How the Matson Siblings Pushed Each Other Towards Success

Sean Matson played field hockey growing up, but only once.

“I didn’t make it through the first thirty minutes,” Matson said. “My back hurt, my core was toast. My hips, I could barely walk the next day. Those balls are way too hard.”

Matson, now a stalwart out of the bullpen for the Lynchburg Hillcats, decided that field hockey was best left to his sister, Erin, who now serves as the head coach of the University of North Carolina Field Hockey program.

“That’s funny,” Erin said. “That’s one of the things he remembers, and I’m like, yep, just another workout.”

Their competitive spirit was passed down from their parents. Their father, Brian, played collegiate baseball at the University of Delaware, and their mother, Jill, played both field hockey and softball at Yale.

For both Erin and Sean, it was their parents who introduced them to the sports they fell in love with. For Erin, she learned from her mother, a goalie for the Bulldogs, giving her a talented keeper to practice with. For Sean, he learned from his father, who helped him fall in love with the game at a young age.

“I got into tee ball early on,” Sean said. “There was always baseball merch, baseball sheets, baseball pictures in the room. I was born into falling in love with baseball.”

Despite the separate sports, competition thrived in the Matson household. Everything became a competition between the two kids. For some time, Erin had the upper hand in all their battles as the older sister, but it was only a matter of time before Sean caught up.

“We would play a lot of games in the basement where we would try to beat each other,” Sean said. “It would get way too competitive. We’d start throwing things at each other, no rules, just whoever could win.”

“We’d come upstairs all sweaty, with rug burns all over us,” Erin said. “There was always a competition in everything we did.”

“There was a long time when I was the stronger, bigger, faster one,” Erin said. “And then one day, he just turned into a man. I probably didn’t like that at the time. So, then, I was like, ‘Bye, Sean, I don’t want to lose any more than I have to, so you go have fun by yourself.’”

Despite the natural sibling rivalry and the extreme differences in sports, their father found a way to combine both their passions into improving each other.

Brian would take his children to a local turf field and chuck rollers toward Erin, who would receive them with her field hockey stick as if they were a pass. Then, she’d turn to Sean and fire grounders toward her younger brother to field and flip back to Brian, who would stand waiting with his glove.

This triangular system served as their family training, providing a way for their parents, amid busy schedules, to invest in both kids' athletic journeys.

“It was the perfect setup,” Erin said. “I would get a rocket thrown at me, and I’d receive it like it was a pass. I’d have to accurately pass it to someone, but to Sean, it was fielding a ground ball, and he was getting his reps in as well. It was kind of the perfect combination.”

As their kids grew, so did the demands of their athletic endeavors, with both Sean and Erin traveling across the globe playing their respective sports. Erin began playing with the U.S. National Team at 17, but she had already been traveling competitively, including internationally, for several years prior.

Sean’s travel, though not as widespread, was still demanding and involved their parents making sacrifices to their own careers to make the situation manageable.

Brian, who was working as a physical therapist at the time, scaled back his hours to a more conventional schedule to help with the kids' athletic demands. Jill, a businesswoman in New York City, halted her career growth to ensure she could be around the family more and invest in their children.

“I’ll have to ask them one day when I think about how they did it with both of us,” Sean said. “But I’m obviously extremely fortunate that they prioritized us and gave us what we needed to succeed.”

For the Matsons, the investment in their children went beyond the field and into the classroom and the community as well. There were countless times when homework was done on the rides to practice, or one of the kids was sent back to one of their rooms to finish up their schoolwork before they could play.

“Our parents instilled in us that academics come first,” Erin said. “They were always making sure that our academics came first and never took a hit, and we could always excel on the playing field.”

Their sacrifices paid off. Erin would go on to a successful career with the UNC Tar Heels, winning four national championships as a player and then one more after being named the head coach in 2023. She has been dubbed the “Michael Jordan of Field Hockey,” and a picture with her collection of championship rings gained widespread attention several years back.

With Erin at college, Sean was able to invest more time into his baseball journey as he wrapped up high school. He decided to attend a baseball camp at Harvard University in Boston, where he immediately fell in love with the campus.

Despite his mother having played at the Crimson’s arch-rival, Sean knew that was where he belonged.

“I didn’t know I was going to love it as much as I did until I got there,” Sean said. “The coaches were unbelievable. I just knew it was a good fit personality-wise and kind of allowed me to pursue multiple things.”

Sean was recruited as a two-way player for Harvard. His dad taught him as a switch-hitter, but when getting to college, the coaching staff decided he was best suited to join the pitching staff.

He pitched well for the Crimson in his three seasons in the Ivy League. Sean finished his career with a record of 9-11, boasting a 4.42 ERA and 185 strikeouts.

In addition, he spent two summers pitching in the Cape Cod League, dubbed the most elite baseball summer league in the United States. In 23 games across two seasons, Sean never allowed a run. It was here where his leadership abilities, which had been quietly building under the surface, began to develop with the help of his bullpen coach, Cole “Cookie” Cook.

“I came into college a little bit more on the shy side, but college in general helps out with that, giving you the confidence to walk into a room and meet new people,” Sean said. “Then Cookie set that tone in summer ball, and I learned from him.”

Cook, who also spent time in the Cleveland Indians minor league organization back in the early 2010s, remembered a time when Francisco Lindor was drafted and entered the clubhouse excited to build relationships with every one of the guys. He used that as an example of the type of person Sean has become.

“That combination of talent and humanity is deeply important, and when you can find it — Derek Jeter, Franky Lindor, Sean Matson — it’s incredible, and people respond to it,” Cook said in a press release after Matson was drafted.

“I don’t like to have foes or any such thing,” Sean said. “I think it just builds a better team when everybody’s working together, respecting each other, and pushing each other to be better. So, for me, I don’t want to sound cocky, but it comes naturally, just treating each other with respect and being a good guy.”

Matson was drafted by the Cleveland Guardians in the 9th round of the 2024 MLB draft. His parents and girlfriend came up to Massachusetts, where the Cape Cod League is located, to spend the day and wait for the phone call.

“I was a little worried,” Sean said. “Towards the end of day two, then I got the call, and it was just a lot of emotions, a lot of hugging, a lot of thank yous, and, yeah, I was just ready to go.”

Though his sister could not be there, Sean said she was waiting near the phone on standby for the moment he was drafted. Having just transitioned from her collegiate playing days to viewing the sport as a job, Erin was able to provide advice for her younger sibling.

“Just being able to share with him that there’s nothing like going after a dream of yours and whether or not it works out, you never want to live in that state of ‘what if’ and regret not chasing it and going after it,” Erin said. “I can relate, after three years in, with already experiencing success. It’s all about staying present and trusting in our values and our preparation and how we were raised.”

Beyond advice, it was the example that Erin set that helped Sean get to this point in his journey.

“I think just the way she carried herself,” Sean said. “Obviously, you saw with the coaching job and as a player, like the way she carried herself. It was less advice and more stuff I had learned from her, just from being out there and watching her play and seeing how she carries herself and the confidence on the field.”

The success for Sean has come quickly at the professional level. As of May 26, in his first season with the Hillcats, he has posted a 2.08 ERA with 37 strikeouts across 13 appearances. He said he’s never been in such a unified clubhouse as what he has seen from the Guardians organization.

Sean has bigger aspirations in his professional baseball career. He wants to pitch at the Major League level, and at 23 years old, he has the backing of the Guardians organization.

However, as both Sean and Erin looked back on their journeys, they were reminded of how important it was having a sibling to challenge, inspire and encourage them.

“I think we’ve both seen success in our own ways, but we’ve also celebrated it together,” Erin said.

“She was the hardest worker I’ve ever known, and it taught me what I needed to do to succeed at a high level,” Sean said. “Her achievements have inspired me even more to reach for that next step and not settle. So, I think just overall, she’s shown me a path to follow, and I’ve learned a lot from her success and her mistakes, and she’s taught me what I need to do, and I still learn from her to this day.”

“Now, it’s my turn to set the same example for our family and the Matson name.”