Drew Mattison Making Noise in Hattiesburg

Mississippi Elite Baseball was born in 2013, the brainchild of Drew Mattison to bring quality baseball to the area. He opened a 25,000 square foot facility on Commercial Warehouse Drive and started forming youth baseball teams and providing instruction to all ages in the facility. "There was definitely a need in the area. I think maybe there was only Matt Miller and me that had formed real organizations", said Mattison. "I have a baseball background and I love teaching the game to young people so I gave it a shot."

From Mobile, AL Drew played baseball at UMS-Wright Prep, winning the Alabama 3A State Championship in 1988. A year before he was a member of the football team that won the 1987 3A State Championship. Of his high school career, Mattison remembered, "we had a lot of fun in high school. Being from Alabama, winning a football State Championship was a big accomplishment, but winning that baseball championship was just as sweet."

After high school Drew attended the University of Southern Mississippi, graduating in 1995. He started his coaching career as a football coach at North Forrest High School for a couple of years before becoming a member of the PGM Professional Golfers Association. He also partnered with a friend and co-owned The Golf Shoppe in Hattiesburg.

The baseball bug never left, and Mattison started Elite Baseball, coaching numerous youth teams over the years. As his teams got older, he began coaching high school showcase teams while still adding youth teams. In 2015, he was named the Athletic Director and Head Baseball Coach at Lamar Christian School. While he started his career as a football coach and spent a few years in golf...he has surrounded himself in baseball, coaching high school, youth and high school showcase teams. He's not done yet.

In early November Matt Miller merged with Chris Snopek's baseball academy and added Sox teams in the area, both youth and high school showcase teams. It sounded exciting to Mattison and a few weeks later he was meeting with Snopek about what he was doing with Sox baseball....and it didn't take long before Elite baseball was set to become P360 Performance Sports and his team branding under the Sox name, as he made the decision to merge with P360. "There's a lot of baseball knowledge in the room during our meetings. Collaborating with a couple of former major leaguers to build the best baseball organization in the south is a lot of fun. I do teach them a few things, and I am excited to be a part of the team. Stay tuned...we are just getting started".

Even after all this time, growth and expansion, you will find Drew Mattison instructing players about the finer points of the game he loves. He will still be out there on the field coaching the boys, still surrounded by baseball. And he wouldn't have it any other way.

Drew Mattison can be reached at drew@sbgsox.com