Melissa Jackson was officially introduced as the ninth women's basketball coach at Youngstown State.

She signed a 5-year contract worth $183,000 annually.

Jackson spent 15 seasons at Akron as both an assistant and head coach and was an assistant at Cleveland State this season.

"I'm really excited to be back. I think I learned a lot, but I'm excited to have my program again and can't wait to do it here at YSU," said Jackson at her introductory news conference.

Jackson says she missed being a head coach but learned a lot being an assistant.

"I'm a passionate person and this is the best job in the world and I enjoy coming to work every single day," she said.

Executive Director of Athletics Ron Strollo said he talked "6 to 8 candidates" and another dozen expressed interest in the position.

"We want to hire good people at Youngstown State and when you talk about her division one coaching experience, the fact that she was at Akron for 15 years, Cleveland State for another year, it checked off all the boxes we were looking for," said Strollo.

Jackson and her husband, Drew have two sons, Luke & Ben, and a daughter, Cameron.

Jackson's father-in-law Robert played guard 11 seasons for the Cleveland Browns from 1975-1985.  He started 127 of 160 games played.