“I initially said no, I don’t want to do it. I’m done.”
In August 2023, Andy Rushing, assistant professor of physical education, said no to being Union’s interim golf coach after the former coach quit unexpectedly.
In September 2023, Rushing said yes.
Before the fall semester ended that year, Rushing agreed to be the team’s official head coach for the foreseeable future.
When I sat down with Rushing in his office to speak with him about this current endeavor, he was in full golf coach mode, asking me to wait a second while he finished reconciling receipts from the team’s latest tournament in Miami.
Waiting gave me time to peer around his office and glance at each of the 31 plaques and trophies he had neatly displayed on a floor-to-ceiling shelf behind his desk, most containing the words “coach of the year.” I pointed out the accolades to him, but before I could even formulate a question, a small smile stretched across his face and he chimed in.
“I’ve coached a lot of good players,” Rushing said. “See, that’s the original women’s golf team.”
He pointed to a framed photograph of a team of girls in red polos, notes of gratitude scrawled in the blank space around their cheerful faces. I told Rushing that his players seemed to appreciate him. He smiled again and continued to look at the picture.
“A lot of good players,” Rushing said.
Over the last 49 years, Rushing has coached men’s and women’s golf, men’s baseball, football, and junior high boys basketball. I made the mistake of calling it middle school basketball during our conversation, leading him to jokingly explain that when he coached that team, middle schools had not been invented yet.
But right now, instead of retiring after 49 years of coaching, Rushing is Union’s head golf coach. As the head golf coach, he is doing the opposite of retirement. For seven of the last eight weekends, Rushing has traveled with either the men’s or women’s golf teams to tournaments across the Southeastern United States.
“When we’re at tournaments, he is really really good at understanding each individual person’s playing style and mental game,” Cecily Berry, senior business administration major and member of the women’s golf team, said.
Berry was relieved when Rushing stepped in to coach the team following the previous coach’s abrupt exit. With his decades of coaching experience and genuine care for the golfers, it was a smooth transition.
For Rushing, that genuine care is the key to successful coaching.
“50 years ago, I was more like a big brother, then I guess I became kind of a dad, and now I’m grandpa,” Rushing said. “But it’s all about relationships. They just need somebody who cares.”
I saw only joy in Rushing’s face when he described himself as a grandpa. There was no discontent, no bitterness at the inevitability of aging—just pure joy at the task before him and peace for the stage of life he was in.
But it had not always been that way.
“I thought I was done with coaching. And I was actually at peace with it, which was why when Coach Campbell came to me the first time, I said no,” Rushing said. “Yeah, it’s almost like losing a pet. I don’t want another one because I don’t want to go through that again.”
Now Rushing has another pet: the Union men’s and women’s golf teams. And just like getting a new puppy after the loss of an old one, he does not regret his decision, even with the busy weekends and tedious reconciling of receipts.
“It was a strange feeling for me after all those years to drive onto campus and there wasn’t a team waiting for me. It didn’t feel normal. It felt wrong. I missed having a team,” Rushing said. “When you do this for this long, it’s who you are.”
Rushing is a coach. That is who he is.
“A good coach can step up and pretty much coach any sport,” Berry said. “Like, I think Coach Rushing could step up and be a really good soccer coach, even if he knew nothing about soccer, because he has those coaching principles and understands players.”
Rushing is a good coach.
He has been a coach for almost 50 years, and his goals are too big to stop doing it now. Rushing’s eyes lit up when he explained his goals to me. He wants the men’s team to make it to nationals; he wants the women’s team to make it to regionals. And he believes both are possible this season because he knows his players, they know him, and they know each other.
The relationships are strong, so the golf game will follow.
I asked him what would happen once he reached those goals. I asked him if he would finally retire.
“Either that or I’ll drop dead on the golf course,” Rushing said.
He laughed at that before seamlessly transitioning into a story about his days as a baseball coach and how he would give his players “the look” when they messed up on the field. Rushing showed me “the look,” with his hands on his hips and one leg pushed out in front of the other. But the twinkle in his eye and the childish grin widening across his face made it less convincing than I am sure it was back then.
Nothing about his demeanor or actions persuaded me that he was past retirement age.
Nothing about the fact that he is the current men’s and women’s head golf coach convinced me of that either.
I asked Rushing what he was planning on doing this weekend, as it was his first one home in almost eight weeks. He laughed once again, his face young and vibrant but his tone calm and content.
“I’m going right now to play golf with a bunch of old people,” Rushing said. “I guess that makes them my people.”
