strive for that they want to accomplish.

And so I think that’s probably been one of my biggest strengths has definitely been building relationships both on and off the court. Obviously, it’s easier to build those relationships on the court when you’re shooting with them and you’re working on their games, but really just trying to be intentional.

And for me, it’s not just meeting in the office it’s maybe going outside and walking on campus and if they like Starbucks or they like coffee grabbing a coffee or a smoothie. Just getting them away from the confines of the arena or the office and just really getting to know them, getting to know their families  and what is important to them  not just from a basketball standpoint.

[00:48:53] Mike Klinzing: So it sounds like maybe more in an informal way, intentional, but informal as opposed to, Hey, let’s have a meeting and talk about what’s going on in your life at 9:15 on a Tuesday.

[00:49:06] Melissa Jackson: Yeah. Trying not to schedule as much, although my life is very scheduled. But yeah, just having those touch points with them and maybe it’s okay, not a meeting, but just making sure I’m intentional about maybe they’re doing dynamic stretching before practice. And I haven’t talked to this one in a long time or a couple of days maybe just go over there and see how they’re doing and see how that test went.  Also just knowing, knowing what’s going on in their lives if they have a big week academically and they’re struggling or stressed out about that.

Just having empathy for that, or maybe something’s going on at home and knowing about that. But again, it really starts with having that level of trust and respect. I think that probably really for us starts in the recruiting process.  We get to know these young ladies a lot through that. And so I think that carries over and, but also in this day and age we’re recruiting the transfer portal. So I felt like this spring I was speed dating with some of them. I was trying to get to know them as quickly as I could.

[00:50:17] Mike Klinzing: Absolutely.

[00:50:18] Melissa Jackson: Yeah.

[00:50:18] Mike Klinzing: All right. So last year you spend the season as assistant at Cleveland State after having been a head coach. And so we kind of asked you the question of what did you learn as an assistant that helped you when you became a head coach? So let’s kind of reverse it and say, what did you learn as a head coach that maybe made you a better assistant when you stepped back into that role last season?

[00:50:42] Melissa Jackson: I think what I was able to do, and I hope I was able to do this for Coach K at Cleveland State is just when you’re a head coach, it’s a lonely place.  You’re making a lot of decisions a lot of people don’t want to talk to you some days.

And so I think hopefully I was able to give him just another sounding board and just somebody that has been in his shoes and kind of knew what he was going through. And I tried to be pretty empathetic to that and understanding that and really you don’t understand it and you don’t know what that head coach is going through unless you’ve kind of been in those shoes  because we do wear a lot of hats, we get a lot of things thrown at us.

And so, yeah, I think probably that was probably the biggest thing, and probably, I hope, the best thing that I was able to do in my time at Cleveland State.

[00:51:39] Mike Klinzing: How does the opportunity at Youngstown catch your attention? Obviously it meets your criteria of being in Ohio. So there you go.

That’s an important piece of it. So what’s the interview process like for the Youngstown State job?

[00:51:56] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, it was awesome. I never felt like I was being interviewed the whole time. I felt very much like they wanted me at Youngstown.  Obviously I had conversations with our athletic director, Ron Strolo, and he was really awesome throughout the whole process because a lot of the process was going on while we were still playing at Cleveland State.

And so very thankful for him, thankful for the administration at Cleveland State for my head coach at Cleveland State at the time just to work through all that. But yeah, there was a lot of things that, Really excited me about the position.  you mentioned it being in Northeast Ohio.

That was huge.  That I wouldn’t potentially have to move my family. There were a couple other opportunities whether it was last year or even more this year that popped up and it was probably gonna force us to have to make a decision to move and leave Northeast Ohio.

And I don’t know if it was the right fit for our family. So Youngstown would definitely check that box. But they also checked a lot more.  It was really looking for strong leadership and support. And I felt that at YSU and I continue to feel it to this day and the community support is like no other for women’s basketball.

They love women’s basketball there. We average about 2000 a game. It’s a hostile environment to play in. I’ve had firsthand experience of that.  So very happy to be on the home bench now. The facilities are top notch. When I accepted the job, I got a text and a phone call from, from coach Tressel. And he’s done amazing things at YSU when he was the president there and. Continues to do awesome things. So really there’s just a lot in place there that, that really was a no brainer for me and an opportunity that I could not pass up.

[00:54:03] Mike Klinzing: So how’s the process different coming into a brand new program that you’re unfamiliar with at least the inner workings of it compared to taking over at Akron where you had been in the program for 10 years. What’s the first six months on the job been like comparing those two opportunities?

[00:54:26] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, well, I literally had to use GPS or map whatever to get to my office for like literally probably the first 20 days, I would say.

So that was a total change.  Just the inner workings of the university and the athletic department and all that just getting up to speed on that. And I will say again YSU was unbelievable and making the transition so smooth, whether it was our administration I was really fortunate to keep our director of ops Jason on staff.

And so he was super helpful with the process just of showing me where HR is or where do I get my penguin ID card and stuff like that, so that was very different, but I was kind of fortunate cause I went through it at Cleveland State as an assistant.

So obviously being at Akron for 15 years, I was so comfortable and so I was able to go to Cleveland State and kind of experience a little bit of different  climate there. And then now I was doing it again so I was getting a third new email within probably a year.

So that was definitely a little bit of a different thing. But when it came to the basketball and meeting the team and implementing our core values and our culture. Like that was awesome. Like I just felt really very much at ease and very comfortable in that setting and I just couldn’t wait to be on the court and get started with our team.

[00:56:03] Mike Klinzing: Take us through what this off season slash summer look like in terms of what you hope to accomplish on the court and then maybe take it even a step further as to what were some of the things you did off the floor to, to start to establish those five core tenants that you mentioned earlier.

[00:56:23] Melissa Jackson: I mean, the first thing, a lot of it was roster management when I first got hired.  Just having those individual meetings with the players, making sure people were really bought in to the style of play that we were going to play, to the culture that we were going to establish.

And then also the previous staff had signed a very large freshman class. So it was a lot of getting on the phone with them and their families and actually having them come to campus and meet with them and really getting them comfortable with me because a lot of them are very, very talented and a lot of them actually I had recruited at Akron.

So I was very familiar with most of them. So making sure that they still wanted to be Penguins and, and they were all bought into our program and our. Staff was going to implement and happy to say most of them were. And but then it was also the portal we knew, I knew we had a really young team and we still have a very young team, but I had to bring in some experienced transfers  with the scholarships that I had remaining. And so it was a lot of work in the portal. Was really happy to get  three portal transfers and then a JUCO transfer that we signed. And I think they will make a big impact on our program immediately.

So but then, yeah, finally got everybody to campus. And then we rolled out for summer. We had them here for summer classes. And summer workouts. So we were able to work with them for eight weeks in the summer. And so much of it was us getting to know each other both on and off the court.

And I really stress the off the court part because when you’re bringing your a new staff. You’re a new head coach. You’re bringing 10 new players, into the program. It was so important that, that we really bond and do a lot of team, team stuff that, that maybe I wouldn’t have, won’t do in years to come.

I think we had a lot of success this summer and was really happy with where our program, the strides that we made this summer and where we’re headed going forward.

[00:58:33] Mike Klinzing: What about putting together a staff? What did that look like?

[00:58:37] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, I think the luxury of being a head coach before you a lot of people you also know maybe what you need and what you don’t need.

And so I was able to get on the phone really quickly with somebody that I wanted that actually was my assistant at Akron, Peyton Booth. Her dad’s a legend over at Wadsworth High School. Mr. Andy Booth. So Peyton and I have worked together for multiple years. So it was really, really important to have her  come along on this journey with me just to have somebody that knows my system, knows our program, knows the ins and outs of it.

And then Courtney Davidson was somebody that had reached out that has a ton of Youngstown ties. So, and I’ve known Courtney for a long time. I really respect her. And so really happy to have her on staff. And then my final spot, I really opened up and just wanted somebody that was going to be a go getter and, and really get after it in the recruiting process.

And kind of reminded me of myself when I was 21 years old  going into that University of Delaware spot. And so Shana Gore interviewed with me at the Final Four here in Cleveland. She did a fantastic job and I hadn’t known her from Adam and but got a ton of great recommendations.

One being Terry Moore in it at Indiana. Shana was her GA. And so she called me and was like, yeah, she’s awesome. And when an elite eight coach, a big 10 coach of the year is calling you and telling you should hire somebody, you, you, you probably should listen to her.

[01:00:08] Mike Klinzing: NIL has had a huge impact on the men’s side of the game.  What’s been the impact that you’ve seen on the women’s side?

[01:00:18] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, it’s starting, it’s getting there and it’s not going away. And so that was a big part of the process talking with our athletic director Ron Strollo and going through the coaching process.

And cause Youngstown has had a lot of success in the NIL world. And so he wanted somebody that was really going to support that. And I do, I tell our players as long as your academics are in order your basketball is on point  I have no problem with you earning from your name, image, and likeness.

So, again, they’ve had a lot of success at YSU in that space. I think we have unbelievable resources and that’s why we’re so successful. We have a great community that supports our student athletes but we also have unbelievable people in our compliance department that are really educated in the NIL world because we all know that we need as much help as we can get when it comes to that.

So but yeah, we definitely are in favor of it as a program. We have a collective  and they do a lot of things for our student athletes that maybe you don’t see at this level from the mid major standpoint.

[01:01:31] Mike Klinzing: It really is amazing when you just consider how quickly that landscape has changed from what used to be completely against the rules to what is now allowed.

And I think it’s been, again, from a student athlete standpoint, for Kids to be able to have the opportunity to earn money from their name and image and likeness to me is a really good change. And yet from a coaching standpoint, it does add another layer of complexity in a way. It adds another way for you can teach them, right.

It’s another area that you can help them to better understand. I guess I don’t know if it’s the business side, but understand how to manage money if they’re, if they’re earning money through that. And so I think it’s all in the matter of the perspective of, of how you look at it and to be able to have your student athletes have that opportunity, I think is again, one that 10 years ago, probably was none of us could have seen it coming.

It was probably unfathomable. And then you look at the world that we have today, and it’ll be interesting to see how it all kind of settles out as this thing moves forward over the next, whatever, five to 10 years as things go forward. So as you look ahead to this fall and what you need to do to prepare, Your team for your inaugural season, what are some of the things that you have maybe up on the whiteboard that are, that you’ve prioritized?

Let’s say, let’s say the on the court things. What are the most important things that you want to hope that you hope to accomplish this fall to prepare your team on the court for this coming season?

[01:03:07] Melissa Jackson: Well, I’ll be really transparent here, Mike. So we didn’t spend much time this summer on defense at all.

So that is a high priority when we come back and a lot of people have asked me, all right, what are you going to play?  You’re going to play zone cause you’re coming from Cleveland State that’s played 40 minutes of zone.  I’ve always played some man to man.

I love a 1-3-1. I learned that from, from John Groce there at Akron, he runs a killer 1-3-1.  So definitely a high priority is our defense.  and I really was intentional about that because I wanted to make sure I see our players, I see what we can do.

And I was able to do that for eight weeks and now really thinking about it and making sure I put them in a position that we can be successful defensively. I’ve always been somebody that really caters to our personnel on that side of the ball. And so I think I’m really excited about this group because I think we can play a couple different ways and we have some length and athleticism that I think Youngstown has never had.

So that’s going to be, I think, a little bit different look for the Penguins come this season. We spent a lot of time on offense.  I told you I’m a Princeton offense lover. So it takes a lot of time when you look at the timing, the spacing, the passing. But I’ve been really, really impressed with this group and how quickly they have picked up on things.

So we’ll continue to work a lot on that, but I feel offensively we have laid a really good foundation for what we want to do going forward.

[01:04:44] Mike Klinzing: All right. Final two part question. Part one, when you think about the next year or two, what do you think will be your biggest challenge.

And then part two, when you think about what you get to do every day, what brings you the most joy? So first your biggest challenge and then your biggest joy.

[01:05:08] Melissa Jackson: My biggest challenge I think just taking over a program that they’ve had definitely have had some success in the past, but we want to take it to another level.

And so making sure we put ourselves in a position to do that, but also do it the right way. And. I’ve always  I think I’ve had a lot of success in my coaching career because I’ve done it the right way and I haven’t skipped steps. And so just staying true to that in a world that, that everybody wants instant gratification and wants winning to happen really, really quickly.

Just remembering that it is a process and I probably think that will be my biggest challenge because I hate losing. And I know the Horizon League is a really good basketball conference for women’s basketball and, and there’s a couple of really good teams that are returning a lot of people  Green Bay and Cleveland State in particular.

And so just making sure that we stay true to the process and  just do it on our time. I think that’ll be our biggest challenge. My biggest joy. My biggest joy is my family. I have an unbelievable husband in Drew who I mentioned was a practice player and that’s how we met at the University of Richmond.

So he comes from a sports family. His dad played for the Cleveland Browns back in the day when they were pretty good. And so thus the ties to Northeast Ohio. So, but, but their family gets it. They understand my profession  They’re a great village for us. And so they really help out with our young children.

And just, I’m really, really grateful and blessed to have that support system. But, but my boys and now my little girl they bring me the most joy. My boys think I have the coolest job in the world. And they are like the biggest penguin fans, but they were the biggest Viking fans last year.

I think they really like the red and black color combination right now. And so they’ve been rocking a lot of YSU gear to school. And now I got my little girl that is going to grow up in women’s basketball program and she’s going to have a bunch of older sisters to be role models to her.  And I’m really, really excited about that.

[01:07:17] Mike Klinzing: You did a good job of teaching them loyalty. I like that.

[01:07:19] Melissa Jackson: Yeah. Right.

[01:07:23] Mike Klinzing: All right. Before we wrap up, Melissa, I want to give you a chance to share how people can connect with you, whether you want to share social media, website, email, whatever you feel comfortable with.

And then after you do that, I will jump back in and wrap things up.

[01:07:37] Melissa Jackson: Yeah, Mike, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, please check us out. Youngstown State Penguins. My Twitter handle is @CoachJackson21. I guess it’s now X, but yeah, @CoachJackson21. You can follow me there but also follow our YSU women’s basketball account for updates on our program  as well as our schedule.

 I think we’re going to have a really exciting young group that is going to surprise some people. So come on out to the Bhegley Center. We’re newly renovated Bhegley Center. So we’d love to have some people come on out and check out the Penguins.

[01:08:14] Mike Klinzing: Melissa, I cannot thank you enough for taking the time out of your schedule.  And I really appreciate it. And to everyone out there, thanks for listening. And we will catch you on our next episode. Thanks.