A little more than a week ago, Cathedral High School football coach Ron Rushing seemed to be the latest addition to the Miss-Lou coaching carousel that has begun to spin up in recent months.

Had Rushing left Cathedral for Brookhaven High School as he originally intended, Natchez High School would have been the only high school inside the city limits that wasn’t going to have a new football coach this fall.

But Rushing said in a text message last weekend that his original decision to leave Cathedral was “a mistake.” After discussing the matter with Cathedral Chief Administrator Pat Sanguinetti, Rushing opted to remain at Cathedral.

Fans are probably breathing a sigh of relief. In his two seasons at the helm of the football program, Cathedral has gone from a struggling team to a team that has become a powerhouse in its region.

Rushing is 22-5 in two years, and the Green Wave made it to the second round of the playoffs in 2010 and the MHSAA Class 1A South State title game in 2011. Although the Green Wave will lose a strong senior class to graduation in May, Rushing has to be excited about what the future holds at Cathedral.

There are enough returning players this fall for the Green Wave to be competitive. But the real strength of Cathedral’s program is how well-built it is to compete for regional and state titles for the foreseeable future.

Cathedral’s recent increase in enrollment has shown up on the football field, especially at the middle school level. This past season, Cathedral Middle School went 7-0 in football, dressing out 24 eighth graders — more than twice the amount of seniors on the 2011 varsity squad.

Cathedral Middle School has won 20 out of its last 21 contests, and over the next couple of seasons, those children will move up to the high school ranks, giving Rushing plenty of players to work with.

Depth is going to be a major advantage for Rushing and his staff the next few seasons, because Cathedral is going to have a lot of able bodies on its squad. With that much talent, the Green Wave shouldn’t have any trouble continuing to score a ton of points.

The scoring points part is what made Rushing such an attractive choice for new Brookhaven head coach Tommy Clopton in the first place. Clopton wanted Rushing on his staff as offensive coordinator because Rushing’s teams score points — period.

Cathedral scored 43.7 points per game last season, while giving up just 21.9 points. Those are pretty good averages, but it’s worth noting that the Green Wave yielded 54 points to Noxapater High School in the South State championship. If Cathedral is going to take that next step, it’s going to have to find a way to create breaks for itself in the postseason shootout-type games.

But the Cathedral staff has all summer to figure out an answer to that issue. That’s much better than spending the summer trying to figure out whom the head coach is going to be.