BEAVER TOWNSHIP – Since her hiring 63 days ago as Youngstown State’s new head women’s basketball coach, Melissa Jackson has barely had time to catch her breath.

From meeting returning players, to hiring a staff, to working on the team’s schedule for next season, to recruiting and making sure the program’s current recruits remain committed, she can use a few more hours in the day just to catch her breath.

“Things have gone as I expected. I am just so enamored with this community and their support,” Jackson told the Curbstone Coaches during Monday’s meeting at Avion Banquet Center. “I knew that was all in place, but to be here now for two months and live it, each day has honestly been fantastic.

“It has been a nice, easy transition because of the people and because of that support system. It’s been great to get my staff in place, connect with current players, obviously, and we have hit the recruiting trail really hard. It has started out like I thought it would and has definitely been a positive transition.”

Jackson’s first Penguin roster, a youthful one, is taking shape with seven freshmen, three sophomores, two juniors, a senior and one graduate student.

She still has two scholarships to give and is looking for players with some college experience behind them.

“I want to win basketball games and don’t care if you are a freshman, senior or walk-on,” Jackson said. “Whoever can put the ball in the bucket and defend, those are the people going to play. That being said, we are going to be very, very young next year. We will experience some growing pains but that is fine because we will work through that. It’s kind of nice coming into a new program with a lot of new faces.

“There won’t be much of a learning curve from the previous system or previous staff because everyone is going to be new, fresh and I feel like it’s a good time to have a lot of youth and new faces.”

Along with her staff, Jackson has added two players from the transfer portal while working hard to make sure those who committed to the Penguins from the previous staff remained committed.

“The freshmen were signed by former head coach John Barnes and his staff, so we hopped on the phone with those individuals and there are a lot of very talented players,” she added.” I recruited quite a few of the players when I was at Akron so I had a relationship with those kids, much like the previous staff. You don’t normally see such a large freshman class on rosters in this day and age, but we do and in talking to those individuals, and the conversations I have had with them and their parents, they are really comfortable with me.

“Many have come to campus, we have met and they want to stay committed to YSU and the Penguins, which I am very happy about. Of the two players I did sign, Faith Burch is a local player from Warren Harding who I had the luxury of coaching this past year at Cleveland State and Dacia Lewandowski, a player I had recruited at Akron. With Faith and Dacia, I knew the type of student-athletes that they were from a culture standpoint and their work ethic so they were a no-brainer. Once they entered the portal, we really hit them hard and luckily both wanted to come to YSU.”

Jackson’s first staff includes Peyton Booth, Courtney Davidson, Shayna Gore, Jason Pacanowski and graduate assistant Brice Margenthaler.

“Staff is important to me,” she stated. “Being a head coach before, you kind of know what you need and maybe what strengths and weaknesses you need to fill in with certain people on your staff so I think I was really intentional when I built this staff and kind of took my time with it as well.

“Peyton and I have known each other for a long time. I recruited her when she was in high school at Wadsworth, knows our system, is really good when it comes to X’s and O’s, will run our defense and will be our defensive coordinator. Courtney was also a no-brainer. She reached out when I got the job, I’ve known her for a long time and we have been on the sidelines recruiting against each other for many, many years. To bring somebody that has experience of being at YSU and also being from Youngstown, it’s a huge advantage for her to be on our staff.

“Shana was my last hire and one I took my time with. I interviewed a lot of candidates because I really wanted to get the right person for our staff and players. She’s younger but a go-getter and all about recruiting. She has worked with All-Americans Grace Berger and Mackenzie Holmes and will be our recruiting coordinator.

“As I went through the process with Ron [Strollo], everyone said I needed to keep Jason Pacanowksi because he really knows the ins and outs of the program and the University. He has been super helpful with the transition while Brice Margenthaler has another year as our GA. I have heard a lot of good things about him so I wanted to retain him on my staff.”

YSU’s non-league schedule is taking shape while Jackson believes the Horizon league will be as tough as ever.

“We are still finalizing our schedule,” Jackson noted. “My scheduling philosophy has always been to look at the team, see how I can put them in the best position to be successful, but also get us ready for conference play and the grind that we are going to endure. Our goal is going to be to get to Indianapolis, even with the youth and we will talk about Indianapolis a lot.

“The Horizon League has been an up-and-coming league and last year it really showed. It was the highest ranking of the net the Horizon League has ever had and after seeing the level of basketball, honestly, it is better than the MAC right now. The MAC is taking a little bit of a hit with the coaching turnover that has happened the last couple years and the Horizon League has replaced it as one of the better mid-major conferences.”

The organization will take a break next Monday in honor of the Memorial Day holiday.

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