Takedown Report

Corey’s Stories: Odds-beating Russell has never been an average Joe

Joe Russell was 17 — an age when carefree living and the here and now are the mind’s primary tenants. He was headed to a wrestling practice on the back of a motorcycle for what was supposed to be a two-block ride from his home to his high school. He wasn’t wearing a helmet.  It was a ride that changed his life forever.  Russell’s brother, Dan, had been following behind in a car. He witnessed everything that August day in 1985 in Gresham, Ore.  A truck pulled out in front of the motorcycle. The bike flipped and Joe went with it.  Dan ran to his younger brother’s slumped body lying across the wreckage, He removed Joe’s limp, searing arm from the bike’s exhaust pipe and then cradled his younger brother’s head to keep it in one piece. 

Surgeons picked shards of Joe’s shattered skull from his brain. They fused his skull back together.  Now, 34 years later, Russell is a medical marvel, an odds-beater and USA Wrestling’s manager of freestyle programs.  He coaches, scouts opponents and works closely with national team coach Bill Zadick on the immediate and long-term needs of the USA men’s freestyle team, which will compete later this month at the World Championships in Nur-Sultan, Kazakhstan.  

Russell left the head coaching post at George Mason two years ago to take his current position. Prior to that, he was a longtime assistant coach at Minnesota and part of J Robinson’s staff for all three of the Gophers’ NCAA titles.  Robinson and Russell shared a connection that went back to the Joe’s pre-accident days when he and his brother were two of the nation’s most dominant prep wrestlers.  Dan went undefeated on his way to four state titles. He attended Portland State University, where he won four Division II national titles for the Vikings. Joe captured two state championships and posted a 90-1 high school record. Rest of the story at
https://www.trackwrestling.com/PortalPost.jsp?TIM=1567546405849&twSessionId=xwdtxldtzt&postId=1682295132&mc_cid=1788af9e74&mc_eid=2ef7cbca4b

September 5, 2019 - Posted by The TakeDown Report | Uncategorized