Attended Aliso Niguel High School and lettered in both Basketball and Football. In football Russ broke every receiving record at Aliso Niguel was named first team all league and elected to the Orange county All-star game. From there on I played 2 years of college football. I eventually moved on to become a seminarian at St. Michaels Abbey. There I helped coach Varsity Basketball at St. Michaels Prep School for five years.