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April 4, 2017

Bell keeps kids on track

Defensive back Joshua Bell during a game against Hamilton on Aug. 28, 2016 (Photo by David Moll)

For the past seven years, Joshua Bell has helped coach track athletes at his alma mater, Skyline High School in Dallas.

The veteran Stampeders defensive back shows the young athletes technique, particularly when it comes to starts out of the blocks. He also counsels them on mental preparation. The one thing he doesn’t do is provide inspiration by telling stories of his glory days as an athlete for Skyline Raiders track program.

For the simple reason that . . .

“I was terrible,” he admits with a chuckle. “I was slow.”

Bell is being a bit hard on himself – he actually enjoyed success as a freshman, winning the mile and two-mile events at the district level.

“And as a sophomore,” he says, “I ran varsity and I was able to score points . . . but I wasn’t an elite runner. I ran well enough to be respectable. In the 800, I ran no better than 2:05. I wasn’t a slouch, but I wasn’t a top guy. I just didn’t know how to run.

“That’s why I tell the kids (I coach) all the time: ‘Y’all are three times better than I ever was. Just bring your mind and your heart with the physical ability that you’ve got and greatness is in front of you.’ ”joshua-bell-skyline-track-coach

Bell may make a living playing football, but track has long been a passion.

“It started in my junior and senior years when the coach who is still the coach at Skyline right now – Roger Brown – came to the school in 2002,” he explains. “I just developed such a rapport with him while I was running. I started to love track because of how he taught us. So even through college (at Baylor), when track season came around, I would show up at track meets and continue to support them and continue to learn.”

His commitment to Brown and the Skyline track team continued after Bell went on to an NFL career with the Denver Broncos and Green Bay Packers.

“I would still come around and still be a fan of the program and a friend of the program. I would donate financially and help Coach Brown,” says Bell. “Then, in 2010, I didn’t like how fast I was during my football season in 2009 so I said, ‘You know what, Coach Brown? I’m going to start training with you every off-season, doing my speed work.’

“So I started learning and became even faster at 25, 26 years old. And I’m a guy who if I’m in, I’m all the way in so I started coming every day and help Coach Brown where he needed help. It actually came to a point where it was just me and Coach Brown coaching. So I became an official assistant coach, without the title or the financial (compensation).”

Bell may not pocket any money, but he gets rewarded in other ways.

“I’ve learned so much,” he says, “and I’m so passionate about being a factor in the community I was raised in. I may not be the best person in the world but I’m a pretty good person, I believe, in society and I think that’s because of the people who helped mold me in the community I was raised in. So I’m just trying my best to (positively) affect the kids.

“I’m just all in, man.  Coach Brown has really been a humungous factor in my life, from not only being a coach but also being a father figure and role model to me.”

Bell takes great pleasure at being able to take all the lessons and tricks of the trade he’s learned from Brown and pass them along. And not just to Skyline athletes.

“For example, there’s (Stampeders radio play-by-play voice) Mark Stephen,” says Bell. “His son runs the 400 and the 800, so when I talk to him, we actually talk about track.

“I’m looking at getting a little bit more involved into the track and field world in Calgary.”

josh-bell-track-feature

In the meantime, the high-school track season in Texas is reaching a critical point and Bell is contemplating digging into his Stampeders bag of tricks.

“I’m thinking about pulling out the face paint,” laughs Bell, who led the wave of Stamps defensive players who applied red, white and black makeup for games last season. “Starting next Monday and Tuesday, we have our district round. It’s almost like the playoffs. You have the district, area, region and state meets and you have to advance to each round. Some of them have asked me and so I said I might pull out the face paint for the district meet or area meet.”

Whether it’s technical advice, moral support or even facial art, Bell helps out away way he can.

“I get to live through the kids,” he says, “and experience the gratifying feeling of seeing them have success, whether it’s a personal best or we actually win.

“I love it.”