New Richmond – The gym at Wyoming East High School was filled with joy on April 15, 2021 as the girls basketball team celebrated a dominant 76-31 win over Summers County in the sectional championship.
It was just the ninth game the team played that season in what ended up being an 11-2 campaign that ended with a state championship just 16 days later.
Then sophomore Abby Russell was seemingly the only one who couldn’t enjoy it.
She scored 14 points in the win, but tears streamed down her face at the thought of that not being good enough. But alas, there was a reprieve from the thoughts of disappointment.
“My dad and me, we weren’t really as close growing up,” Russell said. “Coming into my sophomore season, I was used for defense. After the Summers County game that we won here I cried because I didn’t score a lot and he said, ‘Well you played defense and that’s all that really matters and you did good.’ That was the first time he said he was proud of me for basketball because he was always pushing me and that’s the one thing we shared a lot.”
Ten months later, after beating that same Summers County program again in the same scenario, Russell sat in the bleachers, face in her hands and cried again as her family, absent one member, tried to console her.
“It was really hard for me,” Russell said. “I was always used to my dad being up in the stands in the same seat every day. After we won I realized it was all for him but he wasn’t here.”
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When you ask Russell to describe the 22 months in the wake of East’s title run, she does so with one word.
“Terrible,” she said after a pause to think.
The downturn was quick.
On May 1, 2021, she capped her sophomore year with a 61-50 win over Parkersburg Catholic in the Class AA state championship game, earning all-tournament honors and a week later, first-team all-state honors. She carved out a role as a secondary ball-handler to fellow all-stater Skylar Davidson while guarding the opposing team’s best player. She did so in that 76-31 win over Summers, holding all-stater Taylor Isaac to just five points on 2 of 9 shooting.
Then May 2 came.
At an AAU practice, Russell wanted to keep the momentum going despite a trio of physical basketball games in a span of four days.
The decision backfired as she tore her ACL, threatening her junior campaign.
“I didn’t really know it was torn until a little bit after so I tried to act like nothing was wrong with it,” Russell said. “It was very hard but I had my dad there. He sat at the edge of my bed and told me that we would get it fixed as many times as it took and he’d never make me quit playing. I felt better about it.”
Russell had surgery to repair the knee in June but wasn’t in the clear.
In September came devastation.
After struggling with Covid, Russell’s father Doug was admitted to the hospital and later put on a ventilator. On Sept. 3, he died from complications due to to Covid.
East assistant coach Ryan Davidson went and picked Russell up from school that day and she spent time with her teammates, but the aftermath was difficult to deal with. At a point where her relationship with her dad was on the upswing, he was taken from her.
The following months were and still are filled with anger, doubt, questions and regrets as she’s looked for an outlet to heal.
The loss of a parent while two months into rehabbing a major knee injury left Russell with two choices – let the despairs of grief and depression consume her or try to find a way out. With a support staff there to guide her, she elected to do the latter and still does. Every day requires actively choosing how to approach those demons.
“I just put it all into basketball,” Russell said. “I focus everything on it. I have my teammates and basketball, even if I wasn’t playing I still had it and the best friends I could ever ask for. Basketball’s still kept me going even when I wanted to give up. I’m really glad my mom didn’t let me quit.”
The push from her mom helped. Russell was released six months post surgery and was able to enjoy a successful junior season in which she helped East, which lost three starters from the ’21 team, return to the state championship game. She earned second-team all-state honors after the season for her efforts and contributions in a limited span.
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Despite Russell’s drive to continue playing basketball, her relationship with it has been of the give and take variety. The accolades and success she’s achieved are a result of hard work and talent, but that effort has taken a toll.
In 2022 alone she broke her collarbone in the summer, thus had to get a plate inserted and in October she slightly re-injured her knee and has played on it with pain management being her only option.
Once again, Russell was at that crossroads of her career, a place she’s found herself frequently this season. She hurt the knee again in January and was forced to sit out a couple of games and tweaked it prior to East’s Region 3 championship game against Chapmanville.
Faced with two choices again, Russell has chosen what she deems the lesser of the two evils.
“It was a really hard decision,” Russell said. “I either quit and look out for my future but that’s giving up on my teammates and letting them down. This was probably what was best for me mentally.”
The physical tolls have led Russell to change who she is as a player. Physically, her best days are behind her and as a result she’s become a more cerebral player, trying to get her teammates in positions to succeed.
“Sophomore year I was used to take away the best offensive player,” Russell said. “After I tore my ACL I wasn’t able to do that anymore. My role kind of changed a lot and junior year I wasn’t much of a leader. Now as a senior I see myself as more of a leader. I communicate on defense really well so that backside is always communicated when I’m in and on the offensive end, you just have to tell people where to go and learn what they’re good at and what they’re not and get them in a spot where they can make it.”
The change has been a hard pill to swallow, but growing up at the pace Russell has been forced to over the last 22 months comes with hard truths. But the one thing you’re in control of is how you handle and respond to those adversities. Russell deploys a mindset that helps guard against the worst snowballing.
“I just try to do whatever they ask me to the best of my ability,” Russell said. “I don’t get to play a lot of minutes. My minutes are very limited so I try to do the best I can to help my team. I turn to God a lot. I’ve prayed a lot and I’ve just been looking for ways to think positively, like every situation has a positive outcome.”
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Despite her best efforts, Russell’s senior campaign was headed towards an unsatisfying, abrupt ending. Facing Summers County in the sectional championship for the third consecutive season, the Lady Warriors finally fell, 50-47. Russell missed a pair of free throws that would’ve given her team the lead with 40 seconds to go and her 3 to tie the game in the final seconds hit the backboard and bounced off the right side of the rim.
The loss forced East to win at Chapmanville this past week if it hoped to make a return to the state tournament.
Leading by five after a quarter, hopes seemed dim when the script flipped and the Lady Warriors trailed at halftime.
In a game where it was doubtful she’d even play much after tweaking her knee in practice, Russell, on her last leg, gave her team the opportunity it needed.
She nailed four of her six 3s in the third quarter, scoring a game-high 20 points for the Lady Warriors. The result was a 54-47 win over the Tigers that ensured Russell would get to walk out on that Coliseum floor in Charleston one final time.
It was even sweeter for the senior who acknowledges that once the season ends, as does her playing career.
“I didn’t want to lose,” Russell said. “I was going to play this game like it was the last game I’ve ever played because the last game, whether we win or lose in Charleston, is the last game I’ll ever play. So I’m going to play every game like it’s my last now and I’m going to pick up my teammates because it might be Colleen’s (Lookabill), Laken’s (Toler) and Kayley’s (Bane) last game too and we’d like to end that with a win.”
The experiences and heartache are what’s led to Russell gutting this season out. As she said, she wants to think positively but faith without works is dead. It’s why she’s worked to create those positive outcomes and learned a valued lesson.
“Never take for granted being able to play because it can be gone in a second,” Russell said. “Athletes that always complain about tweaking their ankle or bruising their knee, it’s nothing compared to having it taken away from you.”
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As Russell gears up for the final week of her career, she has much to think about. Each day will bring a new wave of emotions as reality sets in that this is the end. But she has a chance to cement herself in program history. No class has ever won two state championships on the girls side. Russell’s class has a chance to buck that trend.
It would also be an opportunity for her to have a ring of her own as her’s from the 2021 campaign rests in a spot where it symbolizes a bond strengthened by basketball.
“When I got my ring my dad tried to put it on his fingers,” Russell smiled. “It didn’t fit on any of them. After he passed away it made me think of that and I just wanted to put it on him because that’s the thing we shared.”
Email: tylerjackson@lootpress.com and follow on Twitter @tjack94