Willemsen named Golden Eagles Director of Basketball Operations
Russ Willemsen, an assistant coach at Lee University, has been named Director of Basketball Operations for the Tennessee Tech University men's basketball program.
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - Russ
Willemsen, an assistant coach at Lee University, has been named
Director of Basketball Operations for the Tennessee Tech University
men's basketball program.
Head coach Mike
Sutton announced Willemsen's appointment this week. Willemsen,
23, replaces Ryan Parnell, who took an assistant coaching position
at Freed-Hardeman. "Russ brings a lot of experience to our program
and he is an extremely diligent and hard-working young man," Sutton
said. "He has worked for the past six years in a successful NAIA
basketball program at Lee, and has shown he can handle a wide range
of responsibilities."
With the Golden Eagles, Willemsen will handle film exchange, daily
office administration and recruiting, team travel and the summer
camps.
A native of Rushville, N.Y., Willemsen played basketball and
football at Marcus Whitman High School, before enrolling at Lee
University in 1999.
He served as team manager for three years for coach Rick Hughes'
team, then moved up to a student assistant coaching position in his
junior season.
In 2004, Willemsen earned his bachelors degree from Lee in
physical education and history, with minors in religion and
coaching.
He was named an assistant coach for the Flames for the 2004-2005
season, where his duties included on-floor coaching and individual
workouts, recruiting, scouting, as well as handling the summer
camps and overseeing the team's community service efforts.
At Lee, he was part of teams that reached the NAIA Sweet 16 and
Elite Eight, and he worked with five NAIA All-Americans during his
six years on the staff.
