A descendant of a famous heroic Scot will lead the softball Lady Scots of Covenant College.

Sara Wallace Russell, whose ancestors include Sir William Wallace — depicted by Mel Gibson in the movie “Braveheart” — has been hired to succeed Lisa Rogers with the second-year program.

Russell was the Kentucky Intercollegiate Athletic Conference softball coach of the year in 2006 at Mid-Continent College, where she had been an all-conference pitcher-hitter the previous four years. The British Columbia, Canada, native was KIAC player of the year in 2002 and a National Christian College Athletic Association All-American in 2005.

MCC was 14-7 in the KIAC and 28-26 overall in her season as coach.

Russell’s husband, William, has been the Mid-Continent baseball coach the past four years and will become Doug Simons’ assistant at the Lookout Mountain school while doing full-time work on a master’s degree.

“We felt God was preparing our hearts to move,” said Sara Russell, who has worked in the Diamond Academy in Paducah and helped with a high school team in that area the last two years. “We had been praying, ‘If you want to move us, open the door and we’ll follow.’ We had decent jobs but God was moving us out of our comfort zone.”

In a Covenant release, she said she was “thrilled about the coaching and ministry opportunities that are before me. Not only will I get to coach the great game of softball, but I will also get to impact the lives of my players daily for Christ.”

She visited Covenant in mid-June and early July and will begin her Lady Scots job Monday.

“We are all very excited to have Sara join our coaching staff, and for her and William to become a part of the Covenant College family,” athletic director Roy Heintz said in the school release. “We believe we are getting a great coach who has succeeded at the college level and has demonstrated great enthusiasm and coaching ability at all all levels.

“She is a quality teacher, very organized, and a godly woman. Our returning players and incoming recruits loved her when they spent time with her in the interview process.”

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