Melissa Jackson, one of Northeast Ohio’s most recognizable names in women’s basketball over the past two decades, will be in her second season as Youngstown State's head women's basketball coach in 2025-26. She is the ninth head coach of the Youngstown State University women’s basketball program.
Jackson has been in the region for the past 17 years of her coaching career, spending 15 seasons at Akron, one at Cleveland State and one at YSU. 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.
“We’re thrilled to have someone of Coach Jackson’s quality and history in Northeast Ohio lead our program,” said YSU Executive Director of Athletics Ron Strollo while announcing Jackson as the program’s new head coach. “I firmly believe she has the passion, skillset and vision to push our women’s basketball program to new levels. I’m confident our fans will be energized by the brand of basketball that she will bring to Beeghly Center and enjoy getting to know her family and her off the court.”
Jackson’s Era at Youngstown State
Jackson’s first season at Youngstown State was one of growth with 10 newcomers on the roster and the challenges of implementing a new style, and the Penguins were playing their best basketball down the stretch to set the stage for an exciting future.
YSU won its first four games with Jackson at the helm, a first by a Penguins head coach in the program’s Division I era, and finished with 12 victories in the campaign. Injuries were a common and unfortunate theme during the year as three of YSU’s seven freshmen suffered season-ending injuries and seven players total missed at least three games, but YSU battled through adversity to win three of its final four games of the regular season. One of the biggest wins was a 73-70 Senior Day victory over Cleveland State, which won 27 games and advanced to the Fab 4 of the Women’s NIT.
Jackson showed that YSU can be a destination from the transfer portal as senior newcomer Jewel Watkins was named to the All-Horizon League Second Team in her only season as a Penguin. She ranked third in the conference with averages of 15.3 points and 2.2 3-pointers per game, and she set new career highs in scoring average, steals, assists, free-throw percentage and 3-point field-goal percentage. She had the fourth-highest scoring total in program history by a guard.
Watkins surpassed 1,000 career points during the season, as did returner Malia Magestro, who averaged a career-best 10.9 points per game in her only season in Jackson’s offense. Magestro was named to the Horizon League All-Academic Team for her combined excellence on the court and in the classroom.
While Watkins and Magestro provided a veteran scoring punch, Sophia Gregory highlighted YSU’s large and promising freshman class by being named the Horizon League Freshman of the Year. After stepping into a starting role at the beginning of December, she went on to lead all conference freshmen in points, rebounds, blocks and steals per game, and she also paced her classmates in field-goal percentage and double-doubles. Gregory was a three-time Horizon League Freshman of the Week, and she finished her first collegiate season averaging 10.2 points, 7.2 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game.
Before Gregory took the conference by storm, fellow freshman Sarah Baker was in line to make a run at the top freshman award. She was named the Horizon League Freshman of the Week three times in the first five weeks before an injury stopped her season in early December. Freshman guard Erica King was one of three players to appear in all 31 games and averaged 5.5 points per contest.
Off the court in her first season, Jackson worked on instilling her culture in the locker room while implementing her five core values: family, passion, toughness, commitment, and gratitude. The Penguins maintained their academic prowess by posting a 3.79 GPA in both semesters of the 2024-25 academic year.
Before Becoming a Penguin
Akron
In 2023-24, Jackson was an assistant coach at Cleveland State as the Vikings won the Horizon League regular-season title and finished as the runners-up in the conference tournament. CSU finished 29-6 and earned a berth in the inaugural Women's Basketball Invitation Tournament. The 29 wins marked the second-highest single-season win total in program history.
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.
The Zips appeared in five postseason tournaments as Jackson recruited and developed some of the most prolific scorers and passers in program history during her decade as an assistant. Akron made the only NCAA Tournament appearance in school history in 2014, and it had Women’s NIT berths in 2013, 2015 and 2016, as it enjoyed a stretch at the top of the MAC.
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. She led the Zips to at least 15 wins in four of her five seasons, with the lone exception being the 2020-21 campaign that was largely affected by COVID-19. She registered 31 wins in her first two seasons, a program record for wins by a head coach during his or her first two seasons, and 34 wins over the last two. She led Akron to an appearance in the Women’s Basketball Invitational in 2019 and a trip to the WNIT in 2022.
On the individual level, Jackson coached three Mid-American Conference Players of the Year at Akron - Rachel Tecca (2012-13) and Sina King (2014-15) when she was an assistant and Jordyn Dawson (2021-22) when she was head coach. In total, she coached 23 All-MAC selections and experienced 234 victories while at Akron.
Delaware
Jackson spent the first four years of her coaching career at Delaware from 2004-08. The Blue Hens won 80 games overall and 51 conference contests in those four seasons, and they finished with at least 25 wins twice. Delaware earned an at-large berth into the NCAA Tournament in 2006-07 behind Tyresa Smith, the 18th overall selection in the 2007 WNBA Draft, and they earned WNIT berths in 2004-05 and 2006-07.
Jackson’s Background
A native of Hazelton, Pa., Jackson was a women’s basketball student-athlete at Richmond from 2000-04 as the Spiders played twice in the WNIT. She was a 2004 graduate of the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s “So You Want To Be A Coach” program. She earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from Richmond in 2004.
Jackson and her husband, Drew, have two sons, Luke and Ben, and a daughter, Cameron.
