Joel Russ: Chasing the Dream Through Sports and Social Media Madness

Joel Russ: Chasing the Dream Through Sports and Social Media Madness

By Katie O'Neill, ENGL 336 

Sitting in the back corner of his classroom, plugging discreetly away at his cell phone, Joel Russ sends off one of his many tweets for the day. The 19 year old sophomore at Frostburg State University, and first generation student, stays busy enough to love napping in his limited free-time.

Joel Russ, Sophomore and major sports fan. 

The seeming social media addict uses Twitter and Facebook for far more than just uploading selfies. After spending a summer writing over five articles a week for SEN (Sports Entertainment Network), Russ stayed on to be a local scout. He watches highlight tapes and ranks the players, a majority of whom are high school students.

As if one internship was not enough, Russ then joined the Rivals  ranks as the controller for their social media. All day every day, Russ updates Twitter with news regarding college sports and the many players of CFB and CBB (college football and baseball). The recruitment website relies on Russ to get word out about the college sports teams and their star players.

Russ's dedication to sports shines through in his hobbies, too. A monumental Yankees and Lakers fan, Russ spends much of his time following the scoreboard. Outside the realm of professional sports, the University of Southern Carolina Trojans (USC) are a major focus for Russ. He hopes to be a college football analyst after graduating from FSU, so keeping up to date on college football is a must.

To further his experience in sports writing and analysis, Russ now writes for FSU's student run newspaper, The Bottom Line, as a sports writer. 

More than just working towards the future, though, Russ really loves the USC Trojans. "If they lose," he says, "I don't want people texting me. I turn off my phone."

Russ is dedicated beyond just loving sports. He knows what he wants from life, and he spends his days working on getting there: "I want to do what I love doing, so being an analyst for college football if a major goal," Russ says, hand on his over-worked cell phone.

There is not much room for a huge social life, but Russ, being a people person, knows that people make him just as happy as sports do. When the day is done, and the work week over, Russ takes time away from resting up to catch up with friends.

Although Joel Russ stays busy, he loves it: "I read sports, I write sports... I love sports," he says. Russ knows what he wants from life, and he will do whatever it takes to get there.