Whenever Howard County’s Russell brothers were in public together, they would inevitably be asked if they play basketball.

But Aaron Russell, the second oldest and the tallest at 6 foot 9, was a goalie for Centennial High School’s varsity soccer team and played club volleyball in Rockville. He recalls being told volleyball was a “girls’ sport” and that he was wasting his height and athleticism, something his brother Tim said was a recurring event.

All five brothers — Peter, Aaron, Samuel, Tim and Paul — played soccer at Centennial, and all five played some form of volleyball outside of school.

Peter, Aaron and Paul used that wasted height and athleticism to earn scholarships to play NCAA Division I men’s volleyball.

Peter and Aaron advanced far enough to play professionally on volleyball courts around the world.

And, starting today, Aaron will compete for Team USA as an outside hitter in the Paris Olympics. He’s looking to add a gold medal to the bronze he won in 2016.

“They’re usually told that [they should play basketball] by people who don’t know what they can achieve on a volleyball court,” said Mark Pavlik, who coached Peter and Aaron, as well as two other current U.S. Olympians, at Penn State. “There’s no doubt in my mind that they have the athletic ability to go and do some wonderful things on the court there [in basketball]. But, when you play for national championships, you can’t take that away from them, and in Aaron’s case, when you play for a gold medal, that — that’s pretty cool.”

The family games

Marian Russell wanted her boys to play basketball at first — not because they were tall but because she played high school basketball and club basketball at Purdue, Tim said.

The Russell brothers played tons of sports at home, from backyard football to basketball to hockey (in which Paul, as the youngest, was stuck in goal). But volleyball was ever present.

The Russells’ father, Stewart, is an alumnus of the Penn State men’s volleyball team and continued playing after graduation in professional tournaments. Pavlik remembers Stewart’s sons, particularly Peter and Aaron, being the first kids to grab a volleyball and go play between matches. Even Marian eventually played volleyball, pairing up with Stewart’s doubles partner’s wife.

Tim and Paul’s earliest memories of Aaron are games of balloon volleyball played throughout the house. They’d set up a net with chairs on both sides and swing away at each other.

Eventually, they graduated to a real ball, even though they had to use a lighter version for Paul. Aaron taught Paul, who now plays volleyball for George Mason, how to float a serve. His instructions still ring in Paul’s mind whenever he goes up to the service line years later. “Palm to the center of the ball, wrist strong, hand strong.”

But when the brothers moved into organized sports, they gravitated toward soccer. Volleyball, after all, truly was a “girls’ sport” in that programs nearby fielded only girls’ teams, while soccer was a popular sport across genders for kids in Maryland and Howard County.

Only 34 high schools even fielded a boys volleyball team. Centennial High School was not one of them.

When Aaron reached high school, he made the soccer team as a goalie.

Eventually, around senior year, Aaron decided he wanted to give basketball a try.

Marian said no. By then, it was clear where his future lay.

“My mom actually told him, you know, he’s going to college on a [volleyball] scholarship, God forbid he take a dirty play at the rim,” Tim said. “It’s funny. She pushed so long for us to play basketball, and when Aaron was so close to trying it, she shot it down.”

Brother see, brother do

Aaron had found his calling — and that scholarship offer — by following his older brother.

Always a bit shy, he tended to take after Peter, who was more outgoing. Aaron followed him into soccer, so when he was burnt out of that, he decided to follow Peter again into volleyball.

That meant long rides to practice with the only club team they could find.

“I was on pretty much the only team in Maryland, the Maryland Volleyball Program,” Aaron said. “And we trained up in Rockville, so it was a good 45 minutes to an hour with traffic. We had some long commutes those last few years in high school.”

The community and the chaos of the game appealed to Aaron. He also got to play up an age group with his brother, which probably accelerated his growth, Team USA teammate Thomas Jaeschke said.

Then Peter tried out and made it to one of the national team’s development camps. So, the next year, Aaron decided to do the same.

“That first year, I wasn’t the top at my position,” Aaron said. “So I wasn’t on the first team — I don’t even think the second team — when I started. But the following year I continued to develop and really kept pushing myself, so I was fortunate enough to make the team at the tryouts.

“And I remember my older brother’s face when he found out I made the team — he was really happy for me.”

As part of the national team, Aaron traveled the country and world. As he missed school for tournaments, his classmates started to ask questions.

“They thought I was pretty cool,” Aaron said with a laugh.

Aaron and his brother did find a way to contribute to the Centennial volleyball program. They would hit and block against the girls’ varsity team.

After high school, Aaron once again followed Peter to their father’s alma mater, Penn State, where they fulfilled a dream of playing against their father in the alumni game, as they told Penn State’s student newspaper.

By Aaron’s senior year, Pavlik said, they were working with Team USA coach John Speraw to make sure Aaron would be ready to make the jump to the international game. They all knew he’d get to the highest level. They just didn’t know how fast he’d make it there, Pavlik said.

It took a few weeks for him to find his place at the next level, but he’d secured a starting role in time for the 2016 Olympics.

A second chance

Aaron’s wife, Kendall (who was also a volleyball star at Penn State), is sending him to Paris with a list of athletes he has to stop and take a picture with.

She’s still not over the fact that Aaron ran into the USA women’s gymnastics team at the 2016 Rio Olympics, talked to them about his height, and didn’t get a picture.

Luckily for Aaron, he ran into Simone Biles again and managed to get a picture for Kendall. One of Biles’ pictures with the men’s volleyball team went viral.

The Olympics do give men’s volleyball a boost in visibility — albeit only every four years. The team has been good, winning a bronze in 2016, and the roster has had continuity. With core players getting older and starting families, though, this might be a last dance for many of the legends on the team, Aaron said.

Team USA failed to advance past pool play during the 2020 games (when Russell was dealing with injury and did not compete) for the first time since 2000, and it is looking for redemption, too.

Aaron ultimately hopes his success will mean volleyball can keep growing in popularity and more Maryland players end up playing in college.

“Looking back, there are some great players who have come from Maryland, but he’s [Aaron] has definitely sparked a resurgence,” said Paul, who may be biased as his brother.

“I think ’Ron is the perfect guy to look up to as a volleyball player and as a teammate,” Jaeschke added (although he might also be biased as his best friend). “He’s so solid in every fundamental. You watch the guy play, and there’s zero wasted movement, yet he’s so giving as a teammate.”

And of course social media and streaming services have given the sport a platform. The Russells can watch Aaron play, whether he’s in Italy or Japan or, as he will be next year, Poland. And anyone else who reads this story or sees one of his brothers’ posts or is intrigued by his performance at the Olympics can look him up and see clips.

According to Jaeschke, Aaron’s story is both abnormal in that he comes from a place with little opportunity and typical in that he’s part of a volleyball family. Jaeschke’s background is the opposite — he had no connection to the sport but tried it because it was offered at his high school. But stories like Aaron’s are becoming more common as interest in the sport outpaces change at the high school level, Pavlik said.

And, although the adventure of travel is fun, the dream would be to have a professional league in the United States. As much as volleyball is growing, that’s nowhere near happening, Pavlik said. There’s still a way to go.

Even in Aaron’s hometown, many fellow Centennial alumni are unaware the men’s game is played at such a high level.

“I think, being from such a small school and being able to represent it, that’s very special,” Aaron said. “And it keeps me rooted, in a way, remembering some humble beginnings of not even having a boys’ program.”

If you talk to anyone in the men’s volleyball community around the world, they will know the Russell name, Pavlik said. After all, Aaron was named most valuable player at the 2018 Club World Championship when he was playing for the Italian club Diatec Trentino.

Closer to home, Centennial has since added a powderpuff boys volleyball game to go with the powderpuff girls football game at homecoming. And, if the state gets onboard and sanctions the sport, his younger brothers feel the interest is there.

“I think, if Howard County started doing boys volleyball, I think nowadays it might take off pretty well,” Tim said.

Meanwhile, Paul and Tim plan to find a bar in Ellicott City and “try to convince them to put men’s volleyball on” so they can cheer the local Olympian on during games.