This ‘super dad’ has taken an unusual path to UVA women’s basketball coach

University News

This ‘super dad’ has taken an unusual path to UVA women’s basketball coach

It was the morning of “Selection Sunday,” the day he’d find out where his University of Richmond women’s basketball team would slot into the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

But Aaron Roussell was nowhere near a basketball arena. He was in Maryland, coaching another team altogether – the RBA South Defenders, a youth travel baseball squad based in Virginia’s capital city.

The team featured Riley, Roussell’s son.

“He’s a super dad, really,” Molly Roussell said Monday after her husband was introduced as . “He has great work-life balance. He always makes the kids a priority.”

The Roussell children – 15-year-old Riley, 11-year-old Kelsey and 8-year-old Kendall – sat with Molly in the front row Monday as Aaron announced to all of the fellow UVA coaches in attendance or watching remotely, “You’ve got some big-time fans for all of your programs.”

The trio of young new Hoos was outfitted in fresh Cavalier apparel.

“We got a lot of new gear, which is awesome,” Molly said. “(Aaron Roussell) brought home this huge box full of stuff. At first, it was just his size, and my son was like, ‘Where’s my size?’ And he was like, ‘Don’t worry, it’s coming.’ And he brought home a bag of stuff with their names on it, which was awesome.”

Portrait of Aaron Rousell with his family.

A smiling Roussell family displays their excitement at joining the UVA community. Aaron and his wife, Molly, have three children – 15-year-old Riley, 11-year-old Kelsey and 8-year-old Kendall. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Molly describes her husband as “super fun,” with a personality that has attracted loyal friends at each stop in his career.

Roussell, who has led Richmond, Bucknell University and the University of Chicago to the NCAA Tournament, is not only a well-traveled coach. He was about 1,400 miles away from Charlottesville – on a family vacation in Jamaica – when he was first contacted about the UVA vacancy.

“He was on the phone and doing Zooms from our Airbnb,” Molly said. “Luckily, he had a polo shirt because he was supposed to golf at some point.

“I don’t think he ever made it to golf, but it was a vacation we’ll never forget.”

The unusual interview process to becoming �鶹�ƽ�� coach perhaps fits Roussell’s unusual rise in the profession in the first place. The University of Iowa alumnus holds a journalism degree and once considered a career in sportswriting – and later law school, after taking the LSAT.

Large crowd in a women’s basketball practice gym listens as the new head coach speaks at a podium.

A large crowd inside the women’s basketball practice gym at JPJ focuses on Roussell’s initial words as the Cavaliers’ new head coach. (Photo by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Coaching, which he initially did at the high school level in Minnesota, was only his hobby until trained basketball observers nudged him to pursue it more seriously.

“Never thought I could make this a career,” Roussell said.

In 2002, he began a two-year stint as a graduate assistant coach for the Minnesota State University women’s basketball program. Two years later, at age 24, he became the interim head coach at Chicago, a Division III program he eventually took over on a full-time basis, leading to three conference championships and a No. 1 national ranking.

“I just think that my belief in what athletics is supposed to be, really, was housed at Division III,” Roussell said. “It’s about the student-athlete. This was many years ago, but it was about the student-athlete. And you could be a student-athlete, and there was balance there. I thought that aligned with me.”

Roussell stands with UVA coaches and leaders as they welcome him as the new head coach.

Left, Roussell shares a moment with UVA men’s basketball coach Ryan Odom. Right, UVA President Scott Beardsley and Director of Athletics Carla Williams welcome Roussell as a member of the Wahoos. (Photos by Matt Riley, University Communications)

Two decades later, as an established Division I coach about to take on the Atlantic Coast Conference, Roussell’s approach hasn’t changed.

He confirmed that with Virginia Director of Athletics Carla Williams, speaking from his Jamaican rental.

“The message was the same,” Roussell said. “This is a special place where it’s going to be a student-athlete experience. We’re going to go win some games, but we’re going to do this the right way.”

With a “super dad” in charge.

“Some of the greatest joys of my life were coaching Little League baseball,” Roussell said. “And I remember seeing that as a kid, playing Little League, (but) coaching Little League baseball was one of the greatest joys I’ve ever had.

“And to get to share it with your son, there’s something special to that.”