West Field is scheduled to open for the 2024-25 school year but the AD position in the Weber School District is a full-time job with no related teaching position and starts in the 2023-24 school year.

Russell will leave his post as PE teacher and boys basketball coach at Syracuse High, where he’s been the last two school years.

“It’s something that’s always been on the back of my mind, I knew when I moved up here that West Field was a very good possibility in some position or capacity,” Russell told the Standard-Examiner on Thursday. “I was the athletic director — I’ve worked the job, I was the AD at Bonneville before I moved to Snow (College). I just felt like it was something I’d like to get back into and I thought it was a great opportunity.”

Russell said he was offered the job on June 29 and accepted it that day. The Weber School District announced his hire on Thursday, the same day the Davis School District posted his teaching and coaching job at Syracuse.

The laundry list for Russell at West Field is long. It includes hiring coaches and ordering sports equipment, a process that will take place over the coming school year.

Russell graduated from Ogden High and Weber State University, and previously was at Bonneville High from 2007-15 as the girls basketball coach and eventually the school’s athletic director.

Russell coached the women’s basketball team at Snow College from 2015-21 before moving back to Northern Utah in 2021 as a teacher and boys basketball coach at Syracuse High. It’s currently undetermined if he will coach basketball at West Field.

Russell said he was sad to leave Syracuse, especially given the timing with the start of school a little more than a month away.

“Obviously, having to say goodbye to kids I’ve grown to know and love and respect is hard,” he said.

Connect with reporter Patrick Carr via email at pcarr@standard.net, Twitter @patrickcarr_ and Instagram @standardexaminersports.