South West Illinois News

Aaron Rushing's academic plans at Morthland College have taken a bit of a turn in his time at the West Franklin school.

The Patriots' basketball star told Southwest Illinois News that he started out as a business major and took some basic Bible classes as part of being in a Christian college.

Today, he's a biblical studies major.

Aaron Rushing

“I found out that I really enjoyed it, and so I switched over to biblical studies,” Rushing said.

The path to his successful hoops career at Morthland also took a bit of a roundabout path – one that started midway through his days at Sparta High School and has him now as the second-leading returning scorer and top returning rebounder from last year's team that won the Christian College National Invitational Tournament.

Rushing said that during his first two years of high school, he was in three sports: basketball, baseball and cross-country. For his final two years at Sparta, he homed in on baseball and basketball only. After his junior year, shoulder surgery kept him off the mound and mostly at first base in the sport he said he was considered better at.

“It just hurt so much to pitch,” he said.

Rushing turned his focus to basketball, which worked well because it was the sport he liked the most, and he certainly achieved success in it at Sparta. In his senior season of 2012-13, Rushing – a 6-foot-8 forward – was an honorable-mention all-state selection by the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association. That went with his Southern Illinois River-To-River Conference Most Valuable Player Award and three appearances on the all-league team, among with invitations to all-star games and numerous other honors.

Morthland Head Coach Rich Herrin heavily recruited Rushing, who also was drawn by Morthland being close to home, as well as the opportunity for more one-on-one time with teachers at the smaller college, Rushing said.

After adjusting to the quicker, stronger play of college, as well as more travel, Rushing has thrived as a Patriot. Just last season, according to information from the school, he averaged 16.2 points and 8.8 rebounds per game, with a field-goal percentage of .568, in 31.2 minutes per contest. He led the team in total rebounds with 167 and was second in total points with 308.

He capped off those efforts by being named to the all-tournament team at the CCNIT.

“Winning the championship last year gave us something to look forward to this year to try and match,” Rushing said.

With his major, Rushing said he is thinking about going on to seminary school to perhaps become a pastor. However, his basketball journey may take him on a new path.

“My coach has kind of suggested that if I wanted to maybe play overseas, he definitely thought I could make it somewhere,” Rushing said. “So I've thought about, you know, maybe trying to get an agent and showing him my highlights and seeing where that takes me.”