This season is John Bell’s 11th year leading the men’s tennis program. A trademark of his tenure has been that each of his previous squads have shown obvious improvement over the course of the season. Coach Bell is not a new face on the Sugar Grove campus, having coached successful men’s and women’s cross-country teams at Waubonsee for the last 26 years. As a matter of fact, his teams have run to 19 Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference (ISCC) Cross Country titles, including the men’s the last three years and the women’s crowns in 2007 and 2008.

Coach Bell was the recipient of the league’s first Men’s Sports Coach of the Year Award after guiding the cross-country and tennis teams to conference crowns during the 2000-2001 school year. His runners eventually placed 11th in the nation that fall before his tennis squad went undefeated in Skyway play during the spring. They completed their league domination by sweeping all nine flights at the Skyway tournament, tying for the Region IV title and then placing 20th in the nation. Bell has been named the ISCC’s Cross-Country Coach of the Year 14 times and was inducted into the ISCC’s Hall of Fame in 2005.

Bell graduated from Dominican High School in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin in 1962. Following his prep school days, he attended Quincy College where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 1966. Bell then earned a master’s degree in Business Administration from Northeast Missouri University in 1970.  

Bell was a teacher and track coach at West Aurora High School for over 30 years. Every year the school hosts the “John Bell Invitational” track and field meet, and he was enshrined into the Blackhawks’ Athletic Hall of Fame in 2003. Though retired, he continues to substitute teach for the school district. He and his wife Carol live in Aurora and have two grown children, Sean and Michelle. Coach Bell is also the proud “Grandpa” of grandsons Brendan, Reese, and granddaughter Riley.