Meet Coron Russell Jr., a 6-foot-3 Roman Catholic safety who’s ‘going to the NFL one day’

The corners of Coron Russell Jr.’s mouth groaned as they slid upward. The incoming Roman Catholic freshman remembers welcoming the news by putting on his best, most courageous face when he sat in Cahillites coach Rick Prete’s office in late-May 2025.

Prete told Russell that he was going to be the starting strong safety — a position Russell had not played in two years. Prete told him there would be no learning curve, that he felt Russell was ready for the fire that a PIAA then-Class 5A state-caliber championship team would face.

Russell’s tepid outside smile hid his churning nerves. When he first put on football pads as a kid, Russell had more of a penchant running by everyone than he did running into them. Now, he was being told he would be starting for one of the state’s best teams fresh out of grade school.

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“I was definitely nervous when Coach Prete told me that,” Russell recalled. “I hadn’t played safety since I was in sixth grade. This was going to be a completely new world.”

Initially, it was not easy for Russell. He took verbal lessons from coaches and teammates. He bit the wrong way on plays. He had trouble picking up movements, pulling guards, “high hat,” “low hat,” learning to read what it meant when the offensive line raised or lowered their helmets presnap. Though, he never made the same mistake twice. Gradually, he came around, as Roman won the school’s first state championship in football, when the Cahillites crushed District 3 champion Bishop McDevitt, 28-6, in the 2025 PIAA Class 5A state championship.

On one of the first plays of the game, Russell came from nowhere to blow up a perimeter screen pass — from the safety position.

Not much gets by Russell this season.

He is a 6-foot-3, 220-pound high school safety, the size of an NFL safety. In a very short period of time, he’s also become recognized as one of the country’s best safety recruits in the 2029 class. He’s ranked No. 4 among safeties nationally in the 2029 class and the No. 1 sophomore in Pennsylvania by 247Sports.

Through eight games, he has 34 tackles (19 solo), two fumble recoveries, one interception, one sack and eight tackles for loss. The Cahillites, who moved up to Class 6A this season, are 7-2 overall and 5-0 in the Catholic League entering Friday night’s PCL Class 6A semifinal against Father Judge at Springfield Township High School at 7 p.m.

Roman is fresh off a 21-17 victory over St. Joe’s Prep last Saturday at Penn’s Franklin Field, marking the first time Roman beat the Hawks in the Catholic League regular season since 1999, and setting up a possible repeat showdown next week, if St. Joe’s Prep, the No. 2 seed at PCL 6A, can get by third-seeded rival La Salle, the defending PIAA Class 6A state champion, on Sunday in the other semifinal game.

Prete is emphatic when he says this team would not be in the position it is without Russell’s impact and maturation. Prete knew about Russell since he played in eighth grade in Winslow Township, N.J. Russell, now 16, was playing defensive end and wide receiver in grade school. However, Prete noticed something else that was hard to ignore: Russell was the largest kid on the field and the fastest.

It triggered an idea.

“I thought about moving Coron back to safety once we learned he would be attending Roman, and what our overall plans would be for him,” Prete recalled. “When he visited Roman in May 2025 with his parents, I told him I was going to move him back to safety. I like to go over the plans we have with our families. Once Coron enrolled in May, we were playing in June seven-on-seven tournaments.”

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One of those tournaments was at South Carolina, where college coaches in attendance gave Russell, who carries a 3.7 GPA, a scholarship offer before he even stepped on a high school football field — as a safety.

“We had no problem throwing Coron right in [as a freshman starter],” Prete said. “The summer before his freshman year convinced us. There were some mental mistakes early on that came with any young player, and the physical mistakes were about him growing into his body and knowing what he was. Coron found that out once he put the pads on. We already knew he was physical by playing defensive end. If we could develop him coverage-wise, it meant we would have a 6-3, 200-pound safety as a freshman. In our first game against Providence Day [of Charlotte, N.C.], we didn’t play Coron at all. In our second game, against Cardinal Newman [of West Palm Beach, Fla.], he went in during the second series and has not come out since then.”

The Newman game was Russell’s coming out party.

Prete noticed the issues with Russell’s run and pass fits began to disappear. By mid-season last year, Prete’s comfort grew by the time Roman faced La Salle, when Russell was faced with Notre Dame-bound Joey O’Brien and the Explorers’ explosive Owen Johnson. By the time the Cahillites played St. Joe’s Prep late last season, Russell came up to make a big fourth-and-1 stop to give Roman the ball.

Last Saturday against Prep, Russell played strong safety, outside linebacker and came down to cover the Hawks’ Ohio State-bound Jett Harrison around six times and shut him out.

“Coron did a lot of growing his freshman year, and he continues to grow,” Roman’s Pitt-bound linebacker Walter Hudson said. “He made mistakes early on, and there were times he wasn’t confident. By the middle of the year, through playing, through making mistakes, he grew and gained confidence. It is a little hard to believe he was an edge rusher in grade school. I told him last year he had a big role to step into, and he had to get his confidence up. He would make a mistake on a play, but he has short-term memory and found out how to beat that play. The best advice I gave him was ‘forget it, move on.’ You see how he plays now. He flies all over the field. He’s unbelievable. He’s going to the NFL one day.

“Where he used to think, he reacts and plays freely.”

Russell’s foundation comes from running track. He ran because he was fast, but mostly, he ran because he won. He competed in the 100-, 200-meter dashes and was on the 4x100-meter relay.

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“I loved winning,” said Russell, who gained 20 pounds since last season. “My first race, I won and got my first medal in any sport. I was [6-years-old]. I probably did like winning more than I liked running. But I also liked challenges. So, when Coach Prete told me I’d be starting at safety, yeah, I was nervous. You only work a portion of the field as an edge. At safety, you have to see everything and make calls. When I was first put on the field, I was learning on the job. I had to be patient. I made a lot of mistakes. My issues were more with pass fit. I never had to cover anyone before. I also knew the coaches and my teammates trusted me.

“That built confidence.”

Russell said the La Salle game opened his eyes. The game began to slow. He began playing without thinking.

With Russell’s build, it may only be a matter of time before he moves up the field to play linebacker, and eventually back to edge rusher. His athleticism, speed, and size also make him a prime receiver, something Prete admitted he was thinking about in the future.

For now, Russell is a hybrid safety, mixed in with some outside linebacking. He is crashing down on running plays, with the ability to cover nationally elite receivers like Harrison in the open field. Last Saturday, Harrison finished with five catches for a game-high 144 yards and two touchdowns, though he only had two catches for 22 yards in the second half. Part of that was Russell’s doing.

“I knew what I was going up against Jett, who is definitely advanced,” said Russell, who has scholarship offers from 25 schools. “He wasn’t as fast as I thought. A lot of people just see me as someone big who can’t run. I stayed with Jett. Right now, we have a bigger picture ahead. My only priority is getting us back to the state championship. If I keep growing, I don’t think I’ll be a safety. I foresee myself as an outside linebacker.

“Right now, I’ll play anywhere they put me.”