Impact of a Scholarship: Jackie Mynarski, In Her Own Words

Former Maryland women’s soccer player Jackie Mynarski takes you on her personal journey of what led her to becoming a Terrapin, what playing for Maryland meant to her, the impact of her scholarship during her playing career in College Park from 1996-2000, life after her playing career with the Terps and why she reflects on her scholarship regularly. She was an All-ACC standout, playing in 93 career games (fifth all-time), still ranking in the Top 10 in career points (58), goals (24), and game-winning goals (8).

Mynarski was hired as the Senior Director, Medical Administration for Major League Soccer in March after working in collegiate athletic administration roles for 15 years at the University of Washington, the Mid-American Conference, the Ohio Valley Conference, and the University of Portland.

After working in college athletics for nearly 15 years, an opportunity to join Major League Soccer became a reality as I was hired as the Senior Director for Medical Administration in March. As a professional opportunity, it is obviously amazing. I remember a time when no one thought professional soccer, even on the men’s side, would last in this country. The league just celebrated its 25-year anniversary and continues to expand. But, it is also deeply meaningful to me personally to serve the soccer community that has provided me with so much.  At times, it is overwhelming how fortunate I’ve been because I could kick a little black and white ball.  

In reflecting on my time at Maryland, I will go back to where it all started, to my hometown of Somers, north of New York City. 

My first soccer team was the Blue Arrows, and then I played with a boys’ travel team for a few years before joining the best club team, the Yorktown Jaguars. It was an exciting time to be a young female player as the first women’s World Cup was played in 1991, and the option of playing college soccer was starting to become a reality. I’m so thankful to the pioneering women who made my experience possible. It is still unreal to me and a thrill to have gotten the opportunity to play for Shannon Higgins-Cirovski, who was our coach my senior year at Maryland.  

My first time on campus was to attend my cousin’s wedding.  I remember driving in and seeing the big flower M, Hornbake Plaza, and the football stadium. I also remember thinking there was no way I could go to a university like this... but, I did buy a hat with the cheering Testudo logo just in case -- I’m pretty sure I still have it.

I also had the opportunity to be on campus outside of my recruitment, as I was walking around that night, everything just felt right. It was where I was supposed to be -- I know it sounds silly, but I remember exactly where I was on McKeldin Mall when I knew I would become a Maryland Terrapin.  

I was recruited by one coaching staff, only to play for two different coaches. However, like I said, I knew I wanted to go to Maryland – I loved the campus. I was a Government and Politics major from day one, and the opportunity and challenge of playing in the ACC to continue to build on the success of the Maryland program sealed my decision.  

What I didn’t fully grasp was how unique going to Maryland would be on the academic side – I had classes I couldn’t have imagined – a forensics lab class, a seminar in Human Rights Law, and of course Dinosaurs. These classes often had projects to go into Washington D.C., and often I went with teammates for their assignments, to various museums including the Holocaust Memorial Museum, Smithsonian, the Natural History Museum, attending an argument at the Supreme Court or going to the Uptown Theater to see the Matrix. And then there were always the trips up to Baltimore when the Yankees were in town.

Being offered a scholarship to play at Maryland remains one of the highlights of my life.  It was something I felt validated the extraordinary efforts of my mom and the ethic and love she inspired in me, all my club and high school teammates (their families) and every coach – so I felt like I had a responsibility to earn it year in and year out by representing them by working hard and being a good teammate.  

Now that I’m back East, I hope to reconnect with folks and also become more active as a donor by volunteering with the Terrapin Club and M Club.  Not just to go to games or join the tailgates I’ve been seeing from afar on Facebook these last few years, but I hope to give back my time and energy to support the genuinely unique Maryland student-athlete experience.

Trust me, putting on the home white jersey, making sure my cleats were game-ready polished, and having your name called on Ludwig Field is such an honor. There are so many memories on that field.  But I also loved our plain gray shirts and the daily walk across the street from the Varsity Team House to the practice field.  Our team training was so competitive – even 4v2 and slide tag, at least for me, was intense and the quality of play during our sessions was consistently at such a high level. It was so demanding and competitive, and really hard at times, but there was also a lot of fun. Thinking on it now, there are so many memories and stories from that field too.  I like to think I earned my scholarship each day on that practice field; well except the day I joined in for goalkeeper training. 

It still meaningful to me to have played a role in the success of the Maryland teams I was on and in support of arguably the best players in the history of our program. I cherish the friendships and memories with my amazing teammates (and housemates from other teams).   

And I would be remiss if I didn’t mention our team travel adventures – even just getting to the airport was memorable and there were definitely a couple of flights we’d rather forget.  Our teams were made up of players from all over the country, and I hope the program still tries to schedule “home games” for out-of-state players because it was so meaningful to see where your teammates were from and meet their families.

Our trips also inevitably took on a life its own – the Bayou tour in Louisiana; getting into a football game at Colorado (and lots of Maryland Football away games too); singing the fight song at team dinners in Carolina and at the Waffle House; there was a group who snorkeled at Disney – I could go on and on but these are moments and memories I cherish. And as I became a college athletic administrator, I realized that the support of donors made many of these experiences possible. Personally, this is the area I want to support Maryland Athletics in, to ensure current student-athletes have the well-rounded experiences and the level of support we were given.

Throughout my career as a college athletic administrator, I often looked back at my experience at Maryland as it helped shape the ethic and commitment to serve student-athletes so they could make the most of their eligibility and the opportunity to get a college degree.  I have come to appreciate that the support our program received at Maryland was first-class. We definitely kept the team doctors and athletic trainers busy, and drove our strength and conditioning coaches crazy – but they loved on us, sometimes with needed tough love, kept us healthy, and treated us like family.  I’m eternally grateful to all of the student and Team House athletic trainers, Sandy Worth, Dr. Leigh Ann Curl, Dr. Sacared Bodison, Corlis Fingers (White), for taking such great care of us.

It remains such a privilege to be a part of the Maryland soccer family, I am a Terp For Life.