Russell Williams

Classroom

Russell Williams holds a 3.80 cumulative GPA and was a CoSIDA Academic All-American in 2016. He is a two-time CoSIDA Academic All-District First Team selection.

Williams is an economics major and spanish minor who has made the dean’s list all seven semesters and the Commandant’s list for Military excellence five times. He is a three-time Academic All-Mountain West student and was named Airmanship 420 in the summer of 2016. He learned to fly a T-53 single engine propeller airplane as well as completed nine flights with an instructor.

Character

Williams was a Cadet Vice Wing Commander in the fall of 2016, which is the second-highest ranking Cadet in the 4,000 cadet wing. As Vice Wing Commander, he served as second-in-command and was responsible for the daily operations of the cadet wing. He was responsible for turning the Commandant of Cadets’ directives into realities, as well as inspiring cadets to have pride in the profession of arms.

Williams was an Assistant Flight Commander in the summer of 2016 and Group Superintendent in the fall of 2015. He is the baseball team Student Advisory Committee Representative (2015-17), and was the element leader in the spring of 2016. In 2016, he was a Falcon Leadership Award recipient, given to most significant leader on USAFA baseball team as voted on by teammates.

Williams was deployed to Operations Air Force (summer 2015) and spent three weeks in a deployed location in the Middle East gaining experience in an Active Duty Air Force unit.

Community

Williams worked as the organizer for the All-Americas Game in the fall of 2016 and organized a series of instructional baseball camps for Central American immigrant families in Denver. He was a volunteer for the Home Front Cares annual dinner (fall 2014 – present) and organized 20 cadets per event to facilitate their annual fundraising dinner. He has also volunteered at the Valley Children’s Hospital and spent an afternoon raising spirits in the hospital by playing a game of baseball with the children and their families. He was on the leadership team for Colombia Week (Fall 2016) and planned and facilitated a week long enrichment tour of the United States Air Force Academy for the Colombian Air Force Academy’s senior class and senior faculty.

Competition

Williams in now in his third year as a starter. He was second in the Mountain West Conference as a first baseman in 2016 with 567 putouts in 601 chances and batted .301 with five home runs and 31 RBIs. He also ranked eighth in the Mountain West with 10 stolen bases. Williams started 53 games at shortstop as a freshman and led team with 160 assists.

As of nomination time, he had played in 144 career games with 124 starts and earned 110 hits, nine homers, 73 runs scored and 16 stolen bases for his career.