About Us

The Next One Up team is made up of teachers, lawyers, accountants, sports-marketing directors, athletic apparel designers, personal trainers, as well as current high school and former college coaches. From the National Football League, to Major League Lacrosse, each member has a different athletic background, but shares one thing in common: an understanding of what it takes to be a student-athlete at the college level. All of our team members are former NCAA athletes and now have a challenging and fulfilling career beyond their playing days, making Next One Up an elite team of advisors.

Matt Hanna

Program Director

Sports have been a part of Matt Hanna’s life, but academics were always the emphasis, growing up in Upstate New York, with Dad, a college Athletic Director for more than 30 years, and Mom, a retired public school teacher. Matt is currently a high school history teacher at Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Baltimore City and founded Next One Up with a very simple mission: Prepare his student athletes at Cristo Rey with a solid foundation in leadership skills and access to camps and clinics that they normally would not be able to afford. Next One Up Foundation has grown immensely since this mission was first drawn up, and now the program includes academic support and college/prep school visits to students beyond just his current student athletes. Next One Up will attempt to reach as many young people as possible, helping them to develop into future leaders in the classroom, the boardroom and on the playing field, as this program never truly says goodbye to their student athletes, they simply help them grow and support them as they create a life of success and pass it on to the next one up.

Matt has been an educator since graduating from Johns Hopkins University in 2002. He captained the 2002 Johns Hopkins Lacrosse team, where he earned the Turnbull Reynolds Award for leadership and character. Following graduation, Matt traveled to Manchester, England to teach in Manchester Primary Schools. Upon returning from England, Matt resided in Denver and competed in Major League Lacrosse for the Denver Outlaws, earning a spot in the MLL All-Star game in 2008 and was nominated for the MLL Sportsman of the Year Award, before retiring and returning to Baltimore with his wife, Tori, a four time national champion lacrosse player at University of Maryland and current sports marketing director at Under Armour. Matt and Tori reside in the Patterson Park area of Baltimore City.