Barnwell's Branch to prep at Fork Union
Jun. 6—BARNWELL — Barnwell's Russell Branch has proven himself on the basketball court at the high school level.
He's a multi-time Class AA All-State selection who surpassed the 1,000-point mark for his career during his junior season. He's established himself as an elite scorer and tenacious defender who has routinely stolen the show at various showcases and camp settings.
Up next is the college level, as Branch is heading to Virginia's Fork Union Military Academy for a post-graduate year before finding his next stop. He was honored Monday with a signing ceremony at the high school, and now begins his next step.
"Nervous. Real nervous," he admitted. "I feel like this is going to be a big jump from high school, but I feel like it should be, you know what I'm saying, pretty good."
Branch received plenty of interest from NCAA Division I programs early in his high school career, and he received offers from schools like South Carolina State, Tennessee Tech and Prairie View A&M. Plenty more may be on the way once he hits the court at Fork Union.
"I feel like they'll probably help me as a person and as a player. I don't like to clean my room or none of that," he said, pausing to laugh, "so I feel like that would help in a big part of life, too."
Branch, who was also a member of the Warhorses' Region 5-AA champion baseball team, said he wants to study something like sports psychology or sports science once he moves on from Fork Union and finds his next school.
Barnwell head coach Marcus Rivera praised Branch for sticking with the Warhorses despite opportunities to play for bigger programs elsewhere.
"I could stand up here and talk about all of Russell's accolades and all of his accomplishments — two 48-point games, a number of 40-point games, 35-point games, I think 1,000 assists, 1,000 points — but the main thing I want to talk about is this kid's loyalty and commitment to this school and his team," he said.
"Russell had more than several opportunities to go play basketball anywhere he wanted to play basketball, literally at any high school. In today's world where you have the transfer portal and kids jumping from team to team, high school team to team to team, he decided to, regardless of our shortcomings and lack of resources we have here in Barnwell, he said, 'I'm going to stick it out and I'm going to play basketball for the Barnwell Warhorses.'"
"Probably because I got to shoot from half- — no, I'm just playing," said Branch, again drawing plenty of laughter. "Just the staff, everybody loved me, I love them. So I felt like it was a good thing to just stick it out."
Branch's sense of humor was on display Monday throughout his signing ceremony — he joked that he was just there to eat cake — and Barnwell principal Franklin McCormack summed him up as being a "unique" individual.
"He's charismatic. Regardless of where he lands, and I know he's going to Fork Union for a year, I'm confident that he's going to be successful whether it be in basketball or whether it be in this game of life that we play every day," McCormack said. "I'm certainly proud of him. I'm certainly excited for him. I know basketball's his passion, and it's something that he wants to do and continue to do. But at the end of the day, regardless of whatever he decides to do, he's going to be successful and I can't say that enough about him."
