Chris Whitaker
It was Sept. 9, 2000. The Schley County Wildcats were playing their first-ever football game against Glascock County at the then-Sumter County campus.
Down one point, coach Rusty Tondee decided to go for the win, but his Wildcats failed to score and came up short, 15-14. But that’s the greatest memory that still lingers in Tondee’s mind since the school opened its doors nine years ago.
“There were people everywhere; they just wanted to come see us,” said Tondee. “We were new, and we hadn’t been in school three weeks. We had a two-point play that was called no good. They said we fumbled into the end zone, but it was clearly in the end zone by a foot and a half. The same official that made the call seen me a little bit later and told me they missed the call.
“We had a caravan from here. It was that first game I’ll never forget. It was so much fun.”
When Schley County opened its doors of the high school in 2000, the school was starting from scratch. And all the athletics program had at the time was an old weight set donated from Bill Clark at Dooly County.
The Wildcats won one game that year, a 21-16 decision against Stewart-Quitman. But the memories never grow old.
“Thirty of us got dressed in a dressing room at the board office,” said Tondee, who is 47. “That was the Neanderthal days of the athletic program. When I started, I didn’t have anything. I hope I did a good enough job to pass off a successful program.”
Tondee passes the athletics director and assistant principal torches today to a former player of his in Brian Hall as he takes a couple of steps over into the high school principal’s office. He replaces Larry Stubbs, who was promoted to superintendent after serving nine years as Schley County’s principal.
“It’s hard to say goodbye to the every day operational duties of being the AD, but as principal, I will be ultimately responsible for the athletic programs as well as the academic program of Schley County Middle and High School,” said Tondee. “I’m looking forward to the new challenge. We’ve created a good thing I think, and now it’s my responsibility to take it and run with it a while to pass it off at a later date. I want to leave something better than when I got it.”
And that’s just what Tondee did.
Schley County went from a new program in 2000 to competing for the postseason in most sports, especially baseball. Coach Tim Peavy has been with the school the entire time and served as an assistant that first season under Tondee on the baseball team.
Peavy remembered the days of trying to put a fence up at the field behind the Schley County Board of Education building so the team could play baseball. And now, the Wildcats have won at least 20 games in five-straight seasons and have reached the Elite 8 and Final Four.
“We had to dig holes and put up plastic fencing just so we could have a field,” said Peavy. “Even to this day, there’s still not a fence there.
“But coach Tondee always believed in Schley County and what was happening. He believed in the community, and they were going to support it. He never relented from it. He made a commitment to excellence, and he was not going to settle for less than the very best. He didn’t want second-rate facilities.
“We’ve developed a name for ourselves, a respectable name in sports and academics. He played a major role in that and never gave into the pressure of it couldn’t be done, or we were too small. He continued to move forward.”
Schley started with seven sports and is now up to 11. The football field was completed for the 2003 season, and the baseball and softball fields opened in 2003.
Tondee said the facilities were very important in establishing the school, but most important was developing each player’s character.
“I am proud of the development of our facilities as they are as nice, if not nicer, than most of those we play on in Class A,” he said. “I am also extremely proud of the young men and ladies who have and continue to represent the black and silver.”
And because Tondee cared so much for his students, his job never ended when he left school or sporting events. He said the long weeks made him feel 20 years older because he’d spend three to five nights a week at the school, getting home anywhere from 7-11:30 p.m. at night.
He’s seen 89 football games in nine years, missing only three; around 150 basketball; more than 200 baseball; more than 100 softball; and half of the track meets. That doesn’t even include the number of junior varsity and middle school events.
But when a student needed him, Tondee made himself available. When then-sophomore Chad Fullman’s father passed away last fall, it wasn’t long before Tondee got there.
“I just told him I understood how he felt,” said Tondee. “Unless you’ve been through it, people who tell you they know how you feel, they don’t have a right to say that. Both of mine passed away.
“My mother passed away my sophomore season of baseball, dead in the middle of the region race. That was tough. My father passed away my first year of teaching and coaching at Southland, a month before Traci and I got married. I knew I had to be there for Chad.”
Said Fullman: “He was a big part in helping me get through everything. He was there for me, and he was there to support me. It just let me know people were there to help me out and show that somebody actually cared.
“I think he gets real close with everybody and forms a good relationship to help everyone out. He cares a whole lot about everybody.”
Tondee carries the same attitude with his students at school as he does with his two sons, Josh, 21, and Tyler, 18 — he wants to be a good father figure to everyone who walks the halls at Schley.
“You look through their eyes, and you hope they never have to go through the same situation in their lives that you may have,” said Tondee. “You try to create a situation where they know sports is important, but having a real firm grasp on what’s most important here, and that’s family.
“Family comes No. 1 over anything, job, sports. I try to let the kids in these hallways know that whether they’re an athlete or not, to let them know what the important things are in life. I want 15 years from now for a kid to come back and say to me, ‘Coach, you were good to me, and I saw things in you a real man needs to be. You exemplifies what a Christian man should be. You loved me like I was one of your kids.”
Josh, who played football, baseball and golf, said no matter the circumstances, his father showed support to him and his fellow classmates.
“He will support you no matter what you plan to do,” he said. “He has always been there to pick me back up, and that is what I can appreciate most. He never missed a game, and that was just his way of committing his time and money to what I wanted to do.”
Tondee began the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at the school, and Stubbs said that was part of him being “an outstanding role model.”
“He certainly stays on the coaches of the importance of being a good role model for kids and having good character,” he said. “We do not tolerate any use of profane language around students, and Rusty has the same expectations. I think it shows his commitment to the school, sports programs, academics and his Christian walk. I think those are the key attributes Rusty has.”
Tyler, who played football and baseball, said it will be a transition for his father, but one that he will do well.
“In my eyes, he was the best AD in the state,” he said. “He was always on top of things and was devoted 100 percent to it. I guess his four AD’s of the Year proved that.
“It will be different for the family; probably more stress on him. I’m kind of nervous because I want him to be his best, and I know he will. Moving from focusing on how your sports do and how the school is will be different now. But I think he will do a great job.”
Even in a new position, Tondee feels not much will change, even though his two sons have graduated.
“You can bet I will continue to be at every game I can and will continue to be the biggest Wildcat fan,” he said. “Our plans for the future are to continue to do whatever it takes to give our teams the best chance to be the most successful as possible and to make our facilities even better.”
