He was previously an assistant under Brad Selwood in Thornhill between 1994-96 before accepting the Head Coach position from ownership group at the start of the 1996-97 season. There he coached Strength and Conditioning Coach Anthony Belza, who was the co-captain of that team.

Russ grew up playing his minor hockey in Unionville and Thornhill. He was a member of the All-Ontario Peewee champions in Unionville in the 1984-85 season. He played Minor Bantam and Bantam in Thornhill before making the jump to the Thornhill Thunderbirds Junior A team. Between 1988-1990, Russ played for Thornhill (with current assistant Mike Heaney) before being traded to the Markham Waxers for the remainder of the 1989-90 season and was drafted by the OHL London Knights in the 1989 OHL Draft.

After graduating from Holy Trinity School in 1990, Russ continued his career at the University of Western Ontario where he played against former assistant coach Jeff Laceby (Laurier) and with former assistant Sean Basilio. Russ played for three years at UWO while earning a B.A. in Administrative and Commercial Studies. Russ earned a free-agent tryout with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1993 and played in rookie games and exhibition games with the St. John's Maple Leafs before being assigned to their East Coast Hockey League affiliate, the South Carolina Stingrays. Russ played there for a season and when he was traded to Louisville, he decided to retire and try his hand at coaching.

His first eight years were fairly successful amassing a 220-139-30-14 record. Russ has seen graduates move on to all levels of hockey including NCAA (24), CIS (11), the OHL (14) and Professional ranks (11). In 2001, graduate Raffi Torres played for Canada's World Junior Team and in the 2003-2004 season, five graduates, Torres Steve Moore, Sean Avery, Mike York and Mike Weaver, have played in the NHL. 

In the 1997-98 season, Russ was selected as one of the two coaches for the Metro League West All-Star Team and later was selected as a guest coach for the 1998 Ontario Under-17 Evaluation Camp and also was called upon to help coach at the Ontario Under-17 Evaluation Camp in 1999.

In the 2002-03 season, Russ was selected as the South Division All-star Coach, where he helped guide the South-East Allstars to victory.  Russ was then voted South Division Coach of the Year by the South Division General Managers and went on to coach the Waxers to their first 30 win season in over 20 years, and their first Division Championship in almost 30 years.

Russ currently works for his parent's company in Markham. He and his wife Janice live in Newmarket along with their two children Regan (born Feb. 8, 1997) and Griffin (born June 13, 1999).