RELEASED:  Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Russell Receives Lifetime Achievement Award

WHITEWATER, Wis.--Former University of Wisconsin-Whitewater women’s volleyball head coach Kris Russell was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Women's Sports Advocates of Wisconsin (WSAW).  The WSAW bestows the honor on just one recipient each year.  The award was presented at the WSAW banquet in February.

Over the course of a coaching career at UW-Whitewater that spanned 1981 to 2004, Russell won over eight hundred matches (815-231) and won almost 80 percent of her matches (.779).  She accumulated 10 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) regular-season championships, 12 WIAC tournament titles and 15 NCAA Division III championship appearances.  That string of national prominence included five appearances in the finals ("Final Four") of the championship, concluding with second place finishes in 2000 and 2001, and a national title in 2002.

Individual honors followed, for Russell and her players.  Russell was named WIAC Volleyball Coach of the Year seven times and American Volleyball Coaches Association NCAA Division III Coach of the Year five times.  UW-Whitewater had seven individuals earn the WIAC Judy Kruckman Scholar Athlete Award under Russell's mentorship, and Warhawk players earned a total of 43 All-American honors in those years.

Russell also influenced a number of young women in sport through her teaching in UW-Whitewater's physical education department and as director of highly successful volleyball camps through the University's Continuing Education office.

Former UW-Whitewater women's basketball coach and women's athletic director Dianne Jones was the 1995 recipient of the WSAW Lifetime Achievement Award.  Jones, now retired, introduced Russell at the 2009 banquet.