New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
In rare Rams company
Russo was one of three players in Cheshire history to start as a freshman
CHESHIRE — As the Cheshire defense fell on a fumbled football in the first overtime against Notre Dame-West Haven on Friday night, senior running back Christian Russo ran to the sideline and asked for a headset.
Russo wanted to talk to Cheshire offensive coordinator, Mike Ciotti.
“I put the headset on and was like let’s run the ball four times,” Russo said.
Coach Ciotti agreed, but Russo and the Rams needed to run it just once to put the game to bed.
Russo took the handoff and ran 10 yards into the end zone to cap off the team’s 26-20 win over Notre Dame-West Haven.
“That hole was amazing, I just ran in a straight line,” said Russo, who rushed for 182 yards and two scores. “I didn’t really do that much.”
The senior was quick to give his offensive line the credit and the next day he rewarded them.
“He brought us some donuts in the morning, a little breakfast for Saturday film,” Cheshire senior left tackle Joe Volpe said. “When you’re the best running back in the state you got to take care of your line.”
Russo has his offensive line’s back, and they have his.
“They give me everything because they know I am going to give them everything,” he said.
It was that mental maturity that stood out to Cheshire coach Don Drust four years ago when he decided to make Russo only the third player in the long and storied history of Cheshire football to start as a freshman.
“You have to be a special human being to be able to do it,” Drust said. “You have to check all the physical boxes, but more so you have to check the mental part of it.
“It’s not an easy thing to do. He’s mature, he’s a leader and he makes all the right decisions.”
The other two freshmen to start?
Kyle McIntosh rushed for
5,150 yards and 68 touchdowns in RamLand between 1991 and 1994 before playing at Syracuse and Michael Jeffery, who caught 105 passes for 1,389 yards and 13 touchdowns. He also made 252 total tackles and eight interceptions between 2014 and 2017. He is playing at Amherst College.
“It’s definitely an honor, probably one of my biggest accomplishments,” Russo said. “They’re Cheshire legends, football is a big deal here and to be that conversation, it feels pretty good.”
Russo practiced with his fellow freshman classmates the summer going into high school.
During a combine before practice began, Russo ran a 4.62 hand timed 40-yard dash.
The next day he was practicing with the varsity team.
“We knew that the whole time (he would play varsity),” Volpe said. “When we were in junior football he was a grown man playing amongst boys.
“We knew he was different.”
During scrimmages Drust threw Russo out there in tough situations against highly skilled opponents.
The coaching staff wanted to see how he would react.
“If you can help us and help us be successful, help the seniors be successful, it makes the decision easy,” Drust said. “He performed and he made plays.”
The adjustment from youth football to varsity football was not an easy one, especially against Cheshire’s schedule that season.
In the Rams’ first five games they played four playoff teams — Shelton, Newtown, North Haven and Fairfield Prep — and one team that won seven games — Law. The Rams played two more playoff teams the rest of the season against Hand and Southington.
“That was one of the biggest adjustments I ever had to make,” he said.
As a freshman he started in the secondary and made 49 total tackles and had one interception. He also rushed for 276 yards and two rushing touchdowns.
He followed that up with 42 total tackles, three interceptions and seven rushing touchdowns.
Russo was expected to take over the starting running back role along with his duties in the secondary as a junior, but that all went away after the season was canceled.
Despite the setback, Russo looks at the missed season as an opportunity to take on a leading role. After all, he does have experience that a lot of his teammates don’t have.
“It’s a peer voice, it’s not a coach voice,” Drust said of Russo’s leadership. “(Teaching them) this is what we do here, this is how we do it here.
“That’s invaluable. That’s unexplainable how important that is.”
One of the players Russo has taken a liking to is wide receiver/defensive back Tristan Washington.
Washington, is mixing in at corner back and getting on the field in some offensive packages and like Russo before him, is playing for the Rams as a freshman.
“We had to go from youth football to a varsity game, everything about the game is amped up,” Russo said. “There’s no change like it.”
Russo added that he has talked to Washington and will help him adjust in any way he can.
Washington even got into the end zone in the season opener, taking a pass from quarterback Matt Jeffery 23 yards for the Rams’ first touchdown of the season.
It took Russo until the fourth game of his high school career to score his first touchdown.
“But I was starting on defense, he was starting on offense, so it’s a little different,” he said with a laugh.
Despite being a four-year starter, Russo is still looking for an opportunity at the next level.
He said that because of his size (5-foot-9, 190 pounds) he has a better chance at being a running back than playing in the secondary in college.
Unfortunately, most of his highlight tapes are him playing in the secondary, so he is still waiting for someone to give him a next chance.
But he looks at it like he did when he first arrived at Cheshire: He has to work hard.
“There’s no better feeling than hard work paying off,” he said.