Black Hawk College’s new head baseball coach is coming to the Braves with Division I experience both as a player and a coach.
Drake Robison – a Rockford native who played one year for the University of Iowa – is a community college alum who won an NJCAA Division I National Championship as a player and has coached NCAA Division I and NJCAA Division I teams in the years since.
“I am excited to have Coach Robison leading our baseball program,” said Arnie Chavera, BHC athletic director. “He has played in the SEC and the Big Ten, so he fully understands what it takes to develop and play at a high level.
“Drake has four years of junior college coaching experience and spent the last year at the NCAA Division I level, which will serve him well in building the BHC baseball program,” Chavera said.
In addition to his head coaching duties, Robison also will be the academic success coach for the BHC Athletic Department.
“Black Hawk is a great place to be, and our players will be held to a high academic standard,” Robison said. “Especially at the junior college level, academics are the most important part of being a student-athlete.”
Robison was attracted to Black Hawk College because of the rich history of being a winning program and preparing student-athletes for the next level.
“I want this program to be a contender to go to the World Series every year and for players to continue the winning tradition when they move on to their four-year programs,” he said.
“Being from Rockford originally, I know the Quad Cities have a large and well-trained talent pool of players that I would like to bring in to bring this community the World Series berth that it deserves,” he said.
Robison’s coaching experience includes:
- Assistant coach – Oakland University, Rochester, MI (NCAA DI) – 2023-24
- Assistant coach – Gulf Coast State College, Panama City, FL (NJCAA DI) – 2022-23
- Assistant coach – Chattanooga State Community College, Chattanooga, TN (NJCAA DI) – 2020-22
- Assistant coach – Iowa Western Community College, Council Bluffs, Iowa (NJCAA DI) – 2018-19
As a student-athlete, Robison played for legendary coach Mark Rardin at Iowa Western Community College from 2012-14. He transferred to the University of Mississippi and played in the SEC for a year then played his last year of college baseball at the University of Iowa from 2015-16.
He was the winning pitcher in both IWCC’s NJCAA Division I National Championship-winning game in 2014 and Iowa’s Big Ten Championship-winning game in 2016.