From Central Valley pitching star to Bears pitching coach, Rusty Shellhorn has come full circle.

The Liberty Lake athlete's sturdy left arm took him throughout the United States as a collegiate and professional baseball pitcher. A balky knee brought him back home to embark on the next phase of his life.

"I did the knee in Clinton, Iowa," explained Shellhorn, who was playing in the Seattle Mariners' organization. "It was in the middle of the game, there was a ground ball to first base and I went over to cover the bag. The first baseman flipped me the ball and ‘pop,' there went the knee."

It was a routine play, but Shellhorn tore his ACL, the dreaded ligament injury that is the bane of all athletes. He "worked his tail off" in rehabilitation, but the Mariners released him nonetheless.

"Sometimes they don't want a guy with knee injuries," Shellhorn shrugged.

He played one more year in an independent league, but after three years as a professional, the 2008 CV graduate knew his time was over. Not long after returning, he got a call from new Bears baseball coach Mike Amend and joined the staff of his alma mater this spring.

His early years in youth baseball were scarcely a harbinger of things to come.

"I didn't play a lot," he recalled, "I was the smallest kid on the team."

Raised in a family whose passion was baseball, that all changed. By high school he would be part of a gifted six-pitcher Greater Spokane League group that all went on to play collegiately and/or professionally.

By his freshman year, he was focused on pitching. Colleges began showing interest when he was a sophomore. He signed a letter of intent with Washington State his junior season.

Armed with a lethal curve ball, once, in a seven-inning GSL game against North Central, Rusty struck out all 21 batters. He was named Washington Gatorade Baseball Player of the Year with a 7-3 record, 0.78 earned run average, had 125 strikeouts in 59 innings and was drafted in the 39th round by the Chicago White Sox.

From there, the story becomes intriguing. Rusty opted for the Cougars instead of turning pro.

The summer after his freshman season, Shellhorn played in Ohio on a team in the Prospect League, a summer showcase for college players, and whose coach was an assistant at Texas Tech. He was named Pitcher of the Year with 8 wins, 89 strikeouts and a 1.45 ERA.

At WSU, however, things didn't go well during his two years. 

"I didn't pitch a whole lot down there," he said, diplomatically. "They had a lot of lefthanders, and I was kind of down at the bottom of the depth chart."

There were philosophical differences, and he said they had him ditch the curve for a slider.

"It just wasn't the right fit for me," he said. "Sometimes you need a change of scenery."

Having the contact through summer league, he transferred to Texas Tech, sat out a mandatory year, and in his season there was 5-3. Drafted by the Mariners, Rusty went 7-3 with three teams during his rookie season, but the next year in Iowa the knee betrayed him. Last season, he played with Traverse City, Mich., in the Independent League.

"It's professional baseball but not affiliated with any big league teams," Shellhorn explained. "It's mostly guys kind of like me who got hurt, are too old and are released. There are actually ex-big leaguers. A lot of those guys get picked up again by affiliated teams. I wasn't one of the fortunate ones."

He could have gone back, he said, but being a newlywed and with both he and his wife in college, it wouldn't have been fair. Although he originally had an eye on teaching and coaching, as a former president of the Central Valley debate team, he envisions becoming involved in some form of business law.

In the meantime, he and ex-Major Leaguer Kevin Stocker - whom he'd never met prior - are imparting their wisdom on Bears baseball players.

"Mike just found me," said Shellhorn, who knew Amend from high school. "He said, ‘I have an opening and want you to jump on board.' It's a nice opportunity to be back at Central Valley."

And there he was, a few weeks back, standing in the first base coaching box at Shadle Park, less than a decade after he'd stared down the Highlanders from the pitcher's mound.

It's been eye-opening, he admitted, envisioning himself as a high schooler through an older set of eyes.

"You don't see things in the big picture when you're that young," he said. "There's a stage of maturity you have to get through to get to the next level."

Although he never rose above Advanced A classification minor league baseball, Shellhorn said he has no regrets.

"It's an absolute grind, let me tell you that," he said. "It's very hard to describe unless you're actually doing it. You have to be a grown man to handle it. I know if I'd have signed out of high school I wouldn't have been able to. I wasn't mature enough at the time."

It was an opportunity he couldn't pass up after college, however, and said he wouldn't trade the experience for anything.

"It is a memory I'll always have with me," Rusty said. "Do I miss it? Oh, yeah. Kevin Stocker told me it took him five years to let it go.

"I imagine I'll be saying ‘what if' for a while, but it is what it is. I'm happy with my decision and happy with the way things are going right now."