NOVA SCOTIA SENIOR BASEBALL LEAGUE      

Burton Russell grew up in Kings County and spent 35 years as a teacher in Valley high schools, the last 25 of those at Kings County Academy in Kentville before retiring in 1993. He spent 15 years as the school’s boys hockey coach and 10 in the dugout as the boys softball coach, and was twice named the coach of the year in the Valley High School Hockey League.
 

But Russell was known more for his love of sports in Kentville, Nova Scotia and the Maritimes, about which he filled numerous scrapbooks and wrote 14 books. The most recent, Annapolis Valley Sports, was published in December 2021 and looks at a century of sports in the area. The previous year he published Down Memory Lane: Highlights of Kentville Sports.
 

As the official statistician for the Nova Scotia Senior Baseball League for three decades, Burton remains responsible for the detailed histories of the league and the Kentville Wildcats. Burton was known as a walking encyclopedia and had an unmatched passion for local sports.

In 2017 Burton was awarded the Susan McEachern Award in recognition of his outstanding service the NSSBL, and the NSSBL championship trophy is dedicated in his name.