Observer-Reporter Athlete of the Week
Name: RJ Bell
School: Canon-McMillan
Sport: Basketball
Class: Senior
Bell’s week: Bell, a 6-5 forward, played major roles in three straight wins that propelled the Big Macs up the standings and in good position to make the WPIAL playoffs out of Section 2 in Class 6-A.
Bell’s biggest games came in back-to-back victories over Upper St. Clair, 37-32, in a grind-it-out game Friday in Canonsburg and a 66-56 win at USC Saturday. Bell scored 10 of his game-high 17 points in the first half as C-M extended a 9-7 first-quarter advantage into a 10-point lead Friday. Bell scored seven of his 15 points in the first quarter to spark Saturday’s win.
Bell opened the week by scoring all 12 of his points in the second half of a 54-47 victory over rival Peters Township.
“With what was at stake, yeah those were probably the biggest three games,” Bell said. “We’re just trying to ride the wave. We want to be the first team to win the section title since 1973. It’s been awhile.”
Those victories left the Big Macs just one game behind Mt. Lebanon and in second place in the section standings. Losing those three games could have dealt a crippling blow to those playoff chances.
“Last week, we were sitting in fifth place,” said C-M head coach Rick Bell. “We beat Peters Township at home, beat Upper St. Clair at home, then turned around and beat Upper St. Clair away. That’s the first time in my memory we did that.”
The coach’s son: It’s not easy being the son of the head coach. RJ knows it, Rick knows it. But there was preparation to handle the situation. Rick Bell relied on his mentors to lead him through this time. He saw how longtime Blackhawk head coach John Miller handled his sons at the camps Rick attended as a player and how Red Ryan at his alma mater, Bethel Park, handled his son. And Bell even got tips from his father-in-law, the dean of discipline at Seton-La Salle for more than four decades.
“I watched how they did it; I watched how they handled it, and made copious notes,” Rick Bell said. “I was not influenced by the outside noise, positive or negative. … I tried to do what was right and fair. With my kids, in the car (heading to school), I was dad. In the building, I was Coach Bell or Mr. Bell.”
It took some adjustments on both sides.
“When I was a freshman, it was hard deciding whether he was dad or coach,” RJ Bell said. “Now, it’s a lot of fun. There are no problems and I see it as something special.”
Compiled by Joe Tuscano