panalo999 app Will Kamala Harris run for California governor in 2026? The question is already swirlingShawn and Brian Bell have always had coaching football in their blood. To keep his young son occupied when the family went to church every Sunday, Mark Bell would give his 4-year-old son Shawn a pencil and the church bulletin to draw on. When the service was over, young Shawn would ask his dad, who coached high school football for more than 40 years, if he could run the football plays he drew up on Friday nights. Shawn’s younger brother Brian did the same. When his dad and the China Spring coaching staff were working long hours in the field house, the youthful Brian would have his corner of the whiteboard to come up with his own plays. “They’ve been like that their whole lives,” Mark said. Mark is the most successful coach in China Spring High School football history, winning more than 170 games and making the playoffs in 18 of the 21 seasons he was the head coach of the Cougars. He has more than 200 wins in his high school coaching career, which included stops at Rosebud-Lott, Clifton and Lampasas. But his greatest joy was getting the opportunity to coach both Shawn and Brian, who played quarterback for China Spring. “That is the coolest of all cools,” Mark said. “They were so in tune with what I was doing, I could start the play or formation and they already knew what was going on.” It didn’t take long for the brothers to take the talent they had on the field and implement what they had been learning from their dad on the sideline. Shawn began his coaching career as an assistant at Stony Point in Round Rock. He soon became an assistant at China Spring under his dad — including one year where he was the offensive coordinator for Brian, the quarterback — before spending one year at Clifton, six at Magnolia West and one at Round Rock Cedar Ridge. “When I was younger, all I ever wanted to be was my dad,” Shawn said. “I saw the relationships he built and the impact he made, and I felt like that’s what I wanted to do. I kind of knew early in my life that that was the direction I was going to go after playing.” Brian got his coaching career started as an assistant with his brother at Magnolia West in 2014. He then followed his college coach, Willie Fritz, to Georgia Southern in 2015. China Spring head coach Brian Bell (right) hugs his father Mark following the Cougars’ state-title win over Gilmer. Mark preceded Brian as Cougars head coach. Brian returned to Texas and joined his dad’s staff at China Spring in 2016, where he was an assistant until 2018 when he had the challenging task of replacing Mark as head coach. Three years later, he won a state title with the Cougars. “Being around my dad and being around the coaches that coached for my dad at the time, I really just didn’t know any other professions even existed,” Brian said. Family first It was clear from an early stage that Shawn and Brian could both play football at the next level. That took Shawn to Baylor, where he threw for more than 5,500 yards and nearly 40 touchdowns, and is still in the Top 10 in the all-time Baylor record books in many passing categories. Brian didn’t feel called to any particular school that was recruiting him until Fritz, the newly hired coach at Sam Houston State, offered him the week before signing day. “It was a last-minute deal,” Brian said. “There was something about Coach Fritz. He was coming from Missouri, I’d never heard of him before. But I wanted to be a part of what he was building. I knew it was something I wanted to be a part of.” Brian finished his college career at Sam Houston with a school-record 39 victories, back-to-back national championship games, and is the program’s career leader in passing yards (8,655), completions (621) and touchdown passes (84). Whether he was watching Shawn with the Bears or Brian with the Bearkats, Mark and his wife, Becky, never missed a game, even if that meant driving through the night or adjusting flights at the last minute. In 1993, the Bell family suffered an unimaginable tragedy when their five-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Lindsay, died in a car accident. “I made it a point that I was never going to miss a game, no matter what it took,” Mark said. “My career was secondary to whatever had to happen. I was going to be there. I was never going to allow my son to call home and tell me he threw a touchdown pass. I was going to be there to see it.” Shawn and Brian felt the love. “There’s no substitute to looking up in the stands and knowing your dad is at every game, or walking off the field, win or lose, and knowing your mom and dad are going to be there,” Shawn said. “He set the foundation of what is really important in life. Faith first, family second, and then football.” China Spring head coach Mark Bell gets a hug from players Shannon Beaman (left) and Kody Fulp (right) after the Cougars’ 21-10 win over La Vega. China Spring is now two wins away from the first state title under Bell, who is in his 21st season. When Brian was a senior at China Spring, Shawn had left to set off on his own coaching journey, leaving just Mark there. Every day, Mark would bring Bush’s Chicken for the two to have lunch together. “We really enjoyed that year to the fullest,” Brian said. “He would sit down for lunch and say he’s never going to regret these moments. I look at my life now and I’ve got a two-year-old and a nine-month-old and those are the things I think about with them.” Making the leap Shawn couldn’t dial the number fast enough. Late on the night of Dec. 8, 2017, Shawn, then the head coach of Cedar Ridge, got a direct message on Twitter from Matt Rhule that only contained the Philadelphia phone number of the newly hired Baylor head coach. The next day, he was in Waco for an interview. A few days after that, he was officially hired as an offensive analyst. “I was just really excited,” Shawn said. “I told my wife that he sent me this for a reason, hopefully, I have an opportunity to get involved at my alma mater. I’ll forever be thankful to him and (Baylor athletic director) Mack Rhoades for giving me that opportunity.” Five years later, Shawn’s younger brother, Brian, also joined the Baylor coaching staff. Brian, hours removed from leading China Spring to a state championship, got a call from Baylor head coach Dave Aranda, who wanted him to come aboard as an analyst as the Bears prepared for the Sugar Bowl. Brian Bell took over for his dad, Mark, as head coach at China Spring in 2018. He left to become an analyst at Baylor in 2021 and is currently coaching alongside his older brother Shawn at Houston. “That was a whirlwind,” Brian said. “The one thing I wish I could have back was the timing. It happened so fast, and leaving China Spring and those kids after we won a state championship, was one of my biggest regrets. But it was a great decision for me and my family and we felt like it was the right thing to do.” They’ve been coaching side-by-side ever since. When Fritz was hired as Houston’s head coach before this season, one of the first people he called to join his staff was Brian. This time, Shawn was the one to follow his younger brother, leaving his alma mater after seven years to take on more responsibility as the quarterbacks coach with the Cougars. “We try to enjoy every day,” Brian said. “My office is two doors down from his. It is really neat to sit in the same room as him and talk about offense, talk football. To do it at this level is pretty special.” Baylor travels to Houston to take on the Cougars on Saturday night. UH QBs Coach Previews Matchup Between Houston & Baylor | Shawn Bell // via Baylor Athletics on Sic Em 365 on YouTUbe Shawn, who turned 41 last weekend, will always have a special place in his heart for Baylor, Waco and China Spring, but the goal for Saturday is for the Cougars to go 1-0 in what figures to be a raucous environment. “It’ll be the first time in 41 years that I’ll be rooting against the Baylor Bears,” Shawn said. Mark and Becky will be there, just as they have been the entire time. “I’m totally elated at the whole situation,” Mark said. “I think they aspire to keep advancing their careers. But as I always told my boys, I want you to be a better person than a coach or player. I’m not just proud of their athletic accomplishments, but I’m more proud of the Christian young men that they are. It makes me proud that they’re good dads.” Be the first to know Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.

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Will Kamala Harris run for California governor in 2026? The question is already swirlingPractical steps needed to strengthen trade ties with Canada: ShafayThe Foreign Ministry appointed Ambassador to Nouakchott Burhan Köroğlu as a temporary charge d'affaires for Türkiye's Embassy in Syria's capital Damascus in light of recent developments. The embassy was closed in March 2012 following clashes between Assad regime forces and pro-democracy protestors. The appointment of Köroğlu came shortly after Türkiye's top intelligence chief Ibrahim Kalın visited the Syrian capital on Thursday. Syria's anti-regime forces entered the capital Damascus early Sunday ending the Bashar Assad regime's decadeslong rule. The capture also overthrew the Baath Party, the Arab socialist group that had come to power in Syria in a 1963 coup. The anti-regime forces also dealt a major blow to the influence of Russia and Iran in Syria in the heart of the region, allies who propped up Assad during critical periods in the conflict. Türkiye, which said it gave no support and had no involvement in the offensive led by the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), said it wanted the new Syrian administration to be inclusive and for Syrians to determine their own future. Ankara openly backed the Syrian opposition to the Assad regime since the unrest evolved into a civil war in the neighboring country more than a decade ago. Until Assad’s fall, Ankara sought to normalize ties with Damascus and find a political solution to the civil war. While several countries, including Egypt, Iraq and Italy, swiftly reopened their diplomatic missions in Damascus following the opposition offensive, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Ankara was waiting for the “right conditions to emerge” to reopen its embassy in the Syrian capital. Dr. Köroğlu was appointed as ambassador to Mauritania in Dec. 2023. He completed his master's degree in Jordan and received his PhD in Islamic Philosophy from Marmara University. He worked as an academic in several universities and headed various research centers. He is fluent in English and Arabic.