Prescott senior Kobe Russell may be headed to North Dakota State for football next year, but that has not stopped him from getting to the top in other sports, placing in the State track 4x400 relay in the spring and leading Prescott to a Regional Final appearance on the basketball hardwood.

On Feb. 26, Russell scored 13 points in a 61-46 win over Baldwin-Woodville to reach the lofty 1,000 career point mark. He gets it done on both ends of the floor, as he was later named the Middle Border Conference Defensive Player of the Year.

Getting his name onto Prescott’s 1,000-point player banner means a lot to Russell, but it is the memories with the team this season that mean even more.

“A lot of great players are on that list. Definitely, it’s a cool accomplishment that I’m lucky to have,” Russell said. “The points are cool, but what means more to me is the bond that I was able to make with my teammates this year and the relationships that we created… Those will last a lifetime.”

Entering the Feb. 5 game at home against Ellsworth, the Cardinals were a respectable 11-7 and in the middle of the pack in conference play, but the team had its mind set on loftier goals. Not only did they want more, they went out and got it, rattling off six consecutive wins to close out the regular season and finishing in a three-way tie for the Middle Border title.

“Throughout the entire season it was a lot of ups and downs. Going into the season, we were all very confident and we stayed confident throughout the season, but there were points in the season where it was very low,” Russell said. “We definitely lost some games that we shouldn’t have lost… The one thing I took away is being able to battle through the lows.”

Russell was the team’s leading scorer and impacted every facet of the game along the way. The origin of his love for basketball dates back to his freshman year. While he was fully focused on football, he wanted to see the varsity floor a bit more in basketball. He asked Head Coach Nick Johnson what he had to do to get to that level, and Johnson kept it simple.

“He just told me to trust the process and that I’m going to be a great player for him. He just gave me a ton of belief,” Russell said. “From then on, I’ve loved basketball almost just as much.”

Russell got that playing time his sophomore season, making a State Semifinal run to the Kohl Center. He kept leveling up his game year-by-year, even if football was always the end goal.

“God gifted me with my athletic ability, that’s a big part of it. The work that I put in, and God giving me the ability to put that work in,” Russell said. “I really had a football mindset my freshman year. I just wanted to play football. I wanted to be the best football player, and that’s it. I wasn’t worried about basketball at all.”

Russell has taken advice from alumni Peter Brookshaw and Jordan Malmlov along the way, but Johnson has always been the biggest voice in his ear.

“I’ve been connected with him since elementary school, so I just have a really great relationship with Coach Johnson,” Russell said. “He was the main reason I wanted to leave it all out on the floor.”

While Russell was happy Johnson was a huge part of his 1,000-point honor, he also got to be a part of Johnson celebrating 300 career wins this season.