Tony Rasmus returns to Russell County High, decides if he’ll coach baseball again
A week after winning the appeal of his employment suspension, Tony Rasmus returned to his teaching job Friday at Russell County High School — but not as the head baseball coach. And he doesn’t plan to continue fighting the legal battle to lead the Warriors again.
“I’ll be pulling for the team from the stands,” Rasmus told the Ledger-Enquirer in an emailed interview, “but I have zero desire to ever coach baseball again at Russell County.”
Rasmus explained he is deferring to superintendent Brenda Coley’s decision to keep interim head coach Logan Williamson.
“Dr. Coley felt the baseball players at Russell County needed a new leader and that the program needed to change its direction,” Rasmus said. “The kids who played for me prior to this mess have all left the program. They transferred to Central, Smiths and Calvary.
“There are some really good young kids at Russell County whose parents really support the new coach and the direction Dr. Coley has chosen to go. So there’s really nobody left that played for me, so the new coach gets to start with a clean slate, which is what he needed.”
The L-E didn’t reach Coley for comment before publication.
While he waits for the Feb. 22 school board meeting, when he expects to learn whether he will be repaid the estimated $42,850 in salary he missed during his eight-month suspension, Rasmus focused Friday on enjoying his return to RCHS, where he teaches weightlifting.
“Good seeing a lot of the people that I’ve worked with for 20-plus years,” he said. “Lot of hugs.”
Asked whether he will try to coach baseball elsewhere, Rasmus said, “I would love to coach again. I still believe I can help kids reach their dreams. I’m a pitching guy, so maybe I can stumble into a place looking for a pitching coach.”
Background about Tony Rasmus case
On Oct. 18, a jury found Rasmus not guilty of a Class A misdemeanor of third-degree assault, the verdict a county judge reached in a June trial after a player accused the coach of choking him. The jurors concluded Rasmus is guilty of the lesser offense of harassment, for touching the player during the Feb. 16, 2021, confrontation.
At an Oct. 28 hearing stretching into the wee hours of the next day, Coley’s request to fire Rasmus. Instead, the board voted 4-1 to suspend Rasmus without pay until June 30. He had been suspended with pay since March 2, the same day Rasmus turned himself in at the Russell County Sheriff’s Office and made bond on the assault charge.
Rasmus then appealed his suspension to the Alabama Department of Education. Retired Alabama Supreme Court Justice Terry Butts served as the hearing officer.
In his Feb. 4 written ruling, Butts said the Russell board “violated fundamental requirements of due process to which Rasmus was entitled throughout their handling of the employment action against Rasmus.”
Tony Rasmus baseball success
Rasmus coached Russell County to the 2005 Alabama Class 5A state title and a Phenix City all-star team to the 1999 U.S. championship and runner-up finish in the Little League World Series. He played three seasons in the minor leagues during the 1980s. Three of his four sons also played professional baseball.
Rasmus has worked for 23 years in the Alabama public school system, so he needs only two more years to receive a full retirement package from the state, he told the L-E last fall.
The RCHS baseball program never had a winning season before Rasmus’ first season as the head coach in 2001, he said. Since then, he led the Warriors to 590 wins, 17 area championships, a No. 1 national ranking by USA Today, Baseball America and Collegiate Baseball, helped 70 players earn college scholarships, including 25 in NCAA Division I, and Major League Baseball teams have drafted 19 of his players, including four in the first round, he said.
Interim Russell County baseball coach
Williamson is from Pensacola, Florida, and most recently was the head coach of the Covington Lumberjacks in the Valley Baseball League, a collegiate summer baseball league in the Shenandoah Valley region of Virginia.
Williamson coached for three years at Pensacola State College. He was the pitching coach for Pensacola Catholic High School, which won the 2012 Florida Class 4A state title and was ranked No. 1 nationally by MaxPreps. He also has conducted baseball camps in Pensacola and at Louisiana State University.
After the Chicago White Sox selected him in the 27th round of the 2004 Major League Baseball draft following his sophomore season at Pensacola Junior College, Williamson went 12-20 with a 5.23 ERA and one save in 196.1 innings, 50 games and 35 starts during four seasons in the minor leagues.
Staff writer Tim Chitwood contributed to this story.
