More on Russell's milestone

I’ve got a few leftover tidbits for you from Phil Russell’s milestone night on Thursday. In case you missed it, he won his 500th game as Ogden’s girls basketball coach when the Tigers defeated Box Elder 47-40. John Stein, the Ogden Raptors’ vice president, put it nicely shortly after the game ended. He said, “500 is remarkable. I don’t care if it’s badminton.”

Russell has coached several sports at Ogden. He’s been the head volleyball and head softball coach and helped with baseball and football. In fact, he was coaching football at Ogden when he was asked to take over the girls basketball program. Russell’s initial reaction?

“I thought, ‘You got to be crazy,’” Russell said.

Five state titles, 10 region championships and 500 wins later, it worked out OK.

“It’s been a great run” Russell said. “I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.”

When Russell was asked to be the school’s athletic director, school administrators wanted him to give up all of his coaching duties. He was fine with that, except for girls basketball. He developed a passion for coaching girls basketball in his 37 years leading the Tigers.

“They do what you ask them to do,” Russell said of his girls. “They don’t act like they know it all.”

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Russell is well aware that his spot as the state’s all-time leader in girls basketball coaching wins isn’t completely safe. Bingham’s Rand Rasmussen is in second place with 409 victories and consistently wins each season.

“He’s pushing me,” Russell said.

Russell isn’t sure how many more years he’ll add to his victory total. He said he’ll coach at least one more year, but then jokingly wanted reporters to help throw Rasmussen off.

“Put it in the paper that Russell says he’s going to stay at least 10 more years,” Russell said. “Look at the Penn State coach (Joe Paterno).”

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Russell joined elite company when he won his 500th game on Thursday. Obviously, he’s in a class by himself when it comes to girls basketball as he’s the only coach to reach the milestone. He’s the fifth coach overall to hit 500. Boys basketball coaches Jim Yerkovich (Judge Memorial), George Bruce (Dugway), Wilbur Braithwaite (Manti) and Larry Maxwell (North Summit and Highland) have also won 500 games. George Sluga (Bingham) might have 500 wins, but he won’t divulge his official record.

It was an honor to cover Russell’s 500th win. He’s by all accounts a good guy and a class act. It’s a well-deserved milestone.