MS Collegiate League Expands to Baton Rouge
The Mississippi Collegiate League announced today that it has expanded into Baton Rouge, as the new league continues to grow across the south. P360 Performance Sports and Traction Sports Performance have teamed up to bring a high quality league serving a much larger audience with many more college players. Former MLB players Chris Snopek and Ryan Theriot will lead the drive for player identification and placement in Jackson and Baton Rouge, and former MLB player Scott Copeland will head up the placement of players in Hattiesburg. Uniquely, the joint venture brings five training facilities for players to get their off season work and tune up for league games. Traction owns facilities in Baton Rouge and Hattiesburg, bringing a wide range of services including hitting and pitching instructions, cages and mounds, performance training, physical therapy and more. P360 owns locations in Jackson, Flowood and Hattiesburg, with hitting and pitching instruction, cages and mounds at all locations. Traction Sports Performance Chief Executive Officer Mack Chuilli also serves as the Performance Director. A graduate of Nicholls State University, he is a Certified Performance Enhancement Specialist, with a degree in Sports Medicine. Chuilli is heading up the performance training feature for the league. In discussing the league Chuilli stated, "our goal first and foremost is to bring a premium experience for all players. Our performance training facilities in Baton Rouge and Hattiesburg are ready to go, and we are working with Haley to assess the needs in Jackson and Flowood to bring them up to a level of consistency across the league. The P360 hitting and pitching centers will help spread players out as the summer gets busy and accommodate more players. This is a win-win for Traction and P360, and more importantly a big win college summer baseball."
Haley Sones, Director of Performance Training for P360 will be coordinating with the Traction Performance Training staff to get Jackson and Flowood facilities staffed and equipped to meet the standards set by Traction. Sones earned her Master's Degree in Sports Administration from Fresno Pacific University after earning her Bachelor's Degree from BYU-Hawai'i. She holds a USA Weightling Certififcation, and has trained elite professional athletes at Phase I in Las Vegas, and trains athletes at P360's Hattiesburg center. She also directs the Sox Softball Program at P360.
The league will announce a name change to reflect the growth outside of the state, as locations in other surrounding states have entered into discussions to expand into their areas. "The response has been amazing", stated Chris Snopek, founder of P360 Performance Sports. "with the cancellation of some of the traditional summer leagues, we are fielding calls from across the southeast to put together something special. Led by three former pros that played in the majors brings a whole new level of experience to college summer baseball. All of us played in and were drafted out of college, and we all played ball in the summer."
Ryan Theriot, Traction Sports Performance Partner & Director of Business Development, will be the player placement director in Baton Rouge. The former LSU Tiger played in MLB, debuting with the Chicago Cubs in 2005 after winning a College World Series with LSU in 2000. Theriot played six seasons with the Cubs before moving to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a season. He won the World Series in each of his last two seasons...2011 with the St. Louis Cardinals and 2012 with the San Francisco Giants. "Playing college baseball is a great experience, and the annual summer leagues are a big part of that. I can't imagine not having a summer season and want to make sure that all of these players have a quality experience playing baseball this summer. This league is coming together to do exactly that. Chris, Scott and I remember what we liked, and didn't like about summer ball and that experience is guiding us to create a great league", said Theriot about adding the Baton Rouge market to the Mississippi Collegiate League. The Baton Rouge division expects to add four teams to the league consisting of players with NCAA eligibility. The teams will play in local venues in the Baton Rouge area.
The Jackson Division will consist of four teams, with founder Chris Snopek serving as the player placement director. Snopek played college baseball at Ole Miss before being drafted by the Chicago White Sox, playing four seasons with the White Sox before finishing his career with the Boston Red Sox. Snopek is the founder of P360 Performance Sports, with over 30 youth sports teams playing under the Sox brand, and 10 teams playing in the High School Showcase Program this summer.
The Hattiesburg Division will consist of four teams with Scott Copeland serving as the player placement director. Copeland played at Southern Miss as a RHP, and was drafted and played for the Toronto Blue Jays. He made his debut with the Blue Jays in 2015, and played for the New York Mets before finishing his career with the Washington Nationals. "Summer ball is a big part of college baseball and with the shutdown of traditional leagues many temporary leagues have popped up to try to fill the need. We decided to bring some pros together to build a quality, lasting league that not just provides reps, but provides training, instruction and tune up opportunities throughout the market. It's great to be a part of it", stated Copeland about bringing the MSCL to Hattiesburg. Copeland heads up the Pitching Program in Hattiesburg, with elite training for pitchers of all ages, and coaches a 12U Sox team this summer.
The League Commissioner is Cory Hough. He holds a Master's Degree in Sports Administration from the University of Cincinnati. For questions about the league, divisions and the organization he can be reached at Cory.Hough@p360performancesports.com .
Traction Sports Performance will provide performance training programs initially in Baton Rouge and Hattiesburg while working to develop programs at P360 Performance Sports in Jackson as part of an agreement between the two baseball organizations. Cages and mounds are available in Jackson, Flowood, Hattiesburg and Baton Rouge as well for league players to train, hit and pitch over the summer. A League Package will be available at all locations for players.
For more information about the Mississippi Collegiate League visit our website. Players can find registration information in their closest division and more.