Jim Russell enters his twenty-fourth season as the men’s basketball head coach and is the winningest coach in Central Lakes College history. His teams have won the conference title eight times, competed in 20 state tournaments and made the NJCAA National Tournament three times (2007-08, 2011-12 and 2018-19). He has received numerous coaching awards, including Region XIII Coach of the Year     (’08, ’12, ‘19) and MCAC Basketball Coach of the Year  (’98, ’04, ’10, ’12, ’15, ‘19).

Coach Russell takes great pride in the hard work and fundamentals he instills in his student-athletes at Central Lakes College — from recruitment to graduation and beyond — while helping them move forward to attend and play both NAIA and NCAA colleges and universities.