Jefferson High School senior Dallas Russell was a standout running back last year for the Dragons with 979 yards from scrimmage and 12 total touchdowns. However, this year, Russell made one of the hardest decisions of his life — he has opted out of playing football to focus on wrestling.
It was probably one of the hardest decisions of my life,” Russell said.
“Considering I’ve always, I mean I’ve wrestled and played football since I was 5 years old, so telling the team that, I mean, yeah it was tough.”
Russell is currently the No. 1-ranked high school wrestler in the country for the 157-pound weight class without ever focusing on wrestling alone. Russell has been a multi-sport athlete throughout high school. However, this year, Russell has decided to focus on wrestling as he has his eyes set on becoming just the third wrestler in program history to win four straight wrestling state championships.
After high school, Russell will continue his wrestling career at Oklahoma, and he is working hard to leave behind a meaningful legacy at Jefferson.
Lily Grace Kilgore, M’Kaylah Jackson and Brady Logan are students in the undergraduate certificate program at Carmical Sports Media Institute at UGA.
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