A few weeks ago, a hospital administrator in Cincinnati, Ohio felt the urge to stop by a local playground just to shoot around. Perhaps, the only time that the young people had ever seen this woman was in a pants suit or maybe in a business blazer and skirt.
They chuckled a bit when she asked to participate in a pickup game and just like her days back at Simmons High School and Delta State University, Jennifer Rushing did her opponents like homework.
“They were surprised that I could play,” Rushing said. “I hadn’t played any competitive basketball in a while, but I just had the itch to play.”
Just last year, Delta State inducted the two-time Gulf South Player of the Year, 2005 Freshman of the Year and four-time All Gulf South First Teamer into its Sports Hall of Fame.
Rushing ranks highly in scoring, assists and steals for Delta State and has to be mentioned in the conversation regarding the greatest female basketball players of all time in the Delta.
After finishing at Delta State in 2008, Rushing played professionally in Poland. “I played for two seasons against some tremendous talent,” she said. “I played against WNBA stars like Alaina Beard and Chamequa Holdsclaw.”
Basketball took Rushing all around the world, but it all started with her upbringing in Hollandale.
From the time she entered eighth grade until she played professionally, Rushing always started for the team she played for. She was a magician on the court as she handled the point form her point guard spot providing both late game showmanship and confidence.
Rushing was also an adept shooter from all over the floor as well and a high-IQ facilitator of the offense.
“I tried to play for Simmons varsity when I was in seventh grade, but they wouldn’t let me. I grew up playing pickup games with boys in my neighborhood,” she said. “This made my game so much better. And even when I played with the boys, it was always my goal to be the first pick. I developed my ball handling skills in a shirt tail league where we had to learn the fundamentals of dribbling and I really learned how to dribble well with my left hand and it probably drove my parents crazy how much I was dribbling the ball around the house keeping up noise.”
“So, I was confident at the end of games having the ball in my hands and preferred to do so because I didn’t want us to turn the ball over,” Rushing added.
Rushing had offers from big name schools in Mississippi, North Carolina, University of Memphis and from the utmost corners of the nation when she graduated from Simmons in 2004. But she chose Delta State because her older sister had played for the Lady Statesmen. She cherishes her education at DSU and the time she spent starring for the green and white. “Delta State has a rich tradition and a solid reputation for producing excellent student athletes,” Rushing said. “Everything I learned on the court and in the classroom translates well into medical administration and supply chain management. And I know my fellow employees get tired of me using sports analogies, but just like a game plan, we have to execute a strategy every day to make sure that people’s health is taken care of. Rushing credits her parents, her sister and the Patton, Bush and Lewis families as “being instrumental in my success.”
