When Kelly Russell was a freshman at Prairie High School in Vancouver, Wash., she had visions of being a soccer player.
A gifted athlete with quick feet and good vision, Russell was set to excel on the field. But there was one huge problem.
She despised running.
“I was going out for soccer in the fall, but then I found out how much they had to run,” Russell said. “I was like, ‘uh uh, I’m not going to run that much. What other sports are there?’”
After turning away from soccer, Russell chose volleyball as her athletic path and has been on a winding road ever since. Now a sophomore middle blocker for the Ducks, the last five and a half years have been filled with ups, downs and plenty of unpredictable moments.
Russell started playing for the elite Nike Northwest Junior Volleyball Club in Gresham as a sophomore, where she would meet Oregon head coach Carl Ferreira.
“When I initially recruited her, she wasn’t a high end player,” Ferreira said. “But you could see that greatness for her was right around the corner.”
Russell said she can remember some of the first conversations she had with Ferreira.
“My sophomore year, Carl would come to my club practices and would come over to my court and talk to me,” Russell said. “(He’d say) ‘you’re doing good, you’re improving and I’m going to keep my eye on you.’ I always thought he was joking around because I wasn’t very good.
“I wasn’t on the top teams, and I wasn’t the player the coaches were looking at.”
It turns out one of the players the coaches were looking at would greatly influence Russell’s life. Jodi Bell, now a sophomore setter for the Ducks, was one of the top volleyball recruits in the nation while attending Barlow High School in Gresham. The two became club teammates their junior year, but weren’t on the best of terms.
“We didn’t get along really well because I wasn’t very good,” Russell said. “She was young and didn’t have very much patience and I was young and didn’t know what I was doing.
“That whole year we worked together and she never gave up on me and never stopped setting me.”
During their junior year, the duo made a trip to Oregon, but Russell felt like she was simply tagging along.
“I came with Jodi and it just seemed like the whole trip was for her,” Russell said. ” I thought I was just there for (someone to tell me) ‘if you want to walk-on you can sure come.’
“(Ferreira) ended up offering me (a scholarship) when I went up to his office and I was really surprised.”
After wrapping up her high school career, Russell moved to Eugene and roomed with Bell in H.P. Barnhart.
“She was my best friend last year,” Bell said of Russell. “She’s a caring person who is always there when you need her. She always knows great advice to give you with relationships or anything.”
Oregon started the season 9-4, but Russell and the Ducks would soon run into problems. The initial joy of coming to college had worn off. Russell missed her family, friends and was stressed out by school work and the team’s struggles. Player relationships were strained by a 2-17 finish, and six players eventually quit or left the team for personal reasons.
There were several points during the season that Russell felt like walking away. Volleyball had become a burden. But every time she was close to giving up, she turned to her mother, Sandra Russell, for a free therapy session.
“I’m very close with my mom; I look up to her a lot,” Russell said. “She kept me going last year. She’s a psychologist and I think that’s been really helpful to me, being able to get counseling.
“Last year was the hardest year of my life. I almost didn’t make it to my sophomore year. I almost quit, but I’m glad I didn’t.”

After experiencing a sour end to her freshman year, Russell was determined to make the best of her sophomore campaign. Being the only returning middle blocker on a team with nine freshmen, Russell has acquired a new role, which is foreign to most sophomores: Being a leader.
“It’s weird because I’m basically the same age as (the freshmen), I just have more experience,” Russell said. “Last year, Lindsay Closs was a big help to me. I thought, when I’m her age, that’s how I’m going to be with the younger girls.”
So far it’s working just fine.
“She’s been absolutely amazing,” freshman middle blocker Kristen Bitter said. “I look up to Kelly for all my examples. She helps me out in practice every day. She’s kind of my mentor for middle blocking.”
Entering tonight’s match against Washington at McArthur Court, Russell leads the Ducks in kills, hitting percentage and points per game. But more important than excelling on the court is that Russell is enjoying herself this year. Whether it’s going for a drive through the mountains in her 1996 Subaru Impreza, making a late night run to Taco Bell or hanging out with close friend Jaclyn Jones, Russell is enjoying her life as a college student.
Not bad for wannabe soccer player.