Daily Chronicle 2020-21 Male Athlete of the Year: Indian Creek’s Cam Russell

Cam Russell will be pulling rare double duty at Waubonsee College, playing both soccer and basketball.

It’s going to seem like a vacation compared to the Indian Creek athlete’s senior year, in which he competed in five sports and was all-state in two of them.

“When I look back, I’m definitely going to remember COVID and everything,” Russell said. “I’ll try to block that out and remember playing five sports and just enjoying the last ride of high school, just being with my friends and everything. It was a lot of fun, and I’ll always remember that.”

Russell was all-state in basketball and track. He played golf and baseball for the first time at Indian Creek. And he continued his strong soccer career, helping the Timberwolves to one of their best seasons in school history.

He was named the 2020-21 Daily Chronicle Male Athlete of the Year.

Joe Piekarz was the longtime boys basketball coach at the school, leaving last month to take over at Marmion. He said he remembers a summer shootaround – fresh off a run to a Class 1A supersectional in 2020 – during which the IHSA released its projected calendar in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Once he saw that schedule, Piekarz said he knew that Russell was going to try to play five sports.

“I remember saying to him, ‘You are going to play golf, aren’t you?’” Piekarz said. “And he said, ‘Yep, I am going to play golf.’ And then later on he decided to play baseball. He had never even done either of those sports. ... He pushes himself and is always looking to make himself better and his teammates better. Not only did it not surprise he did all five of those sports, but he excelled at them as well.”

Russell’s year started on the links, able to play for the first time with the IHSA pushing back the soccer season to the spring.

“It started out with golf being first because there was no soccer in the fall,” Russell said. “I always loved golf, so I was like, I might as well try that for once, see how that goes.”

He made the Daily Chronicle All-Area Boys Golf honorable mention list, then went into his standard standout basketball and soccer seasons.

On the court, he averaged 17.3 points and 8.1 rebounds a game, helping Indian Creek to a 17-4 record on the heels of the 2020 run in which the team finished 35-1, although this season featured no postseason. He was a Chronicle All-Area first-team selection.

“We were disappointed first, but then we realized we could play a lot of games, as many games as we could,” Russell said. “I’ve got to give a shoutout to [athletic director Ehren] Mertz and Piekarz for scheduling so many games. I think we had the third-most in Illinois or 1A or something like that. So that was really cool. The team was really good about just playing the games we had and not worrying about the postseason or anything.”

Then on the pitch, he finished with 11 goals and nine assists as the Timberwolves lost only one game and won the Little Ten Conference title in the regular season for the first time.

He leaves the program as the all-time leader in assists in a game (five), season (30) and career (66).

“If we had 10 sports, he would have played them,” Indian Creek soccer coach Eric Schrader said. “That’s just the type of kid he is. ... You don’t have to ask him to make himself better. He’s trying to do everything he can every extra minute to make himself a better athlete. He’s a rare breed, I think.”

Russell said he then thought about calling it quits after the soccer season and heading off to college as a three-sport standout his senior year.

He said he was trying to weigh whether to play baseball, track or neither. Then he made the choice.

“I just thought one day, ‘Why not do both? It’s my senior year, why not get the most out of it by doing five sports?’” Russell said. “And I’m glad I did it.”

Baseball was the only of the five sports in which he was not either all-state or on the Daily Chronicle All-Area team.

Of course, he had never played baseball in high school before, either.

“I know the guys – they’re my friends and stuff – so once I got into it, I really enjoyed it,” Russell said. “And track, that I know. I love jumping. Being able to go downstate in that was awesome, and I’m really glad I did both.”

Russell ended up hitting .333 with a homer and an on-base percentage of .972.

“When I found out he was going to play, I was excited, because generally he’s just such a good athlete,” Indian Creek baseball coach Kevin Petorek said. “We used a few days of practice to see where he would fit best. I was thinking outfield because of his speed. I hoped he would pitch a little more, but in the five or six-year span that he last played, he was a little more rusty pitching. But his defense was always solid, and he kept moving up the order after he started as the eight or nine hitter. He was a very clutch hitter.”

Originally, Russell said, he was heading to Waubonsee just to play basketball. That changed pretty quickly.

“Once I decided on Waubonsee, their soccer coach contacted me and said they were interested,” Russell said. “I figured if I could do two sports there, that would be awesome.”

Schrader and Piekarz said the legacy Russell leaves behind goes beyond just numbers or even ability.

“He has brought leadership both on the court and off the court,” Piekarz said. “He has just been a wonderful addition to the Indian Creek basketball team and the Indian Creek community. He’s done so much, so much, for the basketball team and the school for the last four years.”