Tuscaloosa County Native Named Athletic Director At Wallace Community College

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Tuscaloosa County native and longtime area baseball coach John Rushing has been named the new athletic director at Wallace Community College.

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He began his tenure on June 1. Rushing comes to Dothan after working for the last five years as assistant athletic director at Chipola College in Marianna, Florida

Rushing previously served as head baseball coach at Tuscaloosa Academy from 2006 to 2011, along with being the longtime coach of American Legion Post 34 — a historically talented team that his father led to a national championship in 1967 as a player.

Rushing was the head coach of Tuscaloosa Post 34’s Senior American Legion Team from 2000 to the summer of 2011, winning state championships in nine out of his 12 seasons.

ALSO READ: Memory Of The Week: Post 34 Wins 1967 American Legion National Title

While also serving as Tuscaloosa Academy's athletic director, Rushing won two area championships at TA and advanced to the AISA playoffs five times.

Prior to that, he served as an assistant coach at Bevill State Community College in Fayette from 2001-2004, helping the Bears to a pair of ACCC state championships in 2001 and 2003.

After his time at Tuscaloosa Academy, he re-entered the college ranks as the director of baseball operations at Troy from 2011 to 2020 when he took the job at Chipola College.

"I said this in my interview," Rushing said. "Why wouldn't I (come to Dothan)? I was looking for a different opportunity, whatever is the right thing or whatever needs to happen. It was something about adding the new sports and being able to be a part of something new and different. I knew this college supported its athletic programs very well. It was coming back to Alabama, where I've spent most of my life. Once I started the process, I thought this sounded like something I really wanted to do and be a part of."

Outgoing Wallace Community College Athletic Director Ryan Spry referred to Rushing as "the complete package."

"After an exhaustive search," Spry said, "It became apparent that John Rushing was the right person to lead our department into an exciting, new chapter of Govs athletics. John has a strong and established background in athletic administration within the NJCAA and checked all of the boxes we were looking for in a new athletic director. In particular, his hands-on work with academic eligibility, financial management, travel logistics, and gameday administration will prove to be valuable assets for our coaching staff and student-athletes."

Rushing encouraged the people of Dothan to come out and see what's going on at Wallace.

"We want people who want to get to know these kids," he said. "Once they get to know them, they will support them. If we make those types of connections, we can really grow this into something special."

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