New AHS baseball coach hopes to finish noteworthy career with Blue Comets

ASHEBORO — After touring the Asheboro High School campus and seeing all the detail involved with the renovated school building and then seeing the renovations at McCrary Park, Bradley Rudisill said he knew he had found a new home.

Rudisill, who has spent time at South Pointe High School in Rock Hill, S.C., Davie County High School in Mocksville, and Bunker Hill High School in Claremont, was recently named the Blue Comets' new baseball coach. He takes over for Brett Hoogkamp, who resigned after eight seasons.

“The people, when I was interviewing, I felt super comfortable with and they were so genuine about the Asheboro community and showed a great passion for the community,” Rudisill said of meeting with AHS Athletic Director Wes Berrier and Assistant AD Owen George, among others. “Going on campus and seeing the attention to detail, the gym, the weight room and then heading on over to McCrary. We are the only high school in North Carolina with a facility like that. I feel honored to see myself in there and putting my stamp on it.”

Originally from Catawba, Rudisill attended Bandys High School before signing with Rockingham Community College to play baseball. Rudisill then transferred to Appalachian State, where he got his degree in Health Education with minors in Criminal Justice and Psychology

Upon graduation from ASU, he became the Recruiting Coordinator/Pitching Coach at Montreat College before becoming the head baseball coach and a Physical Education teacher at South Point High School. While at South Pointe, the team won the regional championship and he was named Region 3 4-A Coach of the year in 2017. 

He then went to Davie County High School and built that program into a very successful one. In 2018, Davie went 24-3, winning the 4-A Central Piedmont Conference regular season championship before advancing to the third round of the state playoffs.

In 2019, Davie County was ranked as high as third in the nation by MaxPreps and finished the season ranked in the top 50. In 2020, Davie County was ranked 61st in the nation during the preseason with a team loaded with returning starters from 2019. However, that season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic. During his time at Davie, he was named CPC Coach of the Year and the Region 7 Coach of the Year.

“I always want to leave it better than when I found it,” Rudisill said.

After a family move, Rudisill took the reins of Bunker Hill High School, where he has spent the last three years as an EC Teacher and baseball coach. 

“This is the place where I want to end my career,” Rudisill, who has served as the NC Baseball Coaches Association Area 7 Representative since 2019, said of AHS. “I want to end at a place where people know we worked our tails off and competed with the best. 

“I always knew about Randolph County baseball. Look at Randleman. I am coming into a community that breeds baseball players from county schools to Asheboro city and at all different levels — 3-A, 1-A, 2-A. Uwharrie Charter. To be able to compete with this type of talent is super enticing.”

Rudisill has been the head coach of the Body Armor State Games twice. In 2023, Region 7 won the gold medal, and in 2024, he took his team to the bronze medal game.

There he met current AHS player Ben Luck and talked to some of the parents.

“I’m excited to come in and meet the kids and see how that shapes into my philosophy,” said Rudisill, who will be teaching in the EC program at AHS. “I like to be aggressive on the basepaths and create chaos. The more chaos you create, the more chances the other team makes mistakes. It’s really going to be all about the kids buying into what we are doing and why we are doing something.”

Rudisill said he’s excited to get started.

“I want to make sure no stone gets left unturned,” Rudisill said. “I want to provide our kids with the best opportunity to win. We will focus on the minor details of the game. You just have to really focus on attention to detail.”