On his third high school basketball head-coaching job, Mike Russell, son of late Ogden basketball coaching legend Phil Russell, knows better than most that this business isn’t about the money (there’s little to go around).

Instead, the younger Russell is seeing dividends in decades.

Three of Russell’s former players — Dallin Laird (Ogden 2008), Kane King (Syracuse 2023) and Daxton Laughter (West Field 2026) — will be sitting courtside in Year 3 of Russell’s pursuit as head boys basketball coach at West Field High School.

“This is not what we do for money,” Russell said. “They’re very loyal, and they like what we have going. But most of all, they love the kids.”

BRIAN WOLFER, Special to the Standard-Examiner

Laughter, the 2025-26 Region 5 Defensive Player of the Year and Standard-Examiner All-Area recipient, is trading his uniform for a coach’s polo one year removed from his high school graduation and the boys program’s first winning season in school history.

“When that opportunity came, it opened up for me, and that’s something I wouldn’t have passed on,” Laughter said of his first visit to an open practice earlier this year.

By day, it’s sales for Laughter, who’s also in business with the folks at Intermountain T-Shirt Company of Farr West. But as the clock slides back and the sun sets a little earlier, he’s going to scratch the itch and be back in the gym as high school hoops season returns next week.

Russell, Laird and King already had Laughter in their sights.

“To have (Laughter) back, he’s like the epitome of what you want your kids to turn into in every way,” Russell said. “When we found out he had some time, it’s like, hey, why not?”

CONNER BECKER, Standard-Examiner

Returning forward Drew Faddis (13.0 ppg), a junior, and senior swingman Maddox Purser (2.8 ppg, 3.1 rpg, 1.3 apg) are at the front of a lineup devoid of last year’s leading scorer, now behind the clipboard.

There’s a real edge in bringing in a recent player, Laird says, especially one that knows the roster and region inside and out.

West Field tips off the season on Nov. 20 at Davis High, a first-ever matchup with the 6A power just 20 minutes down the road.

“Everybody’s got different knowledge and different things that they pick out,” Laird said. “As a coaching staff, it makes us really good at seeing different things and working together like the team does out on the floor to put our guys in the best spot possible.”

Laughter is the second player of the 2020s to find his way onto a Russell coaching staff.

Kane King, a 2023 graduate of Syracuse High, followed Russell and Laird to West Field in 2024 when Russell served as the new school’s athletic director for the school’s first year.

King, now a site supervisor for a carpeting company, as well as an overnight electrician, made the transition from player to coach at a young age.

Syracuse (now in the hands of Greg Godderidge after Russell left) needed discipline when Russell arrived from Snow College in 2021, King said. The Titans flipped a losing trend into a winning one in as little as one year, and it’d put the coaching bug into King before he’d even reached the graduation stage.

“Mike brought a lot of culture and standards to our program. I wasn’t used to it,” King said. “We had a sit-down, and he just told me what we had to do to be great. I never thought about (coaching) until halfway through my senior year, we had played (a game), and Russell told me, ‘Dude, that game, you pretty much coached it.'”

King, having coached Laughter for two seasons, recognizes many of the same intangibles that attracted him to coaching just three years ago.

“The drive and passion he’s got for all these kids, I know, especially when I played, he’s got the same drive, and he prepares these boys for much more than basketball,” King said. “From the moment he stepped in, he set a great standard and just a vibe that he was here to win.”

Discussing his connection with West Field, Laughter agrees that if his familiarity with the roster can lend the team a competitive edge on game day, he wants to be in the gym as much as possible.

“I know these guys (and) that’s a pretty deep connection, because I did play with them,” Laughter said. “I’ve been in the locker room with them and everything, so I can build a good connection, and I think with how I played last year, it’ll be easier for me to relate to them and show them what I’ve noticed throughout playing, especially because I’m fresh off it.

“It’s the same thing with a lot of the guys we’re playing; I played them last year, so I think in that way, I’m excited to help them on that part for sure.”

It’s unique timing for the school, in general, with realignment on the way.

West Field, dropping its first-round matchup with then-No. 19 Viewmont as the No. 14 seed last year, is chasing its first playoff win since moving up to 5A Region 5. It’s unclear where the Longhorns may land after the next round of realignment, slated for release by the UHSAA next month.

Roy High captured the Region 5 title last year with a 10-2 region record, including a 2-0 run against the Longhorns during their region series.

Connect with Standard-Examiner sports reporter Conner Becker via email at cbecker @standard.net, X @ctbecker and Instagram @standardexaminersports.