Family ties lift Russell to new heights
Newton South star senior Jaidin Russell could feel the adrenaline rush of relief and excitement coursing through his body when he got the call earlier this month.
VOLLEYBALL NOTEBOOK
At 6-foot-5, with a thunderous hit and the kind of elite versatility that helps the Lions stand as a legitimate state title contender, Russell was given the chance to verbally commit to play at historic Div. 1 program UCLA next year. Nearly three years of constant volleyball — with countless hours spent practicing at home, the court and the beach with the SMASH club volleyball program — had paid off.
And after he smiled and cried a few times with his mother, Jennifer Roser , he
called his brother, Tyler Russell, away at college.
“He was with his friends and he literally took his phone, and he went over to everybody he could meet, and told them I was going to UCLA,” Jaidin said. “He has always and will forever be one of my biggest supporters.”
Jaidin’s stardom came late. Before growing into a senior leader of a perennial contender, he was a seventhgrade basketball player looking up to Tyler when the then-freshman decided to give volleyball a shot. Roser had always encouraged physical activity year-round as a healthy lifestyle for her children growing up, so Tyler — a soccer player — happily joined the friends that asked him to play that spring.
Tyler went on to become an All-Scholastic as a junior, leading the Lions to a Div. 1 South final appearance in 2019.
Little did he know what that would do for Jaidin, who joined the team that season with an eagerness to play on a team with his brother for the first time in their lives.
That season, and the COVID-ridden 2020 lost season that created the chance for the Russells to practice together in quarantine, is really what started it all for Jaidin. And when Tyler took a gap year before college and committed his time toward helping out his alma mater last season, it only strengthened the relationship through the sport.
“My freshman year is a season I’ll never forget because that is where it all started,” he said. “We just loved it. We hated each other; it was exactly as a sibling relationship should go in a sport. … He is the one that started me on my track to volleyball, in both loving parts of it and figuring out how to love the parts that I hate.”
Of course, that sideline wasn’t only occupied by two Russells.
Tia Russell is a junior star on the Newton South girls team with multiple colleges already pursuing her. She, like Jaidin, built a dream to play collegiate volleyball after Tyler began playing. And she, like Jaidin does in the fall for the girls team to be around volleyball and his sister more, is a manager of the boys team.
“I started volleyball because of my brothers, so (family) means a lot to me,” Tia said. “We started it as a family, now we’re all finishing it as a family. … (Managing) has helped me with my skills and getting closer with my brothers.”
Being around each other over the last couple years as one plays and one manages draws its quirks and smirks between the two of them as any pair of siblings would when together that much. For Roser, it’s been nothing short of amazing to watch.
“Watching your three kids together, supporting each other, is a parent’s dream,” she said.
“I sit on the sidelines, Tia is a manager. Boys used to play together on the same team while she managed. All three of your kids are together doing something they love.”