Valdosta Athletics

Long-time VSU Director of Sports Medicine and Head Athletic Trainer, Russ was named the 2004 NCAA Division II Athletic Trainer of the Year and was responsible for building VSU's reputation for outstanding athletic training in addition to having one of the top athletic training academic programs in the country.  Russ came to Titletown in August of 1997 from a similar capacity at Capital (Ohio) University.  He served as head athletic trainer for the Blazers until 2017 and was an integral part of helping with the state-of-the-art VSU Athletic Field House which opened in 2009.  In 2017, he moved into a full-time faculty role in the Department of Health Sciences within the College of Nursing and Health Sciences.  He began his career in collegiate athletics as the Assistant Professor in the department of Health and Sports Sciences at Capital University in 1987. During his ten years at Capital, his efforts caught statewide attention, as he was named the Ohio Athletic Trainer of the Year in 1993. The trend continued after his transition to VSU, when he earned another Athletic Trainer of the Year honor in the state of Georgia in 2001.  He helped countless VSU student-athletes over his 20 years within the athletic department to earn numerous individual and team awards and was part of six of the school's eight national titles.