Melvin Russell approaches the upcoming season with a strong sense of deju vu.
The second-year Northwestern assistant coach knows the Demons will be underdogs at times this year against a rugged schedule. He knows the feeling. While a standout point guard for Centenary College, he guided the Gents in the same situation.
"I played on a team similar to the kind of team we'll have this year, one that had to be overachievers. We played a tough schedule and just had to battle every game. We won some games that we weren't supposed to win against some tough people. That was gratifying."
There're been plenty of gratifying accomplishments in Russell's career as a player and a coach.
He was one of the great guards in Shreveport hig school history at Woodlawn. Russell was All-City, All-State, All-South and All-American for the Knights.
He moved on to Centenary and helped lead the Gents to national recognition in the early 1970s. A three-year starter, Russell set school records for assists in a game (17), season (184) and career (387) and was co-captain as a junior and senior.
An All-Louisiana choice as a senior, Russell was picked in the 10th round of the 1973 American Basketball Association draft by teh Utah Stars.
After being released by the Stars, Russell returned home and joined the Woodlawn faculty as a teacher and assistant basketball coach. He assumed the head coaching position in 1976 and built one of the most respected programs in the state.
Russell won four District 1-AAAA championships and earned the Knights five state playoff appearances in his seven years as head coach while posting seven straight winning years, only one of which included less than 20 wins.
His team was 26-8 in his first season, 20-14 in the 1977-78 campaign and exploded to a 31-5 record in 1978-79, reaching the state Class AAAA championship game before finishing as runner-ups.
For the performance, Russell was honored by teh Louisiana Sports Writers Association as the 1979 "Coach of the Year" in the Quad-A ranks.
What did he do for an encore? The logical step was to win it all, and that's exactly what Woodlawn did in 1980. Posting a 31-2 record, the Knights claimed the state crown that had eluded them a year before.
This time, it was the Louisiana Association of Basketball Coaches who named Russell as their "Coach of the Year" for Quad, Triple and Double-A.
Eventually, he earned four "Coach of the Year" awards in the district. His team posted a 22-11 mark in 1980-81, a 28-5 record in 1981-82 ad a 16-16 slate in 1982-83.
He came to Northwestern for the 1984 season with a composite seven-year record of 174 wins, 71 losses for an outstanding .710 winning percentage.
Russell earned his bachelor's degree from Centenary in 1973, in health and physical education, and received his masters there in 1983 concentrating on secondary education.
Married to the former Mary Hawkins of Shreveport, he is the father of four children - Zachary, Umica, Kimberly, and Melvin Jr. The family resides in Shreveport.
