Oak Park and River Forest senior Evan Bell learned a lot from listening to his father, Gordon, tell stories about his days playing football for Bo Schembechler at Michigan and later in the NFL.
The elder Bell was a 5-foot-9, 180-pound tailback who played two seasons for the New York Giants and one with the St. Louis Cardinals from 1976-1978.
“The biggest thing I get from his career is just how much things have changed,” Bell said. “He told me that they wouldn’t give him water in practice, just salt pills.
“One time he got dinged in practice and started running the (wrong) way on the field and the coach had to come get him because he had no idea where he was. But then they told him to get back in there.”
Such unenlightened practices are things of the past, but one thing about succeeding in sports at the highest level hasn’t changed.
“(My father’s advice is) the biggest thing is the work ethic, that no matter what, if you outwork people, more often than not you’re going to be successful,” Bell said. “Always work harder than anyone else and things will go your way.”
Bell took that advice to heart and things have gone his way. The two-sport star has excelled in both football and baseball and is arguably a better all-around athlete than his father.
The 6-foot, 190-pound Bell was part of a great linebacking corps for an OPRF football team that went 9-2 last fall. Bell had 56 tackles, including 8.5 for loss, 3.5 sacks, 1 interception and 1 fumble recovery.
But as good as he is on the gridiron, Bell is most at home on a baseball field. Baseball was his first sport and his first love.
“I’ve been playing baseball for a long time,” Bell said. “I played football one year before high school and then freshman year I really started it.
“Football is awesome but baseball is my No. 1 sport. I love it.”
Bell is a versatile player in the field and at the plate. He started in left field and batted .314 with 24 runs batted last year to help the Huskies to the Class 4A state semifinals
This year, Bell is playing right field but hasn’t missed a beat. The Memphis recruit is a dependable fielder, solid contact hitter and good base runner. He is hitting .415 (22 hits in 53 at-bats) with a .516 on-base percentage, five doubles and 10 RBIs this spring.
“He’s almost a five-tool player,” OPRF second baseball Jeremy Gaines said. “He can do everything – hit, run, throw. He’s a special kid.”
Bell flashed his full array of skills during a 6-0 win over York on April 25, going 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored while making two putouts in right field.
Bell singled his first three times up, using a different method each time. He beat out a roller to the right side his first time up, cranked an RBI single to left in his second at-bat and singled to right in his third appearance.
“I’m a good athlete and I can do a lot of things,” Bell said. “(I have) the tools that they look for at the next level. I’ve been playing a lot so I think I have good knowledge of the game.”
Indeed, it is the intellectual aspect of baseball which led him to pick that sport when choosing which one to play in college.
“I like the mental part of it,” said Bell, who has a 3.4 GPA and is thinking of majoring in business. “You’ve always got to be thinking of stuff.
“I love hitting, the challenge of facing the pitchers. That’s fun, and then just being with the guys. The camaraderie on the team is really awesome.”
That togetherness can’t be overlooked. Bell, Gaines and Andrew Hennings have played together for a decade, forging a cohesiveness from their shared passion for the sport.
“I think we are really talented, but a lot of us have been playing together since we were 7 or 8,” Bell said. “So I think the chemistry we have on this team is really the best I’ve ever been a part of, because we’ve been playing together since we were so young.
“Like me and Andrew Hennings have been playing together since we were 7, and Jeremy since we were 8.”
Gaines, who will continue his baseball career at John Logan College, credits Bell’s encouragement and passion for the game with helping him maximize his potential.
“He’s always there for me off the field and on the field,” Gaines said. “We have so much chemistry.
“We have secret signals we do to each other after outs. It’s like a playground, like tee-ball again. We’re all just having fun playing baseball.”
Talent plus fun has been a winning formula for the Huskies (14-5, 8-3 West Suburban Silver) the past couple years and the best, they hope, is yet to come.
After coming within two wins of a state championship in 2015, the seniors are hungry to finish their prep careers on top.
“This is our last year before we all go to college,” Bell noted. “So it would be really special for us to get it done this year.”
Regardless of how this season ends, Bell is looking forward to playing at Memphis.
“I’m really excited,” Bell said. “I think the coaching staff was the biggest (reason why he signed).
“They were really nice, they’re really sincere, they love their players, they take care of their players. The team is really close, kind of like this team.”
As successful as he has been at the high school level, Bell is smart enough to know he has a lot of room for improvement.
“I think the biggest thing is the mental aspect,” Bell said. “I think there are a lot of intricate things about hitting and fielding and base-running that I’ve got to focus on for the next level, (such as) being mentally ready because the speed of the game is a lot quicker up there.”
Bell is realistic about his long-term prospects. He doesn’t know if he’s good enough to play professionally, but Gaines wouldn’t put it past him.
“I think he can go pretty far,” Gaines said. “He’s got the work ethic, he’s got the talent and he’s going to have good coaches at Memphis. The sky is the limit for him.”