Drake Robison Baseball Head Coach, Academic Success Coach

Biography

Drake Robison became the Braves’ head baseball coach in July 2024.

Robison made his foray into coaching in Spring 2019 by serving as the assistant pitching coach for Iowa Western Community College, one of his former schools. That summer he was the pitching coach for the Lakeshore Chinooks of Mequon, WI, in the Northwoods League.

After a year on the Reivers staff, he moved south to Chattanooga State Community College in Chattanooga, TN, for the 2021 campaign and was with Gulf Coast State College in Panama City, FL, for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. He helped produce a Major League Baseball draft pick with each team he coached.

Thus far in his young career, Robison has helped develop 13 pitchers who have been drafted or signed to professional contracts.

Knowledgeable about CoreVelocity, DriveLine, Rapsodo and Trakman data, he has implemented these high-technology programs at each of his stops, giving his student-athletes access to analytical data, such as spin rate and horizontal break, that can help take their pitches to the next level.

Player experience

A native of the Rockford area, Robison played high school baseball for the Harlem Huskies in Machesney Park, IL. He was a three-year letterwinner, earning All-Conference honors as both a pitcher and third baseman and going 8-4 with a save and 81 strikeouts in 67 innings as a senior in 2012.

Robison’s his first two collegiate campaigns were at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs, IA, where he racked up nine wins, seven saves and 94 strikeouts over 78.2 innings and helped the club win the 2014 National Junior College Athletic Association (NJCAA) National Championship.

With this success at the junior college level, Robison transferred to the University of Mississippi in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) in 2015 and appeared in 16 games for the Rebels, striking out 15 over 18.1 frames.

Posting a 30-28 (15-14 SEC) record in 2015, the Rebels were selected for the NCAA Tournament and placed in the Los Angeles Regional, giving Robison his first postseason experience at college baseball’s highest level.

Electing to move back to the Hawkeye state, he transferred to the University of Iowa after one season at Ole Miss and sat out 2016 in accordance with NCAA regulations.

Eligible to pitch his final collegiate season in 2017, Robison made 20 appearances (nine starts) for the Hawkeyes, highlighted by picking up the win with seven innings of one-run, four-hit baseball in the Big Ten Tournament Championship Game against the Northwestern Wildcats. He still stands as the only pitcher in University of Iowa history to receive a win in the Big 10 tournament Championship.

By virtue of Iowa’s Big Ten Tournament Championship, Robison again played in the NCAA Tournament in 2017, this time in the Houston Regional.

Immediately following the conclusion of his collegiate career, he pitched half a summer for the Windy City ThunderBolts of the Frontier League, a partner league of Major League Baseball, before being released near the season’s end.

Education

Coach Robison earned a degree in mathematics with a focus in computer science from the University of Iowa.