Student Athlete of the Week: Russell Bunch, Itawamba AHS, Boys Basketball

[syndicaster id=’6114233′] FULTON, Miss. (WCBI) — Russell Bunch is one of the top three students in his class. He’s also on the Student Council and the Junior Class President. WCBI’s Jonathan Flippo has more with our student athlete of the week.

Russell Bunch is a three sport athlete for the Itawamba Agriculture High School Indians. He plays Center and Forward on the basketball team, plays Tight End on the football team and also pitches an plays First and Third Base on the baseball team.

Bunch is also been selected as an Under Armour Pre Season All-American in baseball. He will compete in the 2016 Under Armour All-America Pre-Season Tournament in Mesa, Arizona in January.

While Bunch is successful in all three sports, maintaining a high academic 4.0 G-P-A doesn’t come easy, but his Head Basketball Coach Devin Hill and Junior Teammate Jake Smith says that leadership of him is what makes him excel in the classroom.

“He’s one of those coaches kids you know that does everything that you ask him to do. How hard you ask him to do it, you know as many times as you want him to do it. You’ll never hear Russell complain and that’s the same attitude is what he takes in the classroom and that’s what makes him special kid because he excels athletically and he excels academically,” said Head Coach Devin Hill.

“He’s probably the biggest hustler we got on the team, and he’s a great friend and a pretty good student. He makes straight A’s and he’s a great athlete. He can play probably anywhere,” said Teammate Jake Smith.

Bunch’s basketball team won their first playoff game last season in two years and was a quarter away from reaching the State tournament down in Jackson for their first time in school history. the girls team won the Class 4-A State Championship in the 2013-14 season and Bunch says it would mean a lot for his team and the city of Fulton to bring home the gold ball.

“It would mean the world to this team. I think it be a real boost to this community. It would really bring out a lot more fans that’ll come. It would be a great thing for this school and for the rest of the boys,” said Student Athlete Russell Bunch.

Itawamba AHS will return to action Friday night at 7:30 when they host Alcorn Central.