Ryan Matyas Signs On as Head Coach at San Diego State

“I really wanted to challenge myself,” Matyas said. “I needed to grow into some of the more administrative roles, and being a Head Coach brings with it a lot of administrative work.”

This Monday will see the first full team meeting with Matyas as Head Coach. He is hoping to kick-start a period of improvement on and off the field.

“I am here to help elevate the standard,” he said. “But at the same time these are student-athletes and we need a schedule that is conducive to that. We’re going to be changing practice times to make it easier on the players and while that may mean we need to get creative, the line is: after 7:59 it’s your time.”

That means if there’s a morning session, it’s done by 8am, and an evening session is done by 8pm. 

“The players are here to get a degree and as a coach my job is to help them—yes succeed in rugby, but also succeed as students.”

Matyas will also be ramping up the recruiting and said all he has to do is look at the wealth of rugby talent coming out of Southern California to know he’s in a good place.

“Look at the Raptors, Mustangs, Thunder, and other clubs around Southern California,” said Matyas. “There are some really great players, and my goal is for the kids to say ‘I want to go here at San Diego State.’”

San Diego State is in the California Conference at the D1A level. This is, if not the most competitive conference in the country, it’s the second-most, with Saint Mary’s, Cal Poly, Sacramento State, Santa Clara, UC Santa Cruz, UC Davis, UC Santa Barbara, and Cal State Long Beach all in the conference along with the Aztecs.

“It’s very competitive,” said Matyas, “and that’s what makes it exciting.”