Portales native Nusser lands Luna baseball job

PORTALES — T.C. Nusser had never set his sights on succeeding his father Melvin as Portales Ram baseball head coach. That always seemed like a goal for his older brother Dusty, who is now the Ram baseball head coach.

But T.C. never took his eye off of being a head coach.

“That’s been the goal since I started coaching,” he said on Wednesday.

“I think that should be your ultimate goal, to be a coach and run a program.”

His goal will take him north, with his new position as the baseball coach for Luna Community College in Las Vegas, New Mexico.

T.C. Nusser, a 2004 graduate of Portales High, has been in Las Cruces for the last five years on the baseball staff at Centennial High School.

“New Mexico baseball’s getting better and better every year,” said Nusser, who helped the Hawks win the 2016 Class 5A title before their move up to 6A this year. “If you saw the quarterfinals in 6A, the arms were incredible. We want to keep the kids who are (currently) going out of state. We see a lot of talented New Mexico kids going to places like Eastern Arizona or Otero College; we should be getting those kids.”

Nusser has also been an assistant at Clovis and Portales, including time in the softball program. Lucas Griego, Luna’s softball coach, coached at West Las Vegas and was familiar with Nusser.

“This school’s trying to recruit 80 to 85 percent New Mexico kids,” Griego said. “We’re trying to give kids a chance to play baseball and softball at the next level. He’s coached in Portales and he’s been down at Centennial in Las Cruces. He’s going to know a lot of the coaches around the state we need to make our program do well.”

Nusser will make the slow move up to Las Vegas over the next week, but he is already working on recruiting prospects in Las Cruces for the North-South All-Star baseball games.

He said it will be tough to leave the Hawks, all the while acknowledging his time there prepared him to make this very career jump.

“It’s a great school,” Nusser said. “We’ve got great kids who work hard that love to play baseball, and we pretty much play year-round. It’s probably made me better, coaching year-round. It’s also gotten me connected with a lot of coaches around the state. I could call any coach in the state if I needed help.”