A veteran of the Golden State Athletic Conference, Jeff Rutter is in his sixth year as an assistant on the Cougar coaching staff and his eighth year coaching in the conference. He oversees all scouting, recruiting, scheduling and travel arrangements.
Rutter has established a strong reputation amongst his peers as an outstanding recruiter and has been a principle figure in Azusa Pacific’s strong recruiting classes of the past 4 years. He has strong ties to both the Southern California high schools and junior colleges across the west coast. In addition, he was the primary figure in the Cougars’ securing game agreements with UCLA, Pepperdine, and NAIA national champion Mountain State over the past few years while also putting together road trips and arranging games in Boston, Mass., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Spokane, Wash., and Honolulu, Hawaii.
Azusa Pacific is Rutter’s fourth GSAC school he has been associated with in the past 11 years. He played his 1997 junior season at Concordia University in Irvine, Calif.. Then for 2 seasons, he has served as the lead assistant coach on the Scott Mossman’s coaching staff at California Baptist University in Riverside. Additionally, Rutter earned his bachelor’s degree in organizational leadership at Biola University in La Mirada. He is currently working on his master’s degree at Azusa Pacific.
Rutter’s playing career included stops at Whittier (Calif.) Christian High School, Cypress College and Concordia.
While at Whittier Christian, he was a 2-time All-Olympic League pick, averaging 16 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. He had a single-game best of 28 points.
He began his collegiate career at Cypress (Calif.) Community College, where he played 2 seasons for longtime junior college coach and former UCLA player Don Johnson. As a 1996 sophomore at Cypress, Rutter was an All-Orange Empire pick after averaging 14 points, 4 rebounds and 3 assists. He led the Chargers with 79 3-pointers and finished his career with 147 treys, third best in Cypress history.
Rutter continued his collegiate career at Concordia where he helped lead the Eagles to the GSAC Tourney title game.
In 1999, Rutter returned to Whittier Christian High, as the boys’ varsity head coach, a position he held for 1 season before moving on to California Baptist. In his 2 seasons at CBU, Rutter was the chief recruiter and brought in 2 classes that produced California Baptist’s best back-to-back seasons in 25 years.
Rutter also serves as the director of the Cougars Athletics Association, the fund-raising arm of the athletics program.
This past September, Rutter married Kristen Morrell. The Rutters live in Chino, Calif.
