Ryan Matyas Signs On as Head Coach at San Diego State
Ryan Matyas Signs On as Head Coach at San Diego State
Former USA 15s and 7s Eagle Ryan Matyas has signed on to be Head Coach at San Diego State.
Matyas, who started playing rugby in the youth and U19 system in Tempe, Ariz., and was later an All American at Arizona, has been active as a Director of Rugby or a coach with a variety of teams over the past few years. He represented the USA in 15s, capped 13 times at center and wing, and in 7s, playing in seven World Series tournaments. He also played for the San Diego Legion before transitioning to running their youth and community outreach.
One of his teammates at the Legion was Nick Lupian, who was an All American at San Diego State and the two are good friends. He would invite Matyas to come SDSU training sessions.
“The players seemed to like what I did and I met with the [student] Board and Club President and VP and it looked like a good fit,” Matyas told GRR.
Matyas has been Director of Rugby at the Eagle Rock Athletic Club in Southern California, worked with the OMBAC Wallabies youth team, and also served as Director of Rugby for the Casanovas select team which took 4th at this past weekend’s RugbyTown 7s in Glendale, Colo.
“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.”
