Bell's Green, Too

Jake Snodgrass at Derby isn't leading the only green machine this fall. Through eight games, Bishop Carroll junior Blake Bell had performed as the best prep football player in the state. He already had over 2,000 passing yards, compiling over 300 yards most games. Bell was on national radar as a college quarterback prospect even before he took his first prep snap in the season opener against Wichita Heights on Sept. 5. The underlying storyline here is how Carroll coach Alan Schuckman handled Bell as an underclassman. There's a process for how players rise through the ranks at Carroll. More than once over the years Schuckman has caught wind of parents saying their freshman or sophomore kid ought to be playing varsity instead of junior varsity or starting instead of backing up. After watching Bell throw short and deep comfortably from inside or outside the pocket, it's easy to think, hey, why couldn't he have done this last year? First off, Brett Steven and Dustin Moses were pretty darn good quarterbacks in 2007, leading the Golden Eagles to the 5A state title game. Second, starting a sophomore at quarterback is just something Schuckman doesn't do. This is what Schuckman had to say about the situation after Bell had lit up Heights and Northwest for over 300 yards passing in the first two games of the season in September. "He's really had time to develop. Playing wideout has helped him at quarterback," Schuckman said of Bell, who had 371 yards receiving last year as a sophomore. "He had to be a team player [last year]. I get a lot of parents coming to me and saying their kid shouldn't be on the freshman team [because they're good enough for JV or varsity], and I have to tell them they should feel good about the fact that they're on the freshman team. It was never that way with the Bell family. They could have, but they knew the time would come. "Now Blake thinks about whatever he can do to help the receivers - that a quarterback needs to hit his receiver in his zone - he understands their standpoint." And it certainly looks like he does. Even with his incredible statistics, Bell's most valuable quality may be his leadership. In the playoffs, Carroll will be able to score points against anyone in the state with Joe Brown, Nick Johansen and Nick Seiler as options in the passing game. The question mark is on defense, usually Carroll's backbone. Linebacker and defensive secondary play has steadily improved over the course of the season. However the defense performs, the offense has clicked all season. "It's a high-risk offense," Schuckman said early in the fall. "We're going to keep winging it around." Class 5A, beware.