Kevin Bell knows what he likes and doesn’t seem overly concerned if others don’t get it.
That alone makes the Naperville Central linebacker different from many teenagers, who would rather go with the flow than buck the prevailing wisdom.
What Bell likes is water polo, which among Midwestern teens has all the appeal of ballroom dancing, and he isn’t afraid to jilt more mainstream sports to play it.
As a freshman, he chose water polo instead of baseball, even though he had been a standout left-handed pitcher in Little League and Pony League competition. And although he’s good enough to play small-college football or swim at the Division I level, he will stick with water polo in college.
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“I would have to say water polo is my favorite,” the 6-foot-1-inch, 205-pound senior says. “I did a lot of sports growing up, and it is really nice to find a sport to tie a lot of skills together.
“You need to be able to swim and you need to be physical, but also you have to be able to throw a ball and have hand-eye coordination.
“I found it to be a super sport, if you will. But that’s just me, and a lot of people think I’m crazy.”
Bell started swimming competitively at age 5, added T-ball a year later and football and water polo when he was about 11.
He didn’t choose water polo over baseball until the fall of his freshman year, deciding to play the one that seemed to be more fun and offer quicker varsity success.
“It was a pretty tough decision because baseball had been such a huge part of my life for so long,” he says. “It was the first team sport I played.
“Even now I still wish there was some way I could pitch for Naperville Central, but with the rules in place I can’t.”
Bell has been a standout practically from Day One in water polo and swimming at Central. In football he has started since last season for the Redhawks, who raised their record to 5-3 Friday with a 35-14 victory over Wheaton North.
Not surprisingly, one of Bell’s football assets is his versatility, both at outside linebacker and at tight end, where he fills in occasionally.
“He’s asked to do a lot,” Naperville Central coach Joe Bunge says. “He’s asked to defend the run to the tight-end side and also has to have the ability to defend the pass.”
Bunge and boys water polo coach Bill Salentine agree that few football players have much to do with water unless they are drinking or showering.
“When kids are usually freshmen they might be on a freshman football team and then swim and try to play water polo,” Salentine says. “But as they grow, the time commitment for all those sports is such that something has to go, and a lot of times it’s football.”
Swimming and water polo workouts have given Bell more endurance for football, and football has been a big boost to his performance in water polo, a surprisingly rough sport.
“Football gets you used to having contact on every play and not get affected by it,” he says. “I have teammates who lose their cool easily when they play water polo and it gets a bit physical, but when I play it’s just another day in the pool.”
Bell has paid a price for all this. A week off from sports has been a rarity, and things got especially hectic in the summer, when he had obligations in all three sports.
He is a good enough swimmer to have placed third in the 200-yard individual medley in the 2004 state meet and good enough in water polo to have been selected for a couple of national youth training events.
He might have accomplished even more had he stayed in the water, but he realizes high school should be about having fun and trying things, not just chasing a scholarship.
“There’s no feeling like just drilling someone on the other team,” he says of football. “People say if I specialized I’d obviously get better in that one sport, but I think one of the things that has made me who I am is versatility.”
Bell realizes, however, that specialization is a must in college. He quickly eliminated swimming from his possibilities, then picked water polo over football because he likes it better and is better at it.
He apparently will play the sport at Bucknell, California, the Naval Academy, Pacific or Pepperdine.
The Midwest trails the East and West Coasts in water polo talent development, but Bell believes he will be able to prosper against the nation’s best once he focuses solely on that sport.
“I’ve been able to hold my own against them when I only get to play three months of the year, and I guess I kind of wonder how high I can go when I play 11 months,” he says.
Salentine believes Bell, who earned All-State honors last spring while helping lead Central to second place in the state water polo tournament, can aim high.
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“He’s big, he’s very physical, he’s got very good skills with the ball and he can play any position in the pool–even goalie,” Salentine says. “He can do everything and do it well.
“I think he has not yet reached his potential. There is certainly a national team on some level somewhere for him.”
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