If you click through Salish Kootenai College’s basketball roster, you can see the players’ majors.

Forestry. Elementary education. Native American studies.

Abdel Russell’s program of study, chemical dependency, may mark him as the team’s black sheep of sorts, but Russell’s path to SKC and that program tell the reasons why.

Russell, 32, came from his home in Lame Deer to Pablo in September with his 3-year-old daughter Amazing Day. Although he wanted to play basketball for the Bison, he had trouble balancing school and caring for his daughter.

“At first I didn’t [play] because I didn’t know anybody,” Russell said. “I didn’t want to leave her with anybody.”

He missed the first few games of SKC’s season because of fatherly duties, but soon he hooked up with some family in St. Ignatius that was able to provide childcare and joined the team.

No longer having to worry about childcare, Russell started to focus on having success on the basketball court. He scored a season-high 30 points against the University of Great Falls JV team on December 1.

“He’s kind of the glue that keeps us all together,” SKC coach Zack Camel said. “He’s the one who doesn’t get too excited.”

Success wasn’t even on Russell’s radar a few years ago. After graduating with an associate degree from Chief Dull Knife College in Lame Deer, he fell into the wrong habits.

“I fell into that life of drugs and alcohol and parties and women,” Russell said. “…My life just kind of spiraled out of control, and I ended up doing some time [in prison]. I tried to settle down as I got older. I got married, had my daughter, but it was the alcohol. I couldn’t let go of it.”

He said recovery began in prison after receiving spiritual guidance from some Christian ministers.

“I got tired of seeing my daughter through plate glass. It was really tough to see her like that,” he said. “[The ministers] kind of helped guide me on that road of sobriety and recovery.”

He also completed the Alcoholics Anonymous program with a sponsor, and, left prison to complete a rehabilitation program.

That experience is what led him to want to become a counselor.

“That place [rehab] saved my life,” Russell said. “I knew what I wanted to do. I knew what I had to do. It was just a matter of doing it and talking to the right people.”

He said basketball helped him get his life back together as well.

“Basketball has always been a part of my life,” Russell said. “For a long time, when I was living in that life of drugs and alcohol and parties, I missed that sense of being a part of something.”

Now that Russell is a part of that something, teammates say they’re learning lessons about enduring hardship from him.

“You see him always have his head high,” teammate D.J. Fish said. “You know that he’s been through some tough times, so it makes it easier to deal with when you’re having a bad day.”