Ringing the Bells: The Bell family never veers far from China Spring

Mark Bell never missed a game. Not as a coach, or a dad. The long-time head man of China Spring would coach his Cougars on Thursday or Friday night – usually to a win – and then catch the first flight, usually out of Dallas, on Saturday morning to attend whichever football game his two sons – Shawn and Brian – were playing in that weekend. Shawn is roughly eight years older than Brian, so the games never conflicted.  

Some of those games presented unique challenges. Shawn, who was a quarterback at Baylor, once played an early morning game in Kansas. That forced his parents, and a couple of Mark’s friends, to load up into a car on Friday night directly after a China Spring football game to drive straight through the night to attend an 11 a.m. kickoff. He did the same for Brian when his youngest son played quarterback at Sam Houston.