Pendleton was succeeded by then-middle school principal C. Benjamin Arthur, who held the job from 1997 until his retirement in 2002.

Rustburg's football team won Class AA state championships in 1990, 1993, and 2000, in addition to losing in the finals in 1987 and 1998.

The school has Class AA state championships in girls volleyball 1992, 2020 and 2021 and boys track and field 1978 and 2024.

The next year the Red Devils made it back to the AA Regional III Tournament where they faced a tough loss in the first round.

[4] However, in 2015 under the new leadership of head coach Christopher Carr, the Red Devils baseball team furthered their success and went on to accomplish the feat of becoming the AA Regional III Tournament Champions.

The following year (2016), the Rustburg baseball team went on to lose the Regional title but later came back and accomplished their ultimate goal by winning the 3A State Championship for the first time in school history.