Athlete of the Month: Ashley Bell

Evon Hung, Asst. Web Editor

Extracurricular activities and good grades aren’t all that senior Ashley Bell excels in. She’s also a stellar year-round athlete of four sports: cross country in the fall, varsity soccer in the winter, varsity track and field in the spring, and softball in her free time. And that’s not all.

The quad-athlete is also heavily involved with playing piano. Having studied the instrument for ten years, she recently co-founded her church’s Christian Center’s Youth Worship team, Surge, in which she plays as the lead pianist. Moreover, Bell’s other talents include composing music, playing the guitar, and being the scorekeeper at the pony fields for the Diamond Bar Pony Baseball League during the Spring. Though she is very active in her extracurricular activities, Bell stresses her priorities and emphasizes the importance of time-management in her life.

“[Managing my schedule] is very hard. Obviously, academics comes first. Making sure I’m up to date with everything and having an organized system of what times I have to be [places] has really helped me keep everything together and stay sound,” the senior said.

Her love of the multiple sports she plays stemmed from her father’s encouragement. At the age of nine, Bell’s initial favorite sport was softball. For five years, she committed to the sport, but later got bored and began to focus on soccer. The athlete is currently in her fourth year of varsity for both soccer and track and field, in her third year of cross country and has been the captain of track and field since 10th grade.

“I like soccer for a team sport, and cross country and track and field as individual sports. So if I don’t do well, it only falls on me. I feel like I have more responsibility in track and field and cross country.” Bell said.

In her high school career, Bell has gone to the Hacienda League Championships her freshman and sophomore years, been a CIF quarter finalist, and received the titles “All-Academic First Team” and “First Team Honorable Mention” in her junior year. For track, she was also a CIF 4×100 finalist, breaking the school’s record for the girls varsity team in 4×100 relays during her 9th and 10th grade, and placed third in the Hacienda League 100m. Of these achievements, Bell finds the Hacienda League most memorable.

“For Hacienda League, we’d gotten League Champion [my] freshman year and then sophomore year, we came back with an undefeated record, which was awesome! Going to CIF all three years and making it past finals was definitely a fun experience,” Bell said.

The multiple titles aren’t the only accomplishments that Bell has achieved. Through sports, the soccer standout has also learned to grow as a player as well as a person.

“[Soccer] definitely helped my people skills. Before, I would never really like to work in groups of other people. Then through soccer, I’ve learned to communicate better and it really helped my character,” Bell said.

Being on the field is a stress-reliever and fun experience for Bell, but it also comes with hardships. Since she was young, Bell has struggled with bad asthma and was born with smaller lungs than the average person. Any exercise is difficult for the hard-working athlete, but she continues to strive to improve.

In the future, Bell’s dream job is to play for the United States Women’s National Soccer Team, but she also wants to work as a researcher in the field of environmental science.

“I’d like to play in college, but I’m not too sure about it because of the major I’m going into. It’s very very intense. I want to go into civil and environmental engineering. Though, I think I could make a career out of soccer,” Bell said.

Having just finished cross country season, the quad-athlete is now prepping for the soccer season and winter tournaments with high hopes and determination.

“We have been training hard for our pre-season kick-off. I know we will do great, just as we have previous years,” Bell said.