Rusty Stroupe has gone from long-time college baseball coach at Gardner-Webb University to a preacher of God's Word. The impact he has made, and is making, is immense. Get ready to talk Jesus and baseball in this show!
The Dan Scott Show Podcast
Dan Scott Sports/Faith Show - Rusty Stroupe (11-10-24)
The following program is presented by Ingalls and is a service of Grand Slam Ministries. (upbeat music) - It is Sunday morning again and good morning everybody. Welcome to this week's Dan Scott Show presented by Ingalls. As you just heard, I am Dan. It is great to be with you on Fox Sports Up State and ESPN Asheville as we come to you every Sunday morning ahead of your NFL coverage on both radio affiliates to talk some sports, talk some faith in Christ, share some good news. And for a lot of people, I think it's safe to say that after this week finally came and went and I'm talking about Election Day, a lot of people on both sides of the political aisle need to sit back, take a breath, and can use some good news. So what I'm gonna do today is my best to do what I think will bring some good news. And that's talking baseball and Jesus in the same conversation. Rusty Strap was the longtime baseball coach at Gardner Webb University up in North Carolina and had a lot of success at that small school. But his biggest success came in the spiritual leadership of his family and his team and since retiring from coaching college baseball, he has been serving as interim pastors at various churches. In fact, when we recorded this interview, you're going to hear today, he was a current interim pastor at a church up in North Carolina. He has since moved on from that assignment, but that has become his new passion now, sharing the word of God. And it's just a phenomenal conversation. We get a chance to talk baseball and the impact that he had on players from years ago who still interact with him and why now his passion is preaching the word of God. So it's a wonderful conversation with a great guy. I had a lot of fun doing this interview. Always enjoy going when I was broadcasting first Clemson baseball and then Furman University baseball made several trips to Gardener web. Although the one thing that I did not like about that, you'll hear in the interview the small viewing area we had in the visitors radio booth. I actually challenged Rusty on that. Anyway, we'll take a break. We'll come back and we will hear from former Gardener web baseball coach Rusty Strap. First of all, before we get a break, I want to remind you that angles has curbside service unlike other delivery or pickup services, angles has designated full-time employees who pick each piece just like they were shopping for themselves. Simply place your order online. Tell us when you're coming by to pick it up. And when you get there, check in and never leave the comfort of your cards. Pop the trunk and we will load it all for you. Ingles curbside is safe, convenient, and quality you expect from Ingles. Ingles, low prices, love the savings. Two break will return and get into the conversation with former Gardener web coach Rusty Strap after this on "The Dance Scott Show" presented by Ingles. - It's time to kick off the perfect tailgate and take your team to Ingles. Chips and guac made fresh in store every day. The best meat in town packaged fresh every day and smiling faces giving you their best every day. Let's be real, in the South, football season is our favorite season of the year. There's a lot to smile about, especially with deals like these. Ingles, low prices, love the savings. - Upward Sports equips churches to run self-sustaining sports ministries in their communities. Whether you're a sports fanatic or on staff at a church, Upward Sports will give you all the tools you need to run a first-class sports ministry that allows you to reach families in your community. Upward Sports offers basketball, soccer, flag football, cheerleading, volleyball, baseball, and softball through league and camp offerings. At Upward Sports, we want to help your church make a difference and give you increased opportunities to share the gospel. Learn more today at Upward.org. That's Upward.org. - Here at Grand Slam Ministries, our goal is to share the love of Jesus Christ through multiple platforms while at the same time, executing our core missions of mentorship and helping children in need. The primary way we can effectively do all those things is through the Dan Scott Show, our weekly Christian radio show that airs in multiple markets around the nation and the world. We're asking you to partner with us not only to sustain what we're currently doing, but to grow both our on-air online presence and our ability to fund those core missions. Can you spare as little as $25 a month? How about $10? If we can get 200 partners to join us each at those small, sustainable levels, we can begin to accomplish everything we believe God has called us to do. So can you help us today with a donation of either $25 or $10 per month? Go to Grand Slam Ministries.org to donate to get more information or to ask questions that's Grand Slam Ministries.org, a 501(c)(3) tax deductible organization. Thank you for supporting the Dan Scott Show and Grand Slam Ministries. Got a question or a comment? Maybe a guest suggestion. Send an email to Dan@danscotchow.org or private messages on social media. You're listening to the Dan Scott Show. (upbeat music) - So the Sunday morning sports and faith conversation for you on the Dan Scott Show here on Fox Sports Upstate and ESPN Asheville. You heard from upward sports just a moment ago. Is your church eager to connect with the community and reach new families? Let sports be the bridge. Customize your outreach experience with upward sports and offer a first-class organized intentional league. Upward sports is ready to be your trusted ministry partner. Learn more today at upward.org. It is good to have you with us on this Sunday morning. I hope that the show is starting to become a regular part of your Sunday morning routine, whether you're up getting ready for church on your way to church and I hope you are. We just thank you for joining us. Ask that you continue to support what we do. Share the fact that the show is on the air. I mean, we are basically still very much a brand new entity here. So we need all the help we can get in sharing what we're doing. And I would invite you to check out more about us by going to the website, Danscottshow.org. If you've listened to past episodes, you know that this show is a commercial sports centric version of what we have been doing and continue to do on 39 stations across the country and eight internet stations with the other Dan Scott Show that doesn't just center on sports and it's a strictly non-profit version of the show. You can find out information about both and about what we do at Grand Slam Ministries by going to Danscottshow.org. And I'll talk a little more about that coming up in a bit. But as mentioned, our guest today is former Gardener Web University baseball coach, Rusty Strap, since retiring. He is teaching some courses at a junior college in North Carolina and also serving in a role as interim pastor for churches who are looking for their next full-time shepherd to lead them. It's a phenomenal ministry that he's involved in. And when we did the interview, I usually do all my interviews via Zoom so I can see the person I talk to. I couldn't help but notice that while I'm sitting in this very rudimentary desk chair, work style chair, Rusty was talking to me from a recliner, an easy chair. And I ask him about it. - So the easy chair is in my office at the top of Valley Community College up in Hickory, North Carolina where I'm a sociology professor now and I do that and it seems like based on coaching that this is like half as much time but I am very passionate about it, love it. But to explain the recliner real quick, I'm in the big chair because I had it in here for students to come in to relax in case they need to talk to them and I had a little swivel chair and I'm kind of off campus a little bit so no students came. So one day I just switched the chairs and the rest is history. But I'm doing this now and I'm also, as we will talk about, I got ordained in 2019 and I'm basically transitional minister for churches that are in transition. I'm basically an interim until they find a permanent pastor but I did, before 2019 I coached up 33 years of college baseball and did that for many years and played at Appalachian State whenever I was in college. I know I'm kind of moving backwards. I might be jumping the gun on you but I am feeling like this is a great blessing to me. Since getting out of coaching I have not had a day where I felt like I made a poor decision because God told me it was time to get out and now I really feel like I'm doing what God wants me to do at this point in my life. - Yeah and I want to talk about how maybe those things overlap and lessons learned from one can help you in the other but I first came across you. When you were the head baseball coach at Gardner Webb and I was broadcasting first for Clemson and then and still at Furman and coming up and watching your teams battle Ron Smith's teams and then Brett Harker after he took over there. I always love coming to your facility even though and I'm gonna do what we broadcasters do Russie. I'm gonna gripe a little bit. The visiting radio booth had a window about this big to look out of, to call the game but we made it through. And I always love coming up there because we were always treated very, very well and it's always good baseball. - Yeah and I would say that I had a lot to do many blood, sweat and tears to get the stadium designed because before 2011 it was the worst in Division One but I didn't have anything to do with the size of the windows in the press box so I'm gonna pass that off with somebody else. - Plausible deniability, I love it. - Yeah that's what you call it. How did you fall in love with the game of baseball? Because up until 2019 obviously it was your life. - It was for the first 49 years of my life. I was six years old. I grew up in Cherubil, North Carolina which is the baseball capital of the world or at least we think we are and we're. And so my mom took me to, she was a school teacher. I was six years old. I was home for the summer and I think she wanted to get rid of me each morning but she actually came and stayed and took me down to this little club where they had teams. I don't wanna make this story too long but at six years old I started playing on a little team called The Pirates which started my lifelong obsession with the Pittsburgh Pirates and I was absolutely terrible. I could not hit a ball, I could catch a ball but I loved it and I know my mom laughed even today about thinking that every day when I came walking up that hill after I practiced or our little games 'cause you did it five days a week that would be the day I would say I don't wanna do this anymore but every day we got in that car and she would say do you have fun? It was great and she was thinking wow he can't hit a ball at all. And so she, I give her credit for that passion because she kept lifting me back up every day and encouraging me and by the time I was seven I was starting to hit the ball and catch the ball and by the time I was eight I was one of the better ones on the team and really yeah that started my love for baseball and I couldn't imagine doing anything else after that. Yeah you know before Cal Ripkin came along I guess the prototypical shortstop was a great glove light hitting and sounds like that's what you were as a seven year old or six year old but you kind of graduated beyond that. And I was except it wasn't the great glove. Well you were consistent. Yeah and I was consistent. I think that coach was a little type A and I know he was frustrated with me. And I'm being very honest I really, I remember it very distinctly. I hit a foul ball one time and I was so excited. During the little game I fouled one off toward the bench and it almost hit the coach. And then I got a walk that I was excited about and then the great day happened when I was six. I hit a fair ball, ground ball to the first baseman and he tagged the base before I was halfway to first but it was the greatest moment of my baseball career up to that point. I will say this about parents in baseball. I never got pushed, I never got prodded, I got encouraged and I never got forced to do anything but my parents were great about supporting me all the way through school. And of course my career took a better turn after six playing on some state championship teams and then coaching and I would encourage parents to do that. Be very careful how much you're prodding or pressuring children because you can destroy the love of the game real quick like that. - Yeah and I know that even as a college coach and maybe we can talk about this a little bit later on you probably had to deal with some things with parents that you would rather not have had to deal with. And I coached American Legion for a while and some other things. And parents are wonderful and at the same time they can be very taxing. - Both, they can. - Yes. - I would say I was very fortunate as a coach and the parents that I had over the years leaned more towards being wonderful but there was some time, every coach is gonna encounter some of that. - Absolutely, visiting with Rusty Strap who was very successful college baseball coach and now a sociology professor and an interim pastor and we'll talk about that coming up in a bit. After that first foray into baseball when did you start to realize that hey I might be pretty good at this game? - So I played and started doing better and I really enjoyed it and I think my first love for baseball was more following it than it was playing it. I didn't have delusions about being in the major leagues. Now, I did the same thing every young man did in the carport, in the backyard or whatever. I played the seventh game of the World Series and got the winning hit 50 times I'm sure. And I was really stardier 'cause I was all about the Pirates but I began to be obsessively following the newspaper each day 'cause you couldn't see games on TV in 1971 and the Pirates were in the World Series and I just fell in love with every statistic and every bit of history of baseball and then of course I wanted to play. And about little league, when I was 11 I made the little league all-stars and then made it again when I was 12 and I was the starting second baseman for that all-star team and eventually the coach in ninth grade switched me in the shortstop and I became the shortstop and he was second baseman and we both played Division I baseball later but I think somewhere around 11 years old I started thinking, you know, this game's starting to come around to me where I've got some athletic ability here and I've certainly got some drive and I say that humbly because there were guys better than me but I began to realize that I could be pretty good if I'd really put a lot of hard work and hard into it. - Who poured into you because we all have people at that age if we're going to be good who coach us and hopefully coach us in the right way? Who poured into you? Who mentored you during your formative years, maybe even through high school? - Yeah, so I was very fortunate. I had a fantastic little league coach and back then this is the early 70s you played from nine years old till 12. So when I showed up at nine years old and the 12 year old said already started puberty you know, I was a little bitty thing and didn't get to play a whole lot but then when I was 10 my coach was one of those coaches who didn't have a son on the team was just an older gentleman that loved baseball, taught us the game, we practiced every day, we knew how to win, we won the league championship the one year and he really taught me some things that I ended up teaching to players in college but the one thing he was was he's always very encouraging. Now he would get on us if we were slack but for the most part I felt very comfortable around him and he had these little things he would say to us that were encouraging, that I felt uplifted being around him and like, this is a fun game. He wanted to make sure we had a good time but he also wanted to make sure we did it right and by the time I got to junior high and I still am in touch with my junior high coach he was fantastic and we share stories even now eighth and ninth grade, he was tough but that guy loved us and he actually coached me in football basketball and baseball, I was around him more than I was around my family and vice versa and he taught me how to compete with everything I've got but the thing I learned from him was when something went wrong in my life from baseball, that arm went on my shoulder and that arm went around me telling me everything's gonna be okay, sometimes after you check me out great high school coach, Henry Jones, great legion coach Don Singh, we won the state in legion end high school and then Jim Morrison College, I think I learned a little bit from every coach about what kind of coach I wanted to be and that wasn't just baseball, I had some football and basketball coaches as well that really poured into me and were always encouraging to me and put me in my placement, I needed it too. - Which maybe is another rabbit trail we can go down a little bit later as we continue visiting with Rusty Strappe. All right, that's how you fell in love with baseball. Tell me how you fell in love with Jesus. - So yeah, I grew up, I had great parents still do, my parents are still hanging in there and doing well and traveling back and forth to Florida in the winter in their 80s now. But I grew up in church, we were expected to go to Sunday school in church, I never remember a time feeling that that was a drudgery. I had friends there, the youth group and then we'd sit in church and sometimes I got a little squirmy like every other kid, but it really soaked in to me but and we got went through confirmation at 12. But what really happened to me to where I really claimed it personally was when I went off to college at App State and as is the case for some folks a lot, you're away from those influences, you're away from your family and you get drawn into some other things. But I just kind of looked at myself about the fall of my sophomore year and just kind of looked at myself in the mirror and said, like, who are you? Like this is not who you are. You've and I remember driving one time, I got lost and I was thinking, well, I should pray, Lord of God and I remember kind of looking up and this is right around that time I'm talking about looking up and as soon as my head looked up and my car, it went straight back down my chin to my chest 'cause I felt very ashamed of who I'd become. So I resolved at that moment to surrender. I believe that I was in love with the Lord way before that 'cause I remember as a child, some very important things happening to me that were deep but it was a prodigal thing. And I remember coming back and feeling that forgiveness and that love even deeper than I ever had before and that December of 1983, when I was 20, I recommitted my life to the Lord and it's been a different road ever since. - Visiting with Rusty Strap, former baseball coach at Gardner Webb University, which is where I first came in contact with him and now a sociology professor and also an interim pastor. Did you ever think that in your wildest dreams, I can see maybe you thought there was an educational aspect of what your career might end up being but did you ever think that there was any part of you that wanted to be a pastor or was that on your radar at all? - At the back of the radar because in youth group and in high school, they would have and many churches still do this. Once a year they would have youth Sunday and they always asked me and one other of my real close friends, my age, to be the ones who to give the message. He would give one, I would give one because neither one of us could go that long. And I remember the pastor at the time coming up and say you just might end up being in the ministry someday. And I remember thinking that I'm wanting to be in sports and I want to be a teacher. I want to be a high school history teacher and a, I wasn't even sure I was gonna coach then and I didn't know if I was good enough to. Yeah, I think over the years what ended up happening is that the sports, the coaching thing gave me a platform. And I got asked many times to come and speak to youth groups, to church groups, to spiritual gatherings. And I began to feel that as a calling and then there was a pastor, essentially when I moved to Gardener way of my pastor when I moved said, you know, don't run from what God's want me to do. And I said, yeah, I know. And he said, that's, I think that's in your future. And I said, for now I want to be in the ministry but I want it to be in my sport. I feel like God's leaving me. He said, that's great. I think someday you'll be in a pulpit somewhere. And so well, I had real good encouragement from people but yes, that tugging was kind of always there in the background but I knew when the time was right that God would nudge me and that was in 2019. And yet all of those years you were coaching collegiately and the bulk of that obviously was spent at Gardener web. You had some stops before there as you worked your way up. But all those years you were coaching collegiately, that was your mission field. You had your own ministry as a baseball coach. - It was a ministry and still is. I tell coaches that now I guess I'm old and I tell the younger ones, you are in ministry. And I hear that a lot too. Anytime you're in contact with other people, you're in ministry and it doesn't have to be quote, full-time ministry or ordained ministry. We are all ministers of the gospel. And so I don't regret one moment of my coaching career as far as it keeping me from sharing or keeping me from ministry because it was ministry. And I tried to keep focus on that from the very beginning when I was 23 years old and became a middle school baseball coach by virtue of the previous coach from the other year handed me the key to the equipment room and said, "It's yours, I'm done with it." And it became a ministry and I just transitioned in ministries in 2019 to a little different one because thinking out of college, especially a public one is a ministry too. So I would encourage anyone who is considering going into the ministry to think and realize that you're already in the ministry, whatever situation you're in, God has put you there for a reason. - During all your years coaching at the college level and obviously living out your faith at the same time, did you ever run into any opposition? People who said, "Hey, you can't do that here "or you shouldn't do that here?" - Yes, and it didn't happen at Gardner Webb because in 2002, one of the things when I made a decision to leave Landry University, which I love down in Greenwood, South Carolina, is because it was a private Christian school and I would have a lot more freedom with my team and my program. When I first got to Landry University in 1997, I actually was the first coach ever in history. I essentially, they hired me to start the program. And so that first year I included optional devotions for players on Sunday morning and nothing was forced. But an article came out and we had some initial success, a whole lot sooner than anybody thought. So they did an article about me and I made the statement in the article that I'm here to honor and glorify the Lord. And if I coach a little baseball along the way, then that's fine too. And I want to try to give you a short synopsis of this, but that article came out on a Monday and within three or days or so, the athletic director called me in who was on my side and said, "We got a problem." There's, he said, "I want you to read this." And it was a petition on campus from some faculty members to get me fired immediately and terminated for abusing my position for to try to perpetuate a specific religion. Boy, they had it written up good. And he looked at me and he looked at my reaction and I started smiling and this is, I can remember it to this day and he goes, "I gotta ask, why are you smiling?" I said, "Hey, this is the first time in my life "that my faith has offended somebody." Like, I feel fantastic. Like, I'm not saying it's persecution, but this is validation for me. My faith has irritated somebody. Like, and I said, "I'm standing behind this." And he goes, "Well, we gotta meet with the president "'cause this is serious." We met with our president at Lander and he sat down, he's a great guy. And he said, "Hey, I just got a few questions "about the article 'cause they won't, "they're demanding a retraction and a new article "and you take," I said, "Sir, I'm not taking back "anything," I said in that article. I realized the newspaper reporter was trying to stir up some things and he was looking for some controversy, but, and we all knew that, but I said exactly what he printed and I'm not taking that back. He said, "Okay." He said, "Here's what I need to know. "Are you using your position as the coach "to only recruit Christians? "How do you decide who's on your baseball team?" And I said, "It is not a factor "what somebody's spiritual faith background "or lack thereof, our recruit based on talent "and fit for land or academically and character wise. "And that's how I pick our team." He said, "That's all I need to hear. "I'll take care of the faculty, you keep coaching." And so that was the time I met opposition. The other times I coped for it, private schools, wasn't any opposition much. - So what did you learn through that? - Well, I learned to stand up for your faith and I remember some of my friends rallying behind me once they found this out. And one guy from our church said, "Hey, this is not gonna happen. "I know a lawyer, we're gonna win this "if they come after you. "I've got a lawyer ready that can easily represent you." And I remember, I didn't tell my wife for a while 'cause I didn't want her to worry about it. But I remember during that time thinking, never once did I think, "Ah, I might have overdone it. "I might have overstepped my butt." I remember thinking, "This is great. "Imagine if I lose my job over this, the platform, "it's now gonna give me as I'm searching "for the next job to feed my family." And I knew God would take care of it. When you stand up for God, and I feel like that's what I was doing, I haven't done all that well at all times in my life, but I did then. And I felt like every moment I had this peace that God kept saying, "I've got this, I've got this." Regardless how it turns out, I've got you, and this is gonna be for the glory of my kingdom. So what I learned from that is, stand up for what you believe. I'm in a public institution now, and I have been. So we're under the authority of some things that we can and can't do. That doesn't mean it means when I get opportunities to do 'em though, I'm not gonna back down. - Right. And I can't help but think as you're talking there, one thing that you can't do, one thing I can't do, one thing any Christ follower can't do, in my opinion, is intentionally seek out opportunities to be persecuted, because that's self-serving. And I get the sense, Rusty, and you may or may not, you can tell me, I get the sense there are some people in the Christian world who that's their mode of operation. And they're far too comfortable not just playing the victim, but looking for chances to be the victim if you understand where I'm going. - I do, and when I say that, I don't wanna be any bit critical of any Christian brothers or sisters of mine, but I do agree that there are times when some folks will intentionally bust through the door or walk over the line to try to create and stir. And I don't think Jesus ever really did that. I know he had some righteous anger toward the, in the temple, but I think he tried to, you can't bully people into the kingdom of God, you love them into the kingdom, you show them compassion. And if you are making a stand and you are attacked for that, you have a right to defend that, but to go pick battles, try to pick fights with people, that's not my conviction, that may be somebody else's. But I don't think we back down when we get a chance, but I have had conversations with people that said, you know, you should do this in class 'cause then you might get in trouble and then that could bring the platform. And I don't really think that's exactly what God wants me to do. He may have somebody. I get protest and all that. I get standing, I understand all that. But for me, the best way to use my platform from the kingdom is to show kindness, compassion, the love of Christ like he did when he was here. And if that gets threatened, then I'll make my stand. - Yeah, I, as you know, work for a very liberal private university. And there would be plenty of opportunities if I wanted to proceed in such a manner to do just what we're talking about here, but I just can't see where that is bringing glory to God. That's bringing attention or would be bringing attention to Dan if I were actively seeking ways to be a martyr. - Well, see, I think that's perfect. Go ahead. - No, no, I was just, I was just gonna say not that the temptation has not been there on some of the things that I see on a regular basis. But my job is to live my faith the best I can and let Jesus be seen through me and not put myself in front of the cross by going out and creating opportunities to be a martyr or a victim. I don't think that's the way it works. And that's just my opinion. - Yeah, and I think you're a right on that. I think what God has, the way I interpret the verses in the Bible where it says to stand in the gap, that God needs people to stand in the gap. Well, the reason he needs people to stand in the gap 'cause there's a gap there. Say go carve a gap. It says stand in that gap. And I think when we try to bust down some walls and force the issue on some things that we might not be as much standing in gap as we are creating unnecessary division. - Visiting with Rusty Strap on this week's edition of the Dan Scott show, you coached a lot of players over your time. I was just strolling through some of your social media stuff and you've got some former players who are doing well. That's gotta be very satisfying for you to see guys that came through Tiny Gardener web who are on the precipice maybe of hitting the big time and achieving that dream of getting to the big leagues. You've had some talented young men come through there. - I have and I've been fortunate in my career to coach. Three of my players eventually ended up in the major leagues, which is great and one has is back down in AAA now and I think he's got a great chance to be back up this year. The other two, well, one is in AA. I just talked to him yesterday and I tell those guys the same thing every time when I talk to 'em and say, look, no matter what you end up doing in the bigs or if you get released or whatever, I'm more concerned with the man you are than I am the player you are. Be a good father, be a good husband, be a good Christian. I'm as proud of those young men and the ones who went to, I've got one, I'm a proud and one young man who never played any pro ball. He's a Chick-fil-A franchise, one of the owners of one of the stores and I'm just as proud of him. So yes, I had some guys make the bigs, which I would remind any players that you can, if you put up numbers or if you play well at any level, you can get noticed. But more importantly, your character is gonna take you further. Even if you make the bigs and stay there five or six years, you're only 30 some years when your career ends. You've got a lot of years left to be who you are and don't let that identity, don't let your identity be what your stats were in baseball or what your accomplishments were in any sport, let your identity be a child of God, connected to God through Christ. - That's one of the things that I had to learn in broadcasting over the last handful of years is that it's what I do, it's not who I am. And it's easy to lose your identity in your business, especially if you have even moderate success in whatever it is, that can become your identity if you're not careful. But the thing that I love, Rusty, and what I'm hearing is that whether it's a guy who becomes a Chick-fil-A owner, or if it's a guy who's in the big leagues, the relationships that you built with them while they were there have carried beyond just their time at Gardener Web, they still consider you to be a mentor and an influence in their life. - And I can't get them to not call me coach. I mean, I coach, I'm 60 now, and my first crowd that I coached when I first got out there, 54 and 55, I was pretty, and they still say coach. And I'm like, you don't really have to do that. No, you'll always be coach. And I appreciate that. And I do have, social media has really, people bash it all the time, but it's like anything can be used for good and bad. But I have been able to stay connected. I have been able to see pictures of my former players and their families. I have been able to have a text group with a number of my former players, and we exchange Bible verses and prayer requests and just greetings occasionally on holidays. And I wouldn't trade that for anything. One of the things that I dedicated myself to and felt like God was leading me to do, when I finished coaching in 2019, when I retired from college coaching baseball, I knew that my coaching career wasn't over. I am now dedicated to being a resource, being a mentor, being there for my former players. For the rest of my life, I'll still have that coaching ministry. I just want to be doing it on the field anymore. - What did maybe something that you took from coaching in all those years, how has that helped you in this stage of your life? Not just necessarily as a teaching professor, but in what you're doing as far as the interim pastorship, which has become your ministry. Anything from your time as a baseball coach, help you as to what you're doing now? - Yes, you meet people where they are. We tend to, I tended to as a coach if you're not careful to evaluate people on what they can do for you. So if you're a coach, we're always out recruiting saying he could help us as an infielder, he could hit, he could help us win, how much is he contributing to? So we tend to robotically turn people into commodities. Commodities are things that can be useful to us. And I had to really get out of that mindset. As a coach, I have to evaluate. There's no way around that, but I got to see a person behind that. And I think sometimes the same thing happens when I'm teaching now. I try to meet every student where they are, who they are, and not, so for example, if one of them's a little high maintenance, so what, they're high maintenance. That doesn't mean I treat them any different than I would, that one student who's making straight A's, it does everything I ask. They're there for a reason, and I've got to meet them where they are. In churches, and this is something I would say to pastors, this really helped me in coaching. Once I got into a pastor to answer your question directly, is pastors can see their congregations as commodities? How much are they gonna contribute financially? How much are they gonna volunteer for a committee? What are they contributing to this church? How are they gonna help me get my agenda onto this church? Like what good are they doing this church? And that is such not the way we should view the people in our congregation, not as what they can contribute, but how we can serve them. Jesus had a servant leadership heart, and as pastors, we need to do the same thing and not view our congregation. I would never say my congregation. I never as a coach said my players. I would say our program or our team, because they don't belong to me. They never have the members of a church, or the players on a team are not my players in terms of me possessing them. If I use the word my, it would be loosely not as if they belong to me. So I think that's been a major. I think it really helped me when I got into the pastor and in teaching to really view people and try to see them for who they are and not what they can give to me or anything else. - There's a great debate now and a lot of hand-ringing about kids in general, perhaps athletes, specifically being different today than they were a generation ago. Your coaching career spanned a lot of years. - What has changed more the kids themselves or the way we have approached coaching and teaching and bringing up our kids? - Both. From a coaching standpoint, and I think college football shows us this the most. Old school college football was kind of grinded out. But now you can't have a successful program in college football, and I would say in baseball or without developing some kind of relationship between coaches and their players creating that family atmosphere, that culture, giving them something beyond that sport. And there are a lot of good examples of programs that do it, everybody claims now the family atmosphere, but you can't not do that now. You have to give them something beyond just making them a better player. It has to be the holistic approach with the players. And I say this very passionately. I think one of our biggest mistakes as coaches and as a generation of folks who have aged is to start bashing the younger generation, start talking about back in the day when I had that team 20 years ago, they just did this. There were things problems with the team 20 years ago too, I can promise you. I think our players in my last 10 years were maybe a little more dedicated to the game. They had to put in more time than I ever had to. But early morning lifts and all that. And then we call them the trophy generation. We say, yeah, they grew up where everybody's getting a trophy and I would be very quick to remind people that that is not their fault. Who gave out the trophies when they were six and seven? We did the parents. We're the ones that handed everybody a trophy. And yet we're blaming them for being spoiled and we're blaming them for being the trophy generation, the me generation, and we created that. I take offense to people that bash this new generation of youth and of college players because I think they're fantastic. I think they've got problems. I think they've got issues like we did. They're just different. But I think there's great hope in that generation. And the less we criticize and the more we try to understand and develop connections, the better the world's gonna be. - I know you've got to get onto something else here. So I'll wrap it up with this question. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? - I try very hard not to do that. (laughing) I try very hard to live with this. And I don't mean to evade that question. - No. - I would love to be a, I got three sons, one's engaged, they're adult sons. I would love to be a grandfather who's probably retired from what we would call work. I'll never retire from ministry in terms of trying to do what I do each day and being a husband and a father and hopefully a grandfather by the end. But I really try not to, I really try to say to God, when I wake up each morning, it's on 118-24. This is the day that you have made. I'm gonna rejoice and be glad in it. Tell me what you want today and really try to live that tomorrow. We'll take care of tomorrow if I live in the now. So I really don't see myself. I probably have a little less hair. I hope I'm still alive, but I really just have tried to live in the now. I tried to do that with my children because people always said, yeah, they'll grow up quick and then you'll miss when they're little. Well, I don't miss when they're little. I enjoyed when they were little. But I went for when they got old enough for us to go to a restaurant where we could sit there and eat and not have all the commotion. I enjoyed when they became teenagers and we could go fishing together and hunting together and play ball together. I enjoy when they're adults and they come home and visit and we can talk like me. And I'm just gonna take each stage of life and enjoy it for what it is and not wish away the past or the future. - And man, isn't that a philosophy that we all should adopt to live in the moment, not get so wrapped up in what's happened in the past and not wish away what's happening now, looking so much at the future, but enjoy what's happening in the moment. And as someone with two adult children and four grandchildren, three here, one in heaven and a fifth one on the way, that is a bit of advice that I personally need to take to heart a little more. Rusty Strap, thank you again so much for the time that you gave us when we recorded the interview earlier this year and we'll step aside, come back, but first let me remind you that Ingles only sells USDA choice or prime beef and it's always cut in the store. Ingles meat managers are just like your friendly neighborhood butcher. Remember those days? Cut fresh into order, Ingles, low prices love the savings. More the dance show continues. We are presented by Ingles and we'll be back in just a moment. - Every day there are children who leave school on Friday and eat little and sometimes nothing until they come back to school on Monday. It happens in every community, including yours. Many of these children live in circumstances that deprive them of basic needs necessary for a quality life. At Grand Slam Ministries, we wanna change that. We wanna invest in our children, giving them hope for the future. That investment includes necessities such as food, clothing, school supplies and a safe environment to play, to study, to live. Please visit our website, grandslamministries.org to find out more about our ministry and how you can help. We're just getting started. Will you come alongside us for the children's sake? Again, that's grandslamministries.org. (upbeat music) - It's time to kick off the perfect tailgate and take your team to Ingles. Chips and guac made fresh in store every day. The best meat in town, packaged fresh every day and smiling faces giving you their best every day. Let's be real, in the South, football season is our favorite season of the year. There's a lot to smile about, especially with deals like these. Ingles, low prices, love the savings. - Upward Sports equips churches to run self-sustaining sports ministries in their communities. Whether you're a sports fanatic or on staff at a church, Upward Sports will give you all the tools you need to run a first-class sports ministry that allows you to reach families in your community. Upward Sports offers basketball, soccer, flag football, cheerleading, volleyball, baseball and softball through league and camp offerings. At Upward Sports, we want to help your church make a difference and give you increased opportunities to share the gospel. Learn more today at Upward.org. That's Upward.org. - Teenage boys and young men today are in crisis. Statistics show that a home without a father or male role model present is the single biggest indicator of poverty, behavior issues, drug and alcohol abuse, criminal activity and yes imprisonment. At Grand Slam Ministries, one of our core missions is developing a mentorship program to teach boys how to become strong Christian men and then teach those men to be the biblical husbands, fathers and church and community leaders the Bible calls us to be. We need your prayers, we need your ideas and we need your support. Visit our website, Grand Slam Ministries.org to find out more about our mentorship mission and prayerfully consider how you may be able to assist us. Again, that website is Grand Slam Ministries.org. (upbeat music) - Follow us on social media, Dan Scott Show, on X and Instagram, plus dance, personal and public figure pages on Facebook. Now back to the show. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) Did you know that Ingalls has donated more than $18 million to schools in our market areas? You can help by linking your Ingalls Advantage card to the school of your choice. And when you shop, you're also earning money for that school. Schools can select from the number one supplier of school supplies in the world, everything from pencils to computer labs to STEM. Visit our website at Ingalls-markets.com, click on tools for schools to learn how you can help students and teachers right here at home. Back for the final segments of the show. And I hope you enjoyed the interview with Rusty Strap. Coming up in future episodes, we'll be speaking, I believe next week, to a young man named Ivan Ajagwa, who is a senior soccer player at Furman University, 24 years old, and he is from London, born in Germany. His family roots go back to Ghana, an international student with an amazing testimony. And I, in fact, when we recorded the interview last week, I said during that interview that he possesses for 24 an incredible maturity and is wise beyond his years. Like all of us, it took some adversity to get there. So we'll be visiting with Ivan Ajagwa, coming up, Doug Flynn and Darryl Chaney, a couple of members of the old big red machine. Chaney also spent a portion of his career with the Atlanta Braves. We'll be checking in with both of those guys in future episodes and working on a new interview that we'll be doing hopefully in the not too distant future with another former Atlanta brave, Glen Hubbard. So we're looking forward to that and got a lot of other things in the pipeline as well. As we get to the end here, I mentioned way back at the beginning of the show that after the week that we just completed coming through election day, first of all, I think all of us, regardless of which side of the political aisle you may fall on, got to be happy that we're not gonna see any more political ads for a while. But there is a lot of animosity on both sides, even on the winning side. And I was just reminded again this week that the Jesus of the Bible, the real Jesus, not the Jesus that is used as a political weapon on both sides because we've seen both sides do it. But the Jesus of the Bible, when you read, as I'm doing right now, my daily reading has me in Matthew, when you read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and you read the actual words of Jesus and follow along his three and a half year ministry. That Jesus, the real Jesus is far more conservative for liberals to take, and he's far more liberal for conservatives to take. And people on both sides like to weaponize Christianity, or weaponize religion overall, but Christianity as it has been since the days of Jesus is the hot button of all hot buttons when it comes to religious conversations. So I'm just reminded again this week, and I know this is a sports and faith show, but I'm just sharing a little bit of what's been on my heart this week, that salvation in Christ is not something that can be weaponized politically. Salvation in Christ doesn't veer to the right, nor does it veer to the left. The salvation in Christ goes straight to the cross, that straight and narrow path. And my hope and my prayer is that now that this portion of the turmoil has died down, because we know there's going to be more. There always is. The side that wins wants to flaunt, the side that loses, tries to regroup and come back even stronger than before. So there's going to be more turmoil. But my hope is that God gets into the heart of not only president-elect Trump, but leadership on both sides. You know, you go back to the Bible, you go back to the Old Testament and you see God using pagan kings to accomplish his will, whether it was Pharaoh or Nebuchadnezzar or Darius, or any of the other examples you can come up with. Sometimes doing things and they don't know why they did them, but it was the hand of God directing them to do his will. So make no mistake, that same God is on the throne and he can direct anyone to do his will, whether they are a pagan or whether they are a follower of Christ. My hope, my prayer is that the leadership on both sides will turn their eyes to Jesus Christ. Now, is that going to happen? World history would say no, but that doesn't mean that we don't pray for it. We have to continue to pray for peace. We have to continue to pray for God's will to be done. And we have to continue to pray for our leaders. Paul and Peter both write in their epistles very clearly that we're to pray for our leaders, whether we agree with them politically or not. So that is as political as you're going to hear me get. But I thought that I would just share a little bit of my heart coming off of election day and moving forward praying that both sides will step back, take a breath. And I guess the word I'm looking for is civility. There's not going to be agreement. The political divide in this country is too wide. There's not going to be agreement, but there can be civility. And that's my prayer as we move forward. As I said, that's as political as you're ever going to hear me get. I want to thank Rusty Strap again for his time, not too long ago when we sat down and recorded that interview. And we look forward to being back with you again next week here on Fox Sports Upstate and ESP in Asheville. Guess what? Your NFL coverage is coming up. And we'll be back with you again next Sunday. Check us out at dancescotshow.org. And we'll talk to you again. Dancescot Show presented by Ingles. I'm Dan. God bless you. So long, everybody. [MUSIC PLAYING] (upbeat music) You