‘Always passionate’: Roland Russo is The Bee’s high school football Player of the Year
The Bullard High football seniors led by quarterback Roland Russo knew what needed to be done.
The Knights had just lost to Clovis West 35-28 to fall to 1-3 and undefeated Clovis was next on the schedule.
“All the seniors, me included, just talked to the team and we told them if we want to win what we’ve been dreaming for then we have to make some adjustments and crack down on the little things,” Russo said. “If we want to win, we have to do more than what we’ve been doing and we knew once the playoffs came, it’s going to be more like the little things like film and every minute counts and do scouting reports during the playoffs and we completed those.”
Mission accomplished. Bullard beat Clovis 35-12 to revive its season and later went on a six-game winning streak culminating with a 45-21 victory over Bakersfield in the Central Section Division II championship.
Russo did his part with a record-setting season and is The Bee’s Player of the Year.
“It was kind of special and I worked hard my whole life and kind of worked towards this,” Russo said. “And making a run to a section championship and to hear that on top of that, I have no words for it. I thank my coach and everyone around me.”
Knights coach Don Arax had set a goal for Russo prior to the season: throw for 3,000 yards. Former Fresno State great Kevin Sweeney set the school record of 3,031 in 1981.
Russo finished with 3,589 passing yards and 248 completions to break Sweeney’s school records. Russo’s 38 passing touchdowns ranks second in single-season annals behind Sweeney’s 40 in 1981, according to section historian Bob Barnett.
Despite playing just 19 games (18 as the starter/main QB — four starts in the spring season and then this fall) in his Bullard career, Russo’s 4,177 career yards are the fourth-best in school history and his 45 touchdown passes are second behind Sweeney’s 53.
“When you look back at the season, going in you know he’s going to be a very good quarterback,” Arax said. “But this season, he broke a 40-year-old record of one of the top quarterbacks who ever played in this area. Not just Bullard High School. But beyond that, the way he did it, it wasn’t just a guy passing for yards. It’s being a leader and being accountable.”
Russo threw for 406 yards against Central Catholic-Modesto in a loss in the Division 2-AA North regional playoff game. His passing yards are the second-best in school history behind Alex Huerta’s 466 against Edison in 2005.
Knights senior wide receiver Jayden Davis said Russo “brought a lot of leadership and ambition.”
“He was always passionate about the game,” he said. “He used to get frustrated and people would be down. He never understood why everyone was down at the beginning of the year. He always brought people up. He told people it will be alright. If we drop a pass, he tells us it’s OK. We kept our heads up.”
Russo would be the first to say he doesn’t like talking about himself. Instead, he prefers his play do the talking for him.
He backed it up this season.
“I’m just very humbled,” he said. “I couldn’t do it without my receiving corps ... all those guys are studs and my running backs when I had to check down. They gave us yards and without them, I’m not here.”
This story was originally published January 1, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
