Head Coach Mathew Mixon 

Mathew Mixon is entering his fourth year as Head Coach of Sunkist Swim Team.  Mixon is native of Brandon, MS where he attended Brandon High School. After graduation, Mathew continued his studies at Delta State University where be obtained a bachelor’s degree in Commercial Aviation with a specialization in Aviation Management. While attending Delta State, Mathew was a member of the Men’s Swim Team who were nationally ranked and NSISC conference champions all 4 years of his tenure.

Coach Mixon has devoted a lifetime to the sport of swimming. He brings 34 years of experience, knowledge, and skill to the Sunkist program. His unique style, innovate training and modern technique concepts continue to drive the program towards success both in and out of the pool. Since Mixon joined the program, Sunkist has reinforced it’s long “tradition of excellence”, making great strides in team growth, moral and performance. His technique-based focus for the program produced noticeable results and the club’s average rate of improvement and best time percentage grew to be well above national average.  Sunkist swimmers have won numerous state championship titles and set new state and team records under Mixon’s leadership. Swimmers in his program qualified for 18&Under Winter Championships, Futures, Senior Zones, Senior Sectionals, Age Group Zones and Age Sectionals under his short 3 year, Covid dampened, time at Sunkist. Those swimmers achieved high levels of success with individual events wins at Senior Zones and top 8 finishes at Futures, Senior Sectionals and Age Group Zones.  In 2021, Coach Mixon was named Mississippi Swimming Senior Coach of the Year.  Mixon previously won Age Group Coach of the Year twice.

Mathew is owner and CEO of Live Slow Swim Fast LLC, a learn to swim company, and has provided thousands of private stroke lessons over the past 21 years ranging from very beginners to nationally ranked USA Swimming age group swimmers.  In 2016, he developed and implemented a water safety and learn to swim program called Schools Practicing Life Altering Swim Habits (SPLASH).  SPLASH provided water safety and water awareness classes to over 250 2^ndand 3^rdgrade students in the local community.  SPLASH, in conjunction with Operation Shoestring and The 100 Back Men, again provided the much needed outreach program in 2021 to over 75 children.

Fun Facts

• Has been skydiving twice
• 2x Full Ironman Finisher, 3x ½ Ironman Finisher
• Completed the 10.6-mile Viking Swim across Lake Tahoe.  
• He and his wife Lindsay have two beautiful girls, Vida and Layla.

"I'll always be a student of the sport. Always yearning, always learning. Never satisfied with yesterday always pushing for a better tomorrow."

Mississippi Swimming Coach of the Year:

     2016 Age Group         2018 Age Group          2021 Senior 

Rebecca Busby

Rebecca Busby joins the Sunkist staff to coach the younger groups and assist in implementation of the dry-land program for the Junior groups. She has a Bachelor and Master in Elementary Education, both from Delta State University. She is the Director of Jacob’s Ladder Learning Center in Vicksburg, a school for adults with intellectual disabilities/special needs. Rebecca has been a USA swimming certified coach for 2.5 years. She enjoys coaching and her favorite groups are those with developmental swimmers.  She continues to develop her skill set as a coach by attending coaching clinics. She has three children: Jon Daniel (senior group), Olivia (blue group) and Matthew (blue group) that all participate in the Sunkist Program.

Bethany Galat 

Sunkist Swim Team is excited to announce that Bethany Galat has joined their elite coaching staff. Bethany is an NCAA All-American swimmer who graduated from Texas A&M with a degree in Food Science and Technology. Galat won silver medals in the women’s 200 breaststroke at both the 2017 World Championships in Budapest and the 2018 Short-Course Worlds in Hangzhou in 2018. She also won silver at the 2019 Pan Am Games. During her collegiate career, Galat was an SEC champion in the 200 breaststroke. Most recently in 2021, Galat finished fourth in both breaststroke events at the 2021 Olympic Trials. She was .47 seconds behind Lydia Jacoby in the 100 breast and 1.06 seconds shy of the eventual silver medalist Lilly King in the 200.