Rainier RB Russell has a goal: 2B to Division I player

Ian Russell has two clear goals to pursue over the course of the next two football seasons.

The Rainier High School junior running back and linebacker wants to help the Mountaineers succeed in their new assignment to the highly competitive Mountain Division of the Class 2B Central/Pacific League. All-2B Pacific League on both sides of the ball as a sophomore, Russell also hopes to become one of the rare players to rise directly from the 2B classification to the NCAA Division I ranks.

“If you’ve got the type of body they’re looking for, you’ve got a shot,” said Rainiers head coach Terry Shaw, who can’t remember a 2B player who made the jump to Division I without an intermediate stop at a larger high school.

“Ian’s got a natural skill set. He’s fast, quick, very aggressive and high-energy.”

Not to mention enthusiastic. Shaw says the 6-foot-2, 217-pound Russell is the Mountaineer most likely to be “hooting and hollering, getting everybody riled up.”

Russell is a three-sport athlete who finished seventh in the discus in the 2B state track and field championships a year ago, and also excels in wrestling. He has put football on top of the list since his grandfather, Tom Holley, introduced him to the sport at age 4.

“I’d put my life out there for football,” Russell said. “It’s everything to me. It’s always been my stress reliever. Every time I step on the field, it’s like nothing can go wrong.”

When anyone does predict a gridiron failure for Russell, he uses it for motivation.

“I’ve got a lot of people telling me I’m not going to make it to Division I from a 2B school, but that just pushes me harder to do what I want to do,” he said.

Russell says he’s keeping his grades up and working to make sure his highlight film is stellar. His coaches are getting him on the radar of their counterparts at the university level. Shaw has an unofficial visit set up for Russell at Eastern Washington.

Interestingly for an athlete seemingly obsessed with football, Russell and his head coach both credit another sport, wrestling, for much of his success.

“Wrestling helps you in all aspects of other sports,” Russell said. “You learn it’s all about you, you’re the only one holding yourself back. When you’re out there in football, dying in the heat, you’ve got to remember it’s all about you. After wrestling, the part of my mind that might give up is gone.”

Shaw, whose son Trevor wrestled at Mat Classic XXVIII for Olympia as a senior last March, is even more emphatic about the benefits of spending the winter competing on a rubber mat.

“I think every football player should wrestle,” Shaw said. “Every athlete in any sport should wrestle, it teaches you so much both mentally and physically. You gain leverage and body control but most importantly you learn there are no excuses. It’s you against me, there aren’t a lot of gray areas.”

On the football field, Rainier still has some questions to answer. A triple-option offense, piloted by sophomore quarterback Zach Lofgren and senior back-up Devan Stancil, has looked even better in practice than the group that averaged 37 points in a 5-5 season last fall. The defense, keyed by junior free safety Levi Reise and senior linebacker Brayden Lasher, appears improved.

But the league realignment could be challenging for a Rainier team that lost 11 seniors to graduation and dropped from a 40-man squad to 20 players this season. Life Christian, Napavine and Morton-White Pass, which played in the 2B state tournament in 2015, are in the division along with perennial power Adna.

“I’ve heard a lot of stuff about how tough it’s going to be for us in the new league,” said Russell, who is nursing a mild knee injury and may not play on offense until the league opener against Chief Leschi on Sept. 16.

“I don’t believe that at all. The smaller the team is, the more we can bond with each other. We’re going to do great this year.”

This story was originally published August 30, 2016 at 9:23 PM with the headline "Rainier RB Russell has a goal: 2B to Division I player."