Angie Russell Position: Assistant Coach Experience: 2nd Year Alma Mater: Eastern Illinois, '00

Entering her third season as an assistant coach at Cleveland State, Angie Russell has brought an aggressive recruting style and combined it with a passion for coaching to help transform the Viking program.

Last season, while serving as recruiting coordinator, Russell helped the Vikings sign a five-player class that head coach Kate Peterson Abiad called one of her most talented and deepest classes ever.

She also played a key role in helping the Vikings claim their first-ever Horizon League Championship and bid to the NCAA Championship.

In her first season at CSU, Russell was instrumental in aiding in the development of center Nicole Thomas, who finished second in the league in rebounding (7.1 rpg) and was fourth on the team in scoring (7.4 ppg).

Russell, who was recruited to play at EIU by CSU head coach Kate Peterson at Eastern Illinois, aided in the Vikings finishing the 2006-07 season as the top rebounding team (39.2 rpg) in the Horizon League last season.

Russell arrived in Cleveland after serving the previous two seasons (2003-05) as an assistant girl's basketball coach at Fort Myers (Fla.) High.

Prior to her stint in Florida, Russell spent the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons at Wisconsin-Whitewater as the chief recruiting coordinator. The previous year she earned her master's in sport administration while serving as a graduate assistant at Wisconsin-La Crosse.

A native of La Crosse, Wis., Russell was a four-year letterwinner at Eastern Illinois, graduating in three years with a bachelor's degree in speech communication. She started 52 of 54 games at forward her last two seasons, averaging 9.0 points and 6.1 rebounds as a senior, and was a three-time member of the Ohio Valley Conference Commissioner's Honor Roll.