Youngstown State University Women’s Soccer – Coach Anita Maryskova

On today’s episode, I speak with Coach Anita from the Youngstown State Women’s Program in Ohio. We talk about how much time their program spends recruiting during the season. She describes the wonderful city that has been revitalized. Lastly, we discuss all the various people that help with the program, especially on game days. Learn more about Youngstown State University Women’s Soccer.

Matt: [00:00:00] Hi, everybody. Welcome to discover college soccer today. I’m lucky enough to be joined by coach Anita from Youngstown state in Ohio. Welcome coach. 

Coach: Hi, Matt. How are you? 

Matt: Doing well. Thanks. Appreciate you joining. Uh, love to, to, to talk to an Ohio school, you know, my, my roots all the way, uh, way back to Columbus, but, uh, never it’s one campus.

I’ve never been on, uh, in Ohio and I’ll have to, I’ll have to change that next time I get north. 

Coach: Sure. It’s beautiful. It’s definitely. Worth coming and seeing it in person. That’s for sure. 

Matt: I bet. I bet. Well, um, we’re talking here. End of October. Uh, you know, as you kind of wrapping up that conference season, how on the recruiting front, how much let’s put it in terms of percentage, how much of your time.

in a normal week during the season is spent on recruiting versus the in season stuff? 

Coach: I would say close to 30 percent. Obviously, since we’re in a season, it’s probably not as much as during off season, but we still do a lot, so I would say 25 to 30 percent. Okay, all right. 

Matt: And you guys as a, as a D1 program and during season, how is your class of 25 already wrapped up?

You still working on a few more or is most of your focus solely on 26 is what’s that look like for you guys? 

Coach: So we already wrapped up 2025. We are very fast in with that [00:01:30] year for some reason. Uh, but yeah, we are mostly focusing on the 2026 as of right now. 

Matt: Okay, and how has this whole NCAA roster limit change situation that’s official but not official yet, how has that kind of changed the way you guys are approaching the class of 26?

Coach: I mean, I don’t think it influences 2026 as much, honestly, because we’re in a, we’re in a good spot. It’s unfortunate. That, uh, you know, a lot of programs will maybe have to decommit some of the kids. We are not in that situation. Um, again, we still don’t know the full extent how it’s going to work. We’re still waiting to hear.

I feel like every week it’s something different. The first week they were telling us it’s not going to happen for 2025. Then they taught us it. Well, so it’s really up in the air, but as of right now, like it does not really influence our 2026 is at all. 

Matt: Well, that’s good to hear. Well, in terms of. You’re Your normal recruiting is there, are there tournaments that, that you like to get to each year, places you like to go that are kind of on your, your must see list when you’re looking for players?

Coach: So it’s some, so we always sit as a coaching staff, it’s three of us. And we try to split the whole us into three different parts. Um, they’ve, you know, like it’s mostly, I cover the regions that I’m familiar with, the other assistant does the same thing and the head coach. So we [00:03:00] try to hit as many ECNL events as we can.

We do the GA, we do pretty much every and any level, the local. Local clubs, we try to go out there and see it. Sometimes, obviously the high school season is really hard to catch because it’s at the same time as our season, but on a club scene, we are trying to see as many tournaments as we can. Um, we go up to Canada as well.

So you never know who you run into. And, uh, when we have players that are reaching out to us, we obviously want to see them play. So, you know, like I would say, um, there are certain, certain Uh, tournaments that we definitely go to like Jeff cup. That’s the one that we go every single year. ECNL, it depends in what state it is.

Like last year, we went to North Carolina, we went to Florida, we went to, uh, Arizona, we went to California. So those are the big ones as, uh, you know, like those ECNL events usually have a lot of teams. So you get to see a lot of teams at the same time, which is obviously advantage, but that does not mean that we don’t go to the smaller tournaments.

So we try to go and see as many as we can also, depending on how many players we need for that year and what positions we are looking for. 

Matt: Well, I noticed when you go to your website, it looks like you guys do ID camps. Do you work other schools camps as well? How important are ID camps in your overall recruiting process?

Coach: So we have multiple ID cams a year. I would say three to four. We actually in a current freshman class that we [00:04:30] have, two of our players were recruited from our ID cam. So there are definitely opportunities. We have had great success with our ID cams in terms of finding the players we are looking for. We do work some of the Other ID camps, unfortunately, I don’t know who schedules them because I feel like they always fall on the same day as our ID camp, but we try to go to the local ones, or even up in Michigan, we try to go to Michigan Hawks camp that they run every year.

Sometimes Kent State University has a, has an ID camp, Ohio University and all these, it just depends on the timing and scheduling. However, the ID camps are definitely a huge opportunity for whoever want to showcase, whoever wants to showcase their skills and, you know, there is a great opportunity. You know, you might, you might get signed like our two current players that are freshmen.

So definitely a great opportunity. 

Matt: So when you say the two players that are current freshmen, so you guys hadn’t had any contact with them before the ID camp and, and you guys just found them because they registered or, or what? 

Coach: Correct. Yes. They were actually at the same camp, so they came for two camps in a row.

The first one we got to see them and they definitely caught our eye. So, you know, it was after that contact day. So we were able to contact them and talk to them a little more. They came for another ID. They showed us even more at the second camp. So, yeah. There was no brainer for us not to [00:06:00] pursue them.

And yeah, we hadn’t, you know, like they’re, they both played at a local clubs. So some of these local clubs is, you know, it’s hard to get to the games. So we were happy that they came and we were able to start initial contact with them and then go see them play even for their club. And yeah, now we have them on a squad and one of them pretty much started half of the season, so the other one got some good minutes as well.

So it’s been great success, I would say. 

Matt: No, it sounds like it. Awesome. Well, whether it’s at an ID camp or one of the showcases or tournaments, what makes up the hierarchy of things you’re looking for in a player, both on the field and off the field stuff? 

Coach: Again, it depends on what position we are looking for.

We’re, we’re evaluating also like what kind of player we need for that certain year. Um, because we have to compare to what players we already have on the squad. Uh, I usually personally like to see their character. So as bad as this might sound, I like to see how they act when they’re losing. So that just tells you a lot about their character, how they’re, uh, how they’re with their teammates, how they’re with their coaches, how they’re with their parents, how they’re with opposition, what do they do when the ref might make a questionable or controversial call.

But also, like, you know, like, Forward, you want forward that scores goals, right? I would think everybody does. So, uh, depending on what players we already have on a, on a current squad, we’re trying to match the skills of the players so it would fit with [00:07:30] the other players we already have. 

Matt: Well, in terms of, uh, I guess I was about to say the, the transfer portal and, and all that kind of stuff.

I know with the new NCAA regulations, that might be Automatically limit your roster size to 28. So, but in just terms of overall recruiting, do you guys look at the portal? How folk, I mean, you mentioned Canada, but how focused are you on international recruiting? What does all of that kind of look like? 

Coach: So we do look at a transfer portal, not, not as much during the season, because you don’t really see much of a movement unless they’re graduate students.

Uh, we do have, uh, four or five transfers currently on our squad. So we do look at the transfer portal quite, quite a lot. Uh, again, depending on who, who we need at a time, but it’s a great tool, tool to, you know, get experienced player that might have had experience at a division one level or even division two already.

Uh, internationally, we do look at those as well. We have currently two internationals. One is from Germany. One is from Canada. We had one from Puerto Rico. We had one from Iceland. So we try to add the international flavor as well, it’s just the timing. Me as an international, I know that the timing is a little bit, a little bit tricky because usually Uh, by the time that internationals decide to come to U.

S. for the university and play soccer, it might be a little bit too late. But I know that their [00:09:00] systems work a little bit differently, but we’re, we’re currently, like, definitely talking to a few internationals already. And that is the market that we want to explore. But, again, we are open to If you’re looking for a specific player with specific characteristics, not only as a person, but also as a player and overall, we definitely look internationally as well.

So it’s not only the local talent or US talent. 

Matt: Okay. Well, let’s talk a little bit more about the school. Uh, some folks, you know, maybe not familiar with Youngstown State. Um, tell us what, what have you found to be some of the awesome parts about the school? Maybe some things we wouldn’t even know by going through the website.

Coach: I mean, Youngstown probably, you know, like everybody, uh, when you look up Youngstown as a town or city, you might not get the best rep from the previous, you know, like 30 years ago, but now it’s completely changed town. Like the campus is beautiful. We have everything is brand new. Uh, it’s very, it’s not too big.

Like we have around 12, 000 students as of right now, but the campus is beautiful. It’s green. You have a lot of, uh, a lot of trees in between. You have a lot of. A lot of things that you can do as a student. Uh, we have a lot of food options. So the area is very nice. And we have the, I would say, top notch facilities and probably one of the best facilities in our conference for the mid major, uh, division one.

So that is something that. I was personal, personally very pleased with and I’m pleased [00:10:30] with and I’m always proud to show anybody the campus because usually what we get that people that have never been here before might look up all the historical stuff that was happening in Youngstown, let’s say 40, 50 years ago, and then they come to campus and they even see Youngstown as a city and they’re like, wow, this is actually beautiful and we’re proud Nicely surprised and yeah, wow.

So that’s something that is a highlight of our school because the campus is beautiful and athletics facilities like you can see it from the highway right away. You can see our football stadium. You can see some of the fields. So that’s something that we take that we’re really proud of and we are fortunate to have.

Matt: Okay. Well, one of the tough parts about, you know, somebody changing from being high school to a college player and the commitments is really balancing that whole student athlete component. Um, so for, for your team, specifically, how do the girls really balance? Their studies and the soccer component and kind of what support systems are in place to help them with both sides of that.

Coach: So we, we, as a coaches, uh, try to help them as much as we can and figuring out like how to have the best time management, because as you said, is it can be very challenging to be division one athlete and have majors like we have like engineering, nursing. So those are definitely challenging, but. I think for the girls, like the first couple of weeks might be like, Oh my gosh, what did I get myself [00:12:00] into?

But then like they have all this support system in us as a coaching staff. We have a two academic advisors. One is through athletics. One is for school. Then we have all supporting staff all around here, like coming from nutritionists, sports psychologists and all that. You name it. There’s. So many, so many people that, uh, you know, want the student athlete to be successful and, uh, our advisors doing, are doing a great job that when they see that, you know, the student athlete might be struggling, they’re great in getting them help tutor wise, or just having a meeting with a bunch of people figuring, figuring out how we can, uh, Be the best assistance for their success.

So there are just so many people behind the scene that, you know, you might just see this soccer coaching staff up front, but then you have another five, six people that are here on daily basis to help a student to be successful. So for our girls, like we consistently have individual meetings, asking them how they’re doing, not only on the field, but also off the field, because at the end of the day, you’re here to get your academic degree.

And we want them to be successful and we want them to have as high GPA as they can. And, you know, our team GPA was about 3. 6. So that just shows how much commitment and how much energy and time you put into them and how much they do themselves. So I think that just speaks volumes about them. 

Matt: Yeah, that’s fantastic.

You have, uh, You have a game coming up on [00:13:30] Saturday, and we’re talking on a Monday, so do me a favor, walk me through what this week is going to look like for the players in terms of when is practice, their meals, uh, classes, uh, All that kind of stuff. What would a normal week kind of look like for everybody during the season?

Coach: Oh, normal week. You got me there. I don’t think there’s any. Yeah, I know you only have one game this 

Matt: week, so it’s not that normal, but you know, we’ll go with it anyway. 

Coach: So usually most of our student athletes or most of our players, they have classes in the mornings or late nights because our 3pm all the way to five.

We usually don’t use the two hours, but it’s more for them to get a treatment and get everything. They need plus practice on top of that. Um, we do have film meetings. We have regular meetings just to make sure that we go over scouting report or we go over even the game from previous week just to see what we did well, what we need to improve.

And, uh, the athletes, uh, some of them have mandatory study hall, the freshmen do. So that’s what they have to finish as well. And then, you know, they have opportunity to get treatment. They have opportunity to meet The advisors and a bunch of them are scheduling for the next semester. So I’m pretty sure that’s what they’re doing, or I would be hoping that they’re doing that.

I’m sure they are. Um, then we have a bunch of meetings as a staff, we have a, as a coaching staff, and then we have a lot of meetings as a, I would say, even with the supportive staff, like [00:15:00] the manager of the facilities, then the athletic trainer, academic advisor, and all these people that, uh, are present during our game, the strength and conditioning coach.

So some of them do lift because we have voluntary lifting. So it depends on them how they’re feeling. So again, depending on what, what major they have, it might be a little bit more challenging as they have a lot of classes since we’re close to, towards the end of the semester or getting there. But for us coaches, we consistently try to figure out like how, how we would play against our next opposition, like What, what can we use as a strength?

What, what is something that we have to be careful about and what their danger is, what, or, you know, how dangerous they are, what are their main strengths and how, who we can put on a field to give us the best chance to win. 

Matt: Okay. Well, let’s talk more about the team and that side of the ball. Um, so in terms of your staff, you kind of mentioned that there’s three, uh, Coaches on staff plus other folks.

So just talk to me about that. What role does everybody play? What other support staff are maybe in the athletic department that help out with a team, that kind of thing. 

Coach: So it’s three of us, so we have a head coach Brian, then we have associate head coach Josh and myself, so it’s three of us, uh, you know, soccer coaching staff.

Uh, we do, we don’t have everything, like, split into [00:16:30] duties, yet there are some duties that each of us has, but we all, like, work as a team, especially when it comes to the game day. Uh, we do have, uh, We are position coaches as well. So I run midfield. The coach Josh has defense and goalkeeper and head coach Brian has forwards.

So that’s something that we do as well that we meet with the separate positions just to go over some things that we need to do. Then we have a support staff in athletic train trainers. We have a sports psychologist. We have a nutritionist. We have, uh, athletic academic advisor, our sports supervisor, athletic director, associate athletic directors, assistant athletic directors.

And most of these people show up to our, our games all the time. So, you know, when you see all these people in YSU gear that look like semi professionally dressed like, so that’s definitely, definitely our admins and that just shows how much support we get from the school itself and from the department.

And then you have people like our facility manager who does a great job in setting up the field for us and making sure that opposition has a locker room and that they have showers they have towels and all that and takes care of the referees and I could go on and on and on and you know like the equipment manager who gets all the uniforms ready for us and his staff so it literally takes the village to get everything ready for the game and that’s something that not many people realize that it’s not just Three little people sitting on a sideline coaching the team, but then it takes more than 15 people to just get that whole [00:18:00] thing going.

And then we have a media people that, you know, announce the lineups and they do the ESPN livestream. So, literally it takes, I would say, close to 20 people to just get that game day going. So it’s a lot of cooperation as a team and, um, Every single person that is on this broad team has been doing a great job.

And as I said, like, this might sound like a cliche, but we all get along and it’s a lot of fun. And definitely teamwork makes the dream work. 

Matt: Great. Love that. Uh, so how would you describe kind of maybe Brian’s coaching style, the style of play you guys are looking to implement there? 

Coach: So our playing style obviously revolves around what, what players we have for that season.

So, uh, we have a lot of talented players on the ball. We have a lot of fast forward. So obviously, unfortunately, I cannot go into much into detail because I’m afraid that our opposition is watching right now. But, uh, we definitely don’t want to just kick the ball forward and chase it down the line. That’s not, that’s not who we are.

That’s not our identity. All three of us love soccer. And I feel like if we were just the team that kicks the ball forward, it would be a little bit of unfortunate, even though, you know, it might be working for some other teams. But we try to play soccer and make someone look pretty and just, you know, hope for the best.

I, I hate when somebody says hope for the best, but we’re trying to exploit what we are good at and every single player like adds a value no matter how much they play or they [00:19:30] don’t play. So our identity is very, very forward like, so we want to definitely go into attack and, you know, we want to score a goal.

We just don’t want to park the bus and wait for the bus. Definitely not our identity at all. 

Matt: Okay. All right. Well, obviously there you have the fall season, but then there’s the spring off season. So talk to me about about that. What do you guys usually do in that second semester? What does that usually look like for the players?

Coach: So the hours of what we can do is obviously mandated, mandated by the NCAA. So if you’re on eight hours, compared to 20 hours, it’s a little bit different. But, uh, you know, like we have a lot of individual stuff as well. So we try to break it up into the groups and work maybe on their positional play.

Let’s say midfielders would be working on certain different things than the defenders. Um, we have lifts, we play futsal. Then as soon as we hit the 20 hours. That are allowed for us to practice. It looks a little bit different. It’s more, it’s comparably similar to fall season, I would say. Uh, and you know, we try to put even more time into developing each player and how much they can develop as individuals.

And then we, we have team practice as well, but. You know, it’s a little bit more time because in fall you don’t really have much time between the games. It’s usually mostly the recovery days or that you’re trying to, you know, put, put something together [00:21:00] and you don’t have as much time maybe as you have in spring as you can actually go through details.

More so that’s what we do and then we have a couple of games depending on, you know, who we can get on a schedule and if our schedule allows it itself. 

Matt: Okay. Well, I always like to end these with with 1 last question. And that is if you had 1 piece of advice for for any student athlete going through the college recruiting process right now.

What would that be? 

Coach: So I think I have a couple of, a couple of them. I would say definitely go on a visit, talk to the coaches and don’t, don’t jump to the conclusion. Don’t make a quick decision. Just really take a time and everybody’s timing is different. So if one of your teammates signs really quickly, that does not mean that you should be signing really quickly.

So take time to get to know the school, take time to get to know the coaching staff, get to know. All the players that are already there, try to ask him as many questions as you can, because at the end of the day, it’s your own journey. And you should feel like that you’re making the best decision you can.

Matt: Yeah, I couldn’t agree more. Well, coach, I really appreciate it. I appreciate the time. Wish you the best of luck as you close out your conference season. And, uh, well, if you come down to ECNL, uh, Florida and Lakewood Ranch, make sure you give me a shout because I live about three miles from the fields. I’m sure I’ll be over there.

Awesome. And we can get some coffee or something. Of course. Thanks 

Coach: again. Sounds 

[00:22:30] good.