ELLY GRIMM

   • Leader & Times

There are a couple new faces in the Liberal High School athletics office, and Cynthia Bell is one of them in the role of the athletics department administrative assistant.

Bell is no stranger to LHS or the athletics department.

“I worked here about three years ago as the attendance secretary, and then I left and did administrative assistant at Spectrum Pinning,” Bell said. “I saw this job was open, and I wanted to take the opportunity to apply because I've done coaching for about eight years in and out of the district. I've helped with club volleyball, and I've played volleyball also, so I've done both sides, and I wanted to jump on the other side and get behind the scenes and help out the coaches and the students and make sure everything aligns properly for them and take care of everything that I can for them.”

Bell said overall, the position fit what she wanted to do.

“Monica Vega, the previous assistant activities and athletic director, she was the one who actually brought it to my attention and told me I would be a good fit,” Bell said. “When I worked here, I worked as an attendance secretary, so I did a lot of work with Erica. She was in my position a few years ago, so I did a lot of work with her, and I helped her do programs and to take care of a lot of things the athletics needed help with. She told me ‘You kind of already know a lot of the things, you know a lot of the school system stuff, so it would be a good fit and with your athletic background.’ After doing some thinking about it, I started agreeing with what she’d said and ultimately decided to put my name forward.”

Bell said she was excited when the official word came about her getting the position.

“I was excited, and I was ready. When Monica told me about the position, I wasn't officially looking for anything,” Bell said. “It just kind of got brought to my attention, and I talked to some people, and I had another friend who basically said ‘You like doing stuff with athletics, why not go for it?’ They were also trying to get me back into the coaching side here in the district, and I didn't want to jump back into that quite yet. My husband also told me, ‘You know, this is another way for you to be involved with that part, so this would be perfect for you.’ Ultimately, I took some time, thought about it, and that's what made me apply. When I got it, I was very surprised, and I was excited though. I was ready to be back in the school system.”

With the fall athletics seasons just under way, Bell said she is excited to see the teams get started.

“The first week of sports starting is kind of crazy and hectic, and I didn't really know just how much went into getting everything prepared for sports to get started,” Bell said. “But I'm ready to see the students do what they are good at. I’m also excited to help the coaches in whatever way they need. We've already got a lot of travel requests and stuff getting done right now. But I'm ready for the first home games, those should be great. I’m ready to see the band, the debate team, the tennis and golf teams and all the activities and how they're doing and how the kids are performing. I’m also excited to see where we can help kids be better in certain areas, and where we can offer more support. I like going to the games and seeing the students play, and they get happy once they see you. Once you start to build that relationship, they are excited and want to talk to you after the game. So that always makes it feel good whenever they notice that and they feel comfortable enough to talk to you about you know good things like that.”

Bell said things have started relatively smoothly for her in her new role.

“For me, I kind of came in at a transition where Monica was leaving, so I learned a lot not only my position, but a lot of what Kellen is going to be doing because we weren't sure when he was going to start, so I kind of had to learn both positions at the same time,” Bell said. “So I was learning you know the ins and outs of both of our positions just as a in case situation. But Monica showed both of us a little bit of everything, so neither of us came in completely blind.”

Overall, Bell said, she is excited for her new role.

“The opportunity to be back in an athletics and educational setting is great, and I'm excited to get to know all the different coaches for the different programs here at LHS,” Bell said. “I want the coaches and students to know I'm their cheerleader and will do what I can to help them and show them support. There are definitely opportunities to help enhance all of that, and I'm excited to dive back into being an LHS Redskin and immersing myself into the culture. There are so many of those opportunities, and I know there's so much tradition at LHS in terms of successful programs and athletes. Community support is so important to me, and I can't wait to see that here. I want to know how all of our programs are doing because again, I was a very involved student when I was in school. I firmly believe athletics and other extracurricular programs are where students can succeed the most, and that bleeds into their education/academic career. There are so many people at LHS who genuinely care about the students, and I'm excited to be part of that. I know all the schedules are available online, so if everyone will just mark their calendars and show our young Redskins that community support, I think this fall will be amazing.”