There’s a new face on the Matador pitch. Early this year, CSUN named Gina Brewer as Women’s Soccer head coach, and this month, her squad has high hopes as they prepare for their first match (Aug. 15 at Cal Baptist). A forward and former Pac-10 champion with the University of Washington, and veteran coach at the Division I level, Brewer is looking forward to leading the Matadors to victory — and, hopefully, a Big West Conference Championship.
Most recently, Brewer served as an assistant coach at UCLA in 2023, where she helped lead the Bruins to the Pac-12 Championship and a 16-2-1 record.
From 2011-19, she amassed more than 70 wins and became the longest-serving head coach in program history at Division II Hawaii Pacific University. She served two years on the coaching staff at Santa Clara University in 2021 and 2022, contributing to the Broncos’ journey to the second round of the NCAA women’s “College Cup,” and back-to-back West Coast Conference championships before her triumphant year with UCLA.
Getting acquainted at CSUN, Brewer has high hopes for these Matador women — especially as women’s collegiate sports garner greater attention. CSUN Newsroom sat down with the coach in late July, to learn more.
Q: What does it mean to you to become the new head coach of Matador Women’s Soccer?
Gina Brewer: I’m super excited. I’ve played against CSUN [as coach at] the different universities I’ve worked for, and I always thought it was a fantastic school and kind of a hidden gem. It’s a really special place that not everyone knows about, but once they know about it, everyone really loves it and speaks highly about it. I’m really thankful to be here.
Q: How have you prepared for the upcoming season?
GB: I was able to coach the team for five weeks in the spring. That was kind of the observation and evaluation period, with layering in some of the standards and expectations of what we want to be as a team. Following NCAA rules, I was not able to coach them in May, June or July [during summer break], so July 30 was our first day back on the field. The team has had to train and prepare, with fitness packets we give them, on their own.
Q: What changes are you bringing to the team? Are you bringing any fresh approaches?
GB: We’re going to have a really fun, attacking style and presence. In the past, they were very defensive minded … We’re going to work on being organized defensively, but we’re also going to look at how we’re attacking with flare — and creative [ways] to be dangerous going forward. Off the field, we’re trying to make it a fun and enjoyable student-athlete experience. We’re focused on being as positive with the players as we can and doing fun activities — going to the beach for a bonfire and s’mores night, taking the team bowling and doing a ropes course. Just going above and beyond to make it fun and enjoyable, so it’s not all business.
Q: What part of your previous experience will best translate to your new role?
GB: My experience as a head coach at the Division II level [at Hawaii Pacific University] helped me prepare for this opportunity because you have to wear a lot of hats and get your hands in everything, because you don’t have as much support staff. And these last couple of years, I was at Santa Clara University under Jerry Smith, one of the legendary coaches in women’s soccer — he was a fantastic mentor. UCLA was a great experience for the level of professionalism and holding an elite standard — that’s what I’m looking to bring to the CSUN program, and I definitely think we can do it.
Q: What’s the most valuable thing you’ve learned while coaching?
GB: The [players] don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. The human being is more important than the player, [so] you have to care about the person first and the soccer player second. If you truly do that and you really get to know your student-athletes — their background, their families, their favorite foods — it really helps when it comes to having a good understanding of each other on the soccer field.
Q: What’s your goal for the 2024 season?
GB: We need to improve from last season. Our goal is to get significantly more wins and finish in the top six of the Big West Conference, and be able to go to the conference tournament.
Q: Do you have a team-building philosophy?
GB: Communication and collaboration. For team building, you have to specifically communicate about all these different things — body language on and off the field, respect and cheering for your teammates. We try to have it be player-led. It’s collaborative. We have meetings every day until school starts; the first half [of each meeting] is team-building, and the second part is soccer and technical stuff. Every day, we’ll be focusing on uniting.
Q: What are you looking forward to with the team?
GB: I’m looking forward to just being able to spend time with a great group of players and creating that environment that we think is the most enjoyable.
Q: What does soccer mean to you?
GB: The coolest thing about the game of soccer is that it’s the world’s game. You can go to any country and people speak the language of soccer. You may not even be able to talk to other people, but you get a ball out and there’s already a connection. To me, soccer just means connection and bringing people together. Although it’s competitive, it unites people and countries.
Q: What do you hope for the future of women’s sports, especially soccer?
GB: It’s starting to get supported around the world. It’s a really powerful movement to support women and women athletes, and soccer is one of the sports that’s helping lead the way. We’re in the midst of a really exciting time of women’s sports — it’s more respected than it used to be. Student-athletes have the opportunity if they want to continue playing beyond their college careers, there’s places for them to play now. It’s a time where it’s exploding, and the sky is the limit.
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