New Southern Miss Recruiting Coordinator Kyle Cheesebrough Brings 'Blended' Coaching Style to Hattiesburg

HATTIESBURG, Miss. – As great as the Southern Miss baseball program has been over the last several years, hype and expectations have reached new all-time highs over this offseason, and for good reason. Not only has head coach Christian Ostrander and his staff retained key talent from last year's roster, but they've also brought in a great mix of talent and potential with these incoming freshmen and transfer portal classes.

The Golden Eagles arguably have the most complete roster they've ever had heading into next season, but another big reason for optimism is the additions to the coaching staff. After long-tenured hitting coach Travis Creel accepted the head coach position at Jacksonville State earlier this summer, Southern Miss elevated former recruiting coordinator Ladd Rhodes to hitting coach, brought back Golden Eagles shortstop legend Dustin Dickerson to take on a player development role, and hired Kyle Cheesebrough as the new recruiting coordinator.

Cheesebrough has an impressive track record as an assistant coach, having been a part of four different College World Series teams in his career, including the 2021 Mississippi State team that won the national championship. Cheesebrough recently joined Supertalk Mississippi's Eagle Hour to touch on a handful of topics, including him essentially recruiting Southern Miss, and not the other way around, the incredibly talented freshman class that's coming in, and his "blended" coaching style.

Landing at Southern Miss

USM, Baseball, Crowd — Southern Miss Baseball | Josh House

Although Southern Miss baseball has been a premier program in the country for a while now, currently holding the nation's longest 40-win season streak at 10, it took Cheesebrough a little longer than usual, due to circumstances out of his control, to realize just how special Baseburg really is.

“I say this very respectfully, but there wasn’t a chance whenever we started at Mississippi State… we were not allowed to come down here and play in Hattiesburg against Southern Miss [while John Cohen was the AD]," Cheesebrough said.

Cohen went on to become the AD at Auburn in 2022, which opened the door for Mississippi State and Southern Miss to find a way to get the Bulldogs to Hattiesburg more often.

"It ended up working out where Coach Oz and [former Bulldogs head coach Chris] Lumonis were able to kinda work things out," Cheesebrough said. "We came down here and got our butts kicked and opened my eyes to being like, ‘well this place is pretty darn special.’ So when I had the opportunity to get a chance to coach here, I tell this story to the people I’ve spoken to: I think I recruited Oz; He didn’t have to recruit me.”

All-Around Great Freshman Class Incoming

Justin Word, Jackson Academy, USM Baseball — Justin Word (@jus10word) on Instagram

If it hasn't been said enough already, the Golden Eagles have an unbelievable freshman class coming in this season. Southern Miss landed seven of the 12 Dandy Dozen players for the 2026 class, including former Jackson Academy star Justin Word, who recently sat down with us to discuss his journey and what he plans to bring to Hattiesburg. Having coached in Mississippi for several years in his career, Cheesebrough is ready to be around some of these talented young guys he's spent time recruiting before.

“I’m excited, I can tell you that," Cheesebrough said. "Being in [Mississippi] as long as I have, I’ve had the opportunity to recruit some of these guys. So I have a personal relationship with a lot of the guys who are in the house here. … When you look at them, they’re just big, they’re physical, they’re strong, they’re fast. Having an opportunity to really change the landscape here, coming into having a great team and a roster that’s coming back, but also adding these talented freshmen–I’m super excited for what’s coming this spring.”

"Blended" Coaching Style

USM Cheesebrough — Mississippi State Athletics

Although Cheesebrough claims to have some "old school" coaching tendencies at times, he also knows that in today's college baseball era, you have to keep up with the technology and the times to "speak the language" of these young, up-and-coming players. He believes he has a good mix of both an old-school and a new-school coaching approach.

“Well, I hope I’m a hybrid. I think you gotta be," Cheesebrough said. "I like to use the word ‘blended.’ I’m not the youngest guy in the game. I’ve been coaching for quite some time. I’ve been around some really good old-school ways of ‘this is how it’s been done,’ but now when you bring in all the new technology and have all of these things at your hands, you have to be able to develop; you have to be able to keep up with the new age stuff and be able to kinda speak the language of what these kids are learning being in these facilities."

As good as all that new technology and things of that nature are, though, at the end of the day, it's all about what actually happens on the diamond.

"But again, you also still have to play the game of baseball, right? And that’s getting 27 outs, getting three outs an inning, and being able to get timely hits and doing all the stuff you’re supposed to do to score runs," Cheesebrough said. "I think I do everything I can to be as well-blended as I can and speak the language for the new kids, but also be able to coach them how I think they need to be coached. Maybe some people would say that’s old school, but I like to use the word ‘blended’ to make sure we’re kinda on both sides of the ball.”

Expectations have never been higher for Southern Miss baseball, but Cheesebrough has been on teams with just as high expectations throughout his career and has helped those teams achieve those goals. Who's to say he can't do the same for a proud, storied program that has been knocking on the door for the last several years, but just hasn't been able to push through?

You can listen to Cheesebrough's entire Eagle Hour segment below. Stay tuned to Southern Miss Golden Eagles On SI for more USM baseball coverage over the next few weeks as we continue to make our way through the college baseball offseason.

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