Men's Cross Country Coaching Staff
Coach Bell has led his runners to 20 league titles overall and been named the ISCC's Cross Country Coach of the Year 15 times.
John Bell, Head Coach
During his twenty-seven years of coaching at Waubonsee, John Bell has consistently produced successful men’s and women’s cross-country teams. However, the last four seasons have been unprecedented in the program’s history. Coach Bell’s men’s teams have captured both the Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference (ISCC) title and the Region IV crown, to qualify for the NJCAA Division I National Meet each year, while the women have accomplished the same feat twice in that span.
Bell has led his runners to 20 league titles overall and been named the ISCC’s Cross Country Coach of the Year 15 times. His men’s teams placed in the league’s top spot a dozen times, including an unprecedented six consecutive crowns from 1998 to 2003. Since 1984 Bell has guided 116 runners to All-Conference seasons and 87 runners to All-Region IV status, along with the school’s only two-time female All-American in Sharon Metzger. Bell was inducted into the ISCC Hall of Fame in 2005.
In addition, Bell has led Waubonsee’s men’s tennis program for the last 11 years. Coach Bell was the recipient of the Skyway Conference’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 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 graduated from Dominican High School in Whitefish Bay, Wis., in 1962. 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 in 1970 from Northeast Missouri State College, which is today Truman State University.
Bell has lived in the Aurora area for more than 30 years and was a long-time teacher and track coach at West Aurora High School. Every year the school hosts the “John Bell Invitational” track and field meet, and Coach Bell was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in February 2003. Although retired, he continues to substitute teach for the school district. He and his wife, Carol, have two grown children, Sean and Michelle. Coach Bell is also the proud grandfather of grandsons, Brenden, Reese and Griffin, and granddaughters Reilly and Finley.Barry Butler, Assistant Coach
Barry Butler enters his sixth season with the Waubonsee coaching staff. Butler attended Waubonsee in 1977 before transferring to Illinois State University, where he earned his bachelor’s degree in Business in 1980. He brings an abundance of running experience to the Chiefs’ program.
A 1976 graduate of West Aurora High School, Butler ran under the watchful eye of then Blackhawks’ coach John Bell for four seasons. Coach Butler was the fourth man on the Blackhawks’ Cross Country team that won the Upstate Eight Conference Championship in 1975. His senior year he ran the 880-yard leg on West Aurora’s two-mile relay team that qualified for IHSA State Track Meet. Throughout his versatile running career, Butler has won medals in a variety of events ranging from the 440-yard dash on through to cross country, while also running in three marathons.
Coach Butler is an independent insurance agent for the Volkman Insurance Agency in North Aurora. He presents seminars about insurance for small businesses through the Waubonsee Small Business Development Center at the downtown Aurora campus. Butler has also chaired committees for the Greater Aurora Chamber of Commerce, Board Member for the Sugar Grove Chamber of Commerce & Industry and is currently the Alumni Director with the A+ Foundation for West Aurora Schools. Coach Butler resides in Aurora, and has two children, daughter Bridget, and son Daniel.
Paul Clennon, Volunteer Assistant Coach
Paul Clennon is in his seventh season with the Chiefs’ cross country program. Coach Clennon continues work alongside head coach John Bell, with whom he worked and coached with for three decades at nearby Aurora West High School. Clennon also serves as the study hall tutor and monitor for Waubonsee’s S.T.A.R. program, the academic and counseling system for Chiefs’ student/athletes.
Coach Clennon graduated from Northern Illinois University in DeKalb where he earned a B.A. in Sociology in 1971 and M.A. in Education Administration in 1976. Clennon taught a variety of social studies courses at Aurora West High School from 1971 until his retirement in 2004. During his 33-year career there, he was the assistant track coach and head coach of the boy’s cross-country program the last 19 years. Clennon also helped devise distance running training methods called “periodization,” which perennially kept the Blackhawks’ runners at the front of the pack.
An avid runner himself, Clennon has competed in some 10K events, half marathons and the Chicago Marathon three times. Clennon and his wife of 40 years Barbara, have four children Julie, Erin, Megan and Mike, a former Waubonsee runner.
Andy Olson, Volunteer Assistant Coach
Andy Olson joined the Chiefs’ coaching staff in 2005 as a volunteer assistant coach and returns for his seventh season in that capacity. He brings over a dozen years of running experience and knowledge of the sport to the Chiefs’ coaching staff. Olson was an integral part of the Chiefs’ past success, including an Illinois Skyway Collegiate Conference title in 2003 and was named Waubonsee’s 2004-2005 Vermilion and Gold Award winner.
Olson is a 2003 graduate of Aurora West High School, where he ran both cross-country and track all four years, and has helped coach the Blackhawks’ summer running program. A resident of Aurora, Coach Olson also has run in the last six Chicago Marathons, finishing the 2008 race 322nd out of the over 40,000 registered runners. Olson completed the 26.2 mile course in two hours and 57 minutes, trimming 25 minutes off his previous best time. He also competed in last year’s Boston Marathon, finishing 41st in his age group.
