BRIAN BELL
Schools: University of Houston freshman, Dunbar grad.
What: IAAF World U20 Championships.
Where: Bydgoszcz, Poland.
When: July 19-24.
Event: 800 meters; first round July 22; semifinals July 23; final July 24.
Personal best: 1:47.58.
Brian Bell might be all-world at running around a track, but he has a lot of catching up to do when he steps out of the oval.
The Dunbar High School graduate and University of Houston freshman sensation recently qualified for Team USA that will compete in the IAAF World U20 Championships in Poland later this month. That might as well be a world away to Bell.
“I don’t know anything about Poland, except for maybe a Polish sausage,” he said following Thursday’s first of two daily workouts at the Texas campus. “I don’t really know what they’re famous for. It’s in Germany, isn’t it?”
Close enough. What isn’t in question is the track and field progression the middle-distance ace has displayed since leading Dunbar to consecutive Division II boys state track championships in 2014-15.
A lanky 6 feet 3 and now a robust 165 pounds — “I’ve packed on the pounds since I’ve been here,” he said — Bell isn’t up to speed with the area’s other 800-meter standout, upcoming Rio Olympian and Tri-Village High School grad Clayton Murphy, but he’s gaining.
Bell ran 1:47.18 three weeks ago to place second in the USATF Junior Outdoor Championships at Clovis, Calif., and earn a spot on Team USA, which will compete against the world’s best in a six-day competition for ages 13-19. The meet has been held every two years throughout the world since 1986.
That’s heady stuff for the long-strider.
“The people who doubted me, it just added fuel to my ambition to achieve and be the best I can be,” he said. “I was motivated by the whole city of Dayton.”
In his corner
That would include Judy Noxsel, the Montgomery County Job and Family Services Children Division Education Supervisor. That’s a long title that Bell simplifies to “my godmother,” and no wonder.
Noxsel has consistently been in Bell’s corner when he needed it most. She was the supervisor of the case when Bell’s mother gave birth to Brian and immediately surrendered him to foster care. Noxsel continues to be a positive influence, tutoring him until he finally scored high enough on the ACT to enroll at Houston this past January, escorting him to campus and rooting him on during a record-setting conference meet this past spring.
“I was part of his life when he first came into foster care and I was part of his life when he (left),” Noxsel said. “There were years in between that I didn’t know what he was doing or where he was at, but it was fate that I was there in both ways.”
Bell’s mother and father were deemed by the county unable to care for their son. That led to a series a foster care guardians and pinch-hit help from family members through the years.
A falling out with his last foster parent could have pushed Bell over the edge, as many expected, said Noxsel. Even though he had graduated from Dunbar, he didn’t have the right combination GPA and ACT score to be admitted at Houston, which he had signed with over Mississippi State.
After Bell bombed at a Kansas junior college last summer, he returned to Dayton homeless and broke. He watched from afar as the school year began.
“He couch-surfed for six months … went from his mom to different family members to friends,” Noxsel recalled. “I’m really proud of him that he stayed out of trouble.”
Bell often huddled with Noxsel in tutoring sessions. That paid off when Bell scored high on the ACT last October. With a big assist from Houston associate head coach Will Blackburn, Bell enrolled at Houston for the second semester and was setting indoor records in January.
“Will made it happen because Brian believed in the dream that he would make it down there,” said Noxsel.
Can’t beat that
Bell immediately returned those favors. He broke the school 800 indoor record in his first race at that distance (1:48.78). He twice lowered the mark outdoors, including a 1:47.58 at the Mount SAC Relays. He qualified for the NCAA championships at the University of Oregon, where the U.S. Olympic Trials are taking place. But he fared so poorly — “my worst all season,” he said — that Houston head coach Leroy Burrell and assistant Carl Lewis, former Olympic teammates, yanked him from competing in the Trials and instead focused on the U20 games.
Bell will have to pass the first round and a semifinal to make the final. With only two laps, running strategy gives way to mental makeup and determination, both strong traits for Bell.
He’s easy to spot in a race because of his stature, mop-top dreadlocks and goofy goggles. He’s determined to fare well, even if he doesn’t know where he’s headed.
“I’m just going to give it my all and try to beat the Africans,” he said. “It’ll be different, but I’m trying to be the best in the world. I’ll do what it takes.”
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