There are certain coaches you remember because of how much they won. There are others you remember because you actually had to compete against them.

Rick Bell is both for me.

Bell retired from coaching in 2019 after spending 31 years on the sidelines, including stops at Peters Township and Canon-McMillan. He finished his career with a 428-316 record and had a reputation for helping rebuild programs that needed direction.

But when I think about Coach Bell, the first thing that comes to my mind isn’t his record. It’s how prepared his teams always were.

I played against a lot of coaches during my time at Penn Hills. You could tell which teams were well coached before the game even got going.

Peters Township was one of those teams.

Bell’s teams were disciplined. They were prepared. They played with structure. And you knew when you played them that they had spent the week studying exactly what you did well and figuring out how they were going to try to take it away.

I always respected that about him.

But years later, I learned something about how Peters Township prepared for us in 2000 that made me respect Coach Bell even more.

 

“You Don’t Have to Dribble”

In 2000, Peters Township was having a great season.

They entered the WPIAL Class 4A playoffs as the No. 1 seed. After receiving a first-round bye, they faced my Penn Hills team in the quarterfinals.

We beat Peters Township that night, and I scored 35 points. But what I later learned about Peters Township’s preparation for that game has always stuck with me.

During practice, Bell had one of his players imitate me on the scout team. That alone wasn’t unusual. Coaches do that all the time when they’re preparing for a certain player.

But Bell apparently gave the kid some different instructions.

He basically told him that when he was pretending to be Drew Schifino, he could take the basketball and run with it. He could sprint with the ball. He didn’t even have to dribble.

Why? Because Bell was trying to simulate for his players what it felt like trying to stay in front of me.

When I heard that story years later, I loved it. Not because I thought I was bigger than the game. It was because I understood what that meant coming from a coach like Rick Bell.

That was respect.

This was a coach who studied opponents, prepared his teams and paid attention to every detail. For him to believe he had to go to that extreme in practice just to try to simulate my speed and athleticism meant something to me.

As a player, you don’t always know how the opposing coach views you. You’re just trying to beat his team. Years later, you sometimes find out.

 

Then Coach Bell Gave Me My Flowers

After Bell retired, he was asked about some of the great players he had coached against during his career.

Think about that for a second.

Thirty-one years of coaching WPIAL basketball. Three decades of seeing great players come through Western Pennsylvania. And when he was asked to name the best player he faced, two names immediately came to his mind.

Ethan Morton from Butler. And Drew Schifino from Penn Hills.

I’m not going to lie. That meant something to me. Especially coming from him.

Bell wasn’t somebody who watched me play once or twice from the stands. He actually had to prepare a team to stop me.

He studied my game. He coached against me. He watched me score 35 against his No. 1-seeded team in a WPIAL playoff game. So when somebody with that basketball knowledge and that many years on the sideline says something like that about you, you appreciate it.

Coach Bell gave me my flowers.

So today, I want to give him his.

 

31 Years of Coaching

Bell’s career deserves to be remembered.

He finished with a 428-316 record over 31 seasons. His first 13 seasons were at Peters Township, where he went 223-103.

Those numbers are impressive, but coaching is about more than the final record.

Bell helped build and rebuild programs. He established expectations. His teams played hard. They were disciplined. And they were prepared.

That’s coaching.

Sometimes we judge coaches only by championships, but anybody who has actually played or coached the game understands there are other ways to recognize a great coach.

Did his players improve? Did his teams play the right way? Were they prepared? Did opponents respect playing against them? Did he leave programs in a better place than he found them?

With Rick Bell, I believe the answer to those questions is yes.

 

The Ultimate Sign of Respect

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve learned to appreciate things from my playing days differently.

At 18 years old, you’re thinking about winning the game. You’re thinking about scoring. You’re thinking about the playoffs. You’re not necessarily thinking about the amount of work the opposing coaching staff put into trying to stop you.

Now I can look back and appreciate it.

Rick Bell had the No. 1 seed in the WPIAL playoffs, and he was still searching for every possible way to prepare his players for Penn Hills and for me.

That’s what good coaches do. They don’t assume. They prepare.

And that scout-team story might be one of the greatest compliments an opposing coach ever gave me.

Imagine telling a player: When you’re pretending to be Drew, don’t even worry about dribbling. Just grab the ball and run.

Coach Bell, I definitely got a kick out of that one. But more than 25 years later, I understand exactly what it represented.

Respect. And the respect is mutual.

 

Flowers for Coach Bell

Western Pennsylvania has produced some incredible basketball coaches.

Some won championships. Some produced Division I players. Some rebuilt programs. Some impacted hundreds of young men along the way.

Rick Bell belongs in that conversation.

Thirty-one years. 428 victories. Two programs that benefited from having him on the sideline. And countless players who were taught the game by him.

I appreciate Coach Bell mentioning my name among the best players he ever coached against.

But today isn’t about me.

It’s about giving flowers to somebody who dedicated more than three decades of his life to coaching high school basketball in Western Pennsylvania.

Coach Bell, I hope retirement is treating you well. You had one hell of a coaching career.

And from one former player and coach who competed against you and always respected the way your teams played: You deserve your flowers.