LIVINGSTON, Ala. – University of West Alabama head baseball coach Gary Rundles was inducted into the Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the annual TBCA Coaches Clinic in Franklin, Tenn.
“This is a great honor and I am very humbled by the fact that my peers believed I was deserving,” said Rundles. “Awards like this are only made possible by good players that performed well over the years.
“When I accepted this award, I accepted it on behalf of all the players I have had the privilege to coach and all the coaches I have coached with,” Rundles said, “because without them, I would never have been able to be honored like this.”
Rundles began his career as the head baseball coach at Central High School in Chattanooga, Tenn., where his teams won 171 games and the 1985 TSSAA state championship. From there he accepted a position at Carson-Newman University as an assistant football and baseball coach. In 1987 he assumed the head baseball coaching duties at Carson-Newman, where he would record 372 victories over 13 years.
Between 1987 and 1999, Rundles lead the Eagles to five conference championships, four runner-up titles, three conference tournament championships and two region championships, capped by appearances in the NAIA World Series in 1993 and NCAA World Series in 1999. He was named conference coach of the year six times.
In 1985 Rundles, who attended City High School in Chattanooga, was named the TACA state coach of the year and the TBCA coach of the year in 1999. In 2007 he was inducted into the Greater Chattanooga Sports Hall of Fame.
The 2014 season will be Rundles’ 15th at West Alabama, where he has been named the Alabama Baseball Coaches coach of the year three times and taken Tiger teams to NCAA Regional play on four occasions. He also served a term as the chairman of the NCAA Division II Baseball Committee.
Rundles’ 2014 UWA squad opens the season Feb. 1 by hosting Columbus (Ga.) State in a doubleheader. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.
(E-mail Larry Fleming at larryfleming44@gmail.com)