CLEMSON — Last summer, Sam Russ was finally on her way to becoming a Tiger. She traveled past the orange-painted paws dotting Pendleton Road as it nears campus. She swung by the place where she would live if she transferred to Clemson’s softball program, which didn’t truly exist when her college career started at N.C. State in 2018.
Before her campus tour, though, there was another stop to make. Sam pulled off Pendleton Road into a nondescript parking lot across from a church. In a small brick building, sometimes covered in green ivy, was Mac’s Drive In.
This detour was more for Sam’s dad, Frank, who spent many a night in Mac’s when he was an infielder for Clemson in the early 1980s. It was a go-to following a long practice, as athletes chatted up Mac himself, ordering all the burgers, hot dogs, and shakes they wanted. The final bill always added up to $2 for a Clemson baseball player.
“He was over the moon,” Sam recalled of that trip to Mac’s during her recruiting visit. “He had gone there so many times in his time here, he was so happy to see it was still up and running. We stopped by and got a burger, got some fries, and he sat and told me about the times he spent there.”
Clemson played a special part in Frank’s life. He secured the last out in an NCAA tournament regional win over South Carolina in 1980 to send the Tigers to the College World Series. He was an All-ACC performer in ’83. But the alma mater was always something Frank wanted to share with his daughter. The first letters she learned as a child were the “C-L-E-M-S-O-N” in the fight song at football games — and maybe “DQ” for the ice cream she ate on those trips.
This kind of visit to Mac’s, as two Clemson athletes, current and former, just wasn’t possible until recently. It wasn’t until 2017 that Frank’s alma mater established a softball program. It wasn’t until 2020 that the Tigers began competing in the sport. But after the 2021 season — where Clemson surprisingly won an ACC title — there was an opening for a second-generation Russ to hit the diamond.
Sam had an unexpected year of eligibility to burn, like all athletes, because of the pandemic. It just so happened the Tigers wanted a transfer outfielder, and Clemson coach John Rittman was especially interested in the Wolfpack’s base-stealing extraordinaire.
Rittman didn’t know who Sam’s dad was — and he obviously didn’t know Frank was on the ’80 Clemson baseball team that hosted an NCAA tournament regional for the first time in that program’s history. Rittman couldn’t have known he was recruiting Sam onto a 2022 Clemson softball team that would host an NCAA regional this weekend, the first in its history.
“That’s an interesting little nugget and something that the family can be proud of as a part of Clemson history,” Rittman said. “Any time you have your dad play at a school, and then his daughter gets to play there, there’s going to be a lot of special memories for that family for a long time.”
CLEMSON
It has been quite an experience for father and daughter, who have long been connected by Clemson and the game of softball.
Just never both things at the same time.
Frank, himself, spent most of his childhood in Charleston, admittedly growing up as a Gamecock fan. But his best offer to play college athletics came from Clemson baseball coach Bill Wilhelm, and his allegiances flipped.
“I got into the culture, if you will, of Clemson sports,” Frank said, “and how good Clemson baseball was and still is.”
Frank was a speedster, capable of stealing 20 bags in a season. So it’s no surprise Sam inherited some of the same qualities, especially considering who Frank married. His wife, Saundra, also a Clemson alum, is the daughter of Wayne Serrett. Nicknamed “The Train,” Serrett was a state champion in the 100- and 220-yard dash and played running back at Virginia.
Sam’s genetic gifts were obvious around 12 years old, so Frank turned her around from a right-handed hitter to a left-handed slapper. She was so fast, when she reached high school ball in Charlotte, it was nearly impossible for catchers to throw her out. Among her many records at Providence Day School, Sam swiped 50 bases in a season.
“She was my lead-off, and if she got on base, we’d have her steal second, steal third, and squeeze (bunt) her in,” Providence Day coach Kristie Oglesby said. “Anytime she got on, we were pretty confident we were going to score.”
She was “fast-twitch to the extreme,” as Oglesby puts it. But she was also a super-hard worker, spending the winter months working out with the track team. At the time, Anna Cockrell — a future Olympian — was one of Providence Day’s sprinters.
CLEMSON
Sam enjoyed the challenge, just knowing any increase in acceleration would make her super dangerous in a sport where there are only 60 feet between bases.
“Sam didn’t want to run long distances or do any of that kind of track stuff,” Frank said, laughing, “but when you say ‘First to second, you can get there a step quicker?’ That resonated with her. She says ‘Let’s work on that form.’”
Sam loved to hit, as well. She put in so much time with her dad, Oglesby made sure Frank — a middle school baseball coach for Providence Day — had a key to the batting cages so the father-daughter pair could swing by after-hours.
“His baseball experience and just being around Sam’s travel ball experience, he did everything he could to support her,” Oglesby said. “Frank’s the kind of guy, he’s supportive in a really genuine way. He doesn’t try to overstep.”
Oglesby trusted Frank so much in that regard, she let him be an assistant coach for Providence Day during Sam’s junior and senior seasons. As Sam made each dash around the bases, Frank was anything but a parent in a coach’s hat. He was a coach who happened to be a parent, focused most of the time on drawing up pitch sequences for Providence Day’s hurlers.
Frank was a little disappointed that Clemson wasn’t an option for Sam coming out of high school, but she was happy at N.C. State. Sam ended up setting the Wolfpack’s career record for steals with 103. If Frank and Saundra didn’t see every one of those swipes, they got close. They only missed N.C. State’s trip to Syracuse last year because it was nearly snowed-out.
“I think I went to 51 of 54,” Frank told one person who asked, “and I’m going to try and improve on that (in 2022).”
Certainly, Frank and Saundra weren’t missing games if they were in Clemson.
Sam broke the news she was transferring to Clemson, her dream school, while with her dad on a trip to last year’s College World Series. It has been almost a surreal experience for Frank sitting in McWhorter Stadium because it stands on a field where the baseball team used to hold offseason practices. Frank took thousands upon thousands of ground balls in that exact spot.
SOUTH CAROLINA
He was “over the moon,” Sam said, that Mac’s Drive In was still around for that recruiting visit. Frank found out, along with framed pictures of various Clemson athletes all over the walls, the restaurant still has a baseball signed by one of his teams in the early ’80s. Frank’s signature was on that ball, in blue ink.
“It was a special treat of something coming full circle, 40-something years later,” Frank said. “Although Mac is no longer living, that baseball was still there.”
In just one year, Sam created her own legacy at Clemson. She not only reset the fledgling program’s bar in steals — setting a single-season record with 25 swipes in 25 attempts — but she started in the outfield for a team that comes into this weekend as the nation’s No. 10 overall seed.
The Tigers are hosting a regional, just three years into their existence as a program. With a Russ on the field.
“This is the reason I came to Clemson, to make a postseason run, and to be able to start at our home facilities,” Sam said. “And we know, if we go out there and play the game as we do, we should be the ones to end up on top.”
Before her campus tour, though, there was another stop to make. Sam pulled off Pendleton Road into a nondescript parking lot across from a church. In a small brick building, sometimes covered in green ivy, was Mac’s Drive In.
This detour was more for Sam’s dad, Frank, who spent many a night in Mac’s when he was an infielder for Clemson in the early 1980s. It was a go-to following a long practice, as athletes chatted up Mac himself, ordering all the burgers, hot dogs, and shakes they wanted. The final bill always added up to $2 for a Clemson baseball player.
“He was over the moon,” Sam recalled of that trip to Mac’s during her recruiting visit. “He had gone there so many times in his time here, he was so happy to see it was still up and running. We stopped by and got a burger, got some fries, and he sat and told me about the times he spent there.”
Clemson played a special part in Frank’s life. He secured the last out in an NCAA tournament regional win over South Carolina in 1980 to send the Tigers to the College World Series. He was an All-ACC performer in ’83. But the alma mater was always something Frank wanted to share with his daughter. The first letters she learned as a child were the “C-L-E-M-S-O-N” in the fight song at football games — and maybe “DQ” for the ice cream she ate on those trips.
This kind of visit to Mac’s, as two Clemson athletes, current and former, just wasn’t possible until recently. It wasn’t until 2017 that Frank’s alma mater established a softball program. It wasn’t until 2020 that the Tigers began competing in the sport. But after the 2021 season — where Clemson surprisingly won an ACC title — there was an opening for a second-generation Russ to hit the diamond.
Sam had an unexpected year of eligibility to burn, like all athletes, because of the pandemic. It just so happened the Tigers wanted a transfer outfielder, and Clemson coach John Rittman was especially interested in the Wolfpack’s base-stealing extraordinaire.
Rittman didn’t know who Sam’s dad was — and he obviously didn’t know Frank was on the ’80 Clemson baseball team that hosted an NCAA tournament regional for the first time in that program’s history. Rittman couldn’t have known he was recruiting Sam onto a 2022 Clemson softball team that would host an NCAA regional this weekend, the first in its history.
“That’s an interesting little nugget and something that the family can be proud of as a part of Clemson history,” Rittman said. “Any time you have your dad play at a school, and then his daughter gets to play there, there’s going to be a lot of special memories for that family for a long time.”
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It has been quite an experience for father and daughter, who have long been connected by Clemson and the game of softball.
Just never both things at the same time.
Frank, himself, spent most of his childhood in Charleston, admittedly growing up as a Gamecock fan. But his best offer to play college athletics came from Clemson baseball coach Bill Wilhelm, and his allegiances flipped.
“I got into the culture, if you will, of Clemson sports,” Frank said, “and how good Clemson baseball was and still is.”
Frank was a speedster, capable of stealing 20 bags in a season. So it’s no surprise Sam inherited some of the same qualities, especially considering who Frank married. His wife, Saundra, also a Clemson alum, is the daughter of Wayne Serrett. Nicknamed “The Train,” Serrett was a state champion in the 100- and 220-yard dash and played running back at Virginia.
Sam’s genetic gifts were obvious around 12 years old, so Frank turned her around from a right-handed hitter to a left-handed slapper. She was so fast, when she reached high school ball in Charlotte, it was nearly impossible for catchers to throw her out. Among her many records at Providence Day School, Sam swiped 50 bases in a season.
“She was my lead-off, and if she got on base, we’d have her steal second, steal third, and squeeze (bunt) her in,” Providence Day coach Kristie Oglesby said. “Anytime she got on, we were pretty confident we were going to score.”
She was “fast-twitch to the extreme,” as Oglesby puts it. But she was also a super-hard worker, spending the winter months working out with the track team. At the time, Anna Cockrell — a future Olympian — was one of Providence Day’s sprinters.
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Sam enjoyed the challenge, just knowing any increase in acceleration would make her super dangerous in a sport where there are only 60 feet between bases.
“Sam didn’t want to run long distances or do any of that kind of track stuff,” Frank said, laughing, “but when you say ‘First to second, you can get there a step quicker?’ That resonated with her. She says ‘Let’s work on that form.’”
Sam loved to hit, as well. She put in so much time with her dad, Oglesby made sure Frank — a middle school baseball coach for Providence Day — had a key to the batting cages so the father-daughter pair could swing by after-hours.
“His baseball experience and just being around Sam’s travel ball experience, he did everything he could to support her,” Oglesby said. “Frank’s the kind of guy, he’s supportive in a really genuine way. He doesn’t try to overstep.”
Oglesby trusted Frank so much in that regard, she let him be an assistant coach for Providence Day during Sam’s junior and senior seasons. As Sam made each dash around the bases, Frank was anything but a parent in a coach’s hat. He was a coach who happened to be a parent, focused most of the time on drawing up pitch sequences for Providence Day’s hurlers.
Frank was a little disappointed that Clemson wasn’t an option for Sam coming out of high school, but she was happy at N.C. State. Sam ended up setting the Wolfpack’s career record for steals with 103. If Frank and Saundra didn’t see every one of those swipes, they got close. They only missed N.C. State’s trip to Syracuse last year because it was nearly snowed-out.
“I think I went to 51 of 54,” Frank told one person who asked, “and I’m going to try and improve on that (in 2022).”
Certainly, Frank and Saundra weren’t missing games if they were in Clemson.
Sam broke the news she was transferring to Clemson, her dream school, while with her dad on a trip to last year’s College World Series. It has been almost a surreal experience for Frank sitting in McWhorter Stadium because it stands on a field where the baseball team used to hold offseason practices. Frank took thousands upon thousands of ground balls in that exact spot.
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He was “over the moon,” Sam said, that Mac’s Drive In was still around for that recruiting visit. Frank found out, along with framed pictures of various Clemson athletes all over the walls, the restaurant still has a baseball signed by one of his teams in the early ’80s. Frank’s signature was on that ball, in blue ink.
“It was a special treat of something coming full circle, 40-something years later,” Frank said. “Although Mac is no longer living, that baseball was still there.”
In just one year, Sam created her own legacy at Clemson. She not only reset the fledgling program’s bar in steals — setting a single-season record with 25 swipes in 25 attempts — but she started in the outfield for a team that comes into this weekend as the nation’s No. 10 overall seed.
The Tigers are hosting a regional, just three years into their existence as a program. With a Russ on the field.
“This is the reason I came to Clemson, to make a postseason run, and to be able to start at our home facilities,” Sam said. “And we know, if we go out there and play the game as we do, we should be the ones to end up on top.”
