Elijah Rushing

Elijah Rushing knew early on that he had a chance to be one of the top high school football players in Arizona. He said it was when he was around 12 years old that realized he had the God-given tools to be a difference-maker. “Through hard work and having fun with it, I started to make a name for myself,” Rushing told Tucson.com. “I ended up making a name for myself and becoming who I am today. Then I understood the game more and it slowed down for me, and I saw that I was ahead of a few of my peers. Once I saw that I just had confidence in myself and my abilities to play this sport.” As a sophomore he played in every contest for Salpointe Catholic High School, racking up 75 tackles, nine stops for loss and 7.5 sacks. He then had 73 tackles, 13.5 tackles for a loss, 11.5 sacks and 59 hurries in 2022. “He’s strong,” Salpointe coach Eric Rogers told Tucson.com. “It comes down to Elijah embracing the process. We hear it all the time and it’s kind of a cliché, but he loves the process. He loves the daily habits to become great. A lot of the time, it’s not about the final outcome; it’s the daily grind and daily process of waking up every day with a purpose. For Elijah, that’s just part of his nature.” His older brother, Cruz, was a walk-on for the Florida Gators in 2022.