Columbus North graduate Peyton Russell talks to the Olivet Nazarene basketball team while he was a graduate assistant at the school. Russell has been named the head coach at Blue River Valley High School.
Submitted photo
When Peyton Russell was playing basketball at Columbus North, he knew he wanted to be a coach.
He never dreamed he’d have his own team by the age of 24.
But in the past two weeks, Russell was named the head varsity boys coach at Blue River Valley High School, a Class A school just outside New Castle.
“Obviously, I’m pretty pumped,” Russell said. “It’s been a bit of work to get here, but I’m glad it paid off in some way.”
A 2017 North graduate, Russell went to IUPUI. His sophomore year, he worked as a volunteer assistant for Bull Dog coach Paul Ferguson.
“It worked out really well because I didn’t have any experience,” Russell said. “It was good to get my foot in the door with a guy like coach Ferguson that I respect. Really, the reason I left was because of the drive back-and-forth between Indy and Columbus.”
Former Columbus North assistant coach Peyton Russell draws out plays during a game against Andrean in the Noblesville Holiday Tournament Dec. 27, 2018, at Noblesville High School.
The Republic file photo
So Russell became an assistant for Mark James at Perry Meridian during his last two years at IUPUI before moving on to Olivet Nazarene University and head coach Nick Birkey as a graduate assistant. Those experiences only furthered Russell’s desire to make a career out of coaching.
“I’ve had a very good feeling for a long time,” Russell said. “You work for coach Ferguson, you work for coach James, you work for coach Birkey, you get a lot of ideas about how to run a team. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve been coaching kids between a pretty big range, so I’ve experienced quite a bit in a short period of time.”
After earning a bachelor’s in sports management from IUPUI, Russell earned a master’s in organizational leadership from Olivet. He obtained an emergency teaching certificate and teaches 10th- and seventh-grade health and elementary physical education at Blue River.
“I’ve known awhile that if I was going to get into coaching, it was something I was going to have to do,” Russell said. “But it really is a lot of fun. Teaching is definitely what I want to be doing long term.”
Russell’s time as grad assistant at Olivet ended in May, so he spent most of the summer looking for another coaching job.
“I was done in May, and it’s just been a lot of interviews since then,” Russell said. “It’s been a grind. It went on a lot longer than I thought it would, but I ended up in a really good spot here. Everything kind of happens for a reason. I definitely ended up in the spot I’m supposed to be.”
Blue River started school last week, and Russell had his first team meeting on Thursday. The Vikings started with fall workouts and lifting on Monday.
“The first week at Blue River has been amazing,” Russell said. “Blue River is a place where a lot of people are excited about basketball.”
Russell takes over for Brian Klein, who posted 15 winning seasons in the 17 years he was at Blue River. The Vikings went 20-7 last season and won their second consecutive sectional title and their third in four years.
“We lost two key contributors, but we return a lot of other people,” Russell said. “We’re going to be pretty guard oriented. We’re not going to be the biggest team in the world, but we’ll try to maximize our strengths as much as possible.”
