Arizona Christian University

Rusty Rogers enters his seventh year at the helm of the Arizona Christian University women’s basketball program—becoming the longest-tenured head coach in the 27-year history of the program.  He became the program’s winningest coach in November, 2024 and finished the 2024-25 season with a 100-66 career record at ACU.  He is now the winningest coach at three separate schools and has collected at least 100 victories at four different colleges.

In all, Rogers has been a head coach for 41 seasons and has amassed 797 victories, including 26 seasons and 459 wins at the college level.  His coaching career began at his alma mater Dyke College (OH) in 1982 where he helped start the school’s women’s basketball program after graduating in 1979.  Despite being new, the program never had a losing season and qualified for the NAIA postseason its fourth year of existence.  He followed that up with an impressive four-year run at Wilmington University (DE) that included 105 victories for a program that had never had a winning season. The Wildcats won NAIA District 19 three times and qualified for the NAIA National Tournament three times from 1992 to 1994, including two Sweet Sixteen appearances.

Rogers next stop was Western Oregon University where he promptly led the Wolves to back-to-back NAIA Division II National Championships in 1995 and 1996.  Before WOU entered the NCAA Division II ranks in 1999, he piloted the team to four separate NAIA National Tournaments.  Rogers was three-time Cascade Conference Coach of the Year and two-time NAIA National Coach of the Year while at WOU.

From 2000 to 2013, he coached at the scholastic level in Arizona and Texas.  He coached his daughter, Miranda, for four seasons at Houston Christian High School, where she earned all-state recognition her junior and senior year and compiled a national record 145 three-pointers in the 2013 season. 

With the help of his daughter, he re-entered the college coaching ranks with her at Concordia University Chicago where they produced three winning seasons for a program that hadn’t had a winning season in 30 years.  That included taking over a 2-23 team to 17 wins in his first season—the fourth largest one-year turnaround in the entire country at all levels. Miranda also became the CUC all-time leader in three-pointers.

Rogers has coached at least one All-American at every one of his collegiate stops (9 total) and two NAIA National Players of the Year.  When the Firestorm competed in the 2024 NAIA National Tournament and again in 2025, it marked Rogers’ tenth year in the tournament representing four different institutions.

Rogers earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Dyke College and a Master’s degree in Post-Secondary Education Administration from Cleveland State University.  He and his wife, Anita, reside in Scottsdale and attend Desert Foothills Lutheran Church in Scottsdale.