Brien Bell likes to think about only one thing. Worrying about anything else just gets in his team’s way.

Bell, the SU track and field assistant coach, doesn’t want to think about where he’ll be in 10 years or if he ever wants to be the head coach of his own college track program. Bell doesn’t even enjoy talking about his own pivotal role on the Orange.

It all shows his dedication directed toward a Syracuse track program he’s helping improve day by day.

‘I think the moment you start thinking about my own individual goals is the moment that I’m not working at 100 percent of my maximum capacity,’ Bell said. ‘To sit around and start thinking about myself is not going to work. I am very singularly focused on our goals and objectives here.’

SU’s long-distance runners include Bell whenever they talk about head coach Chris Fox. When Fox got the job at Syracuse in 2005, he made sure to bring on Bell, about whom he heard only good things in running circles. Bell started off his coaching career at La Salle as an assistant to head coach Charles Torpey. But Fox and Bell had plans to coach together for a while, Fox said.

Since coming to Syracuse five and a half years ago, it’s been all Orange, all the time for Bell. His goal when he first arrived was simple: to win Big East titles and put the program in a position to win a national title.

Long-distance runner Forrest Misenti said Bell separates himself from other assistant coaches with this steadfast mindset.

‘I think his motivation and focus (stand out),’ he said. ‘He seems very motivated to get championships for this team and focused on getting those goals done. He brings that out in us.’

Characterized as a ‘policeman’ by Fox, Bell makes sure the athletes — particularly the long-distance runners — stay on track and do the work required to succeed.

Bell said he likes to compare the team to the New England Patriots, the NFL team that thrives year after year through complete focus. Bell wants SU to be a little neater, a little tighter than other teams. Bell knows the team tries to maintain that mindset, but he also understands that he coaches college athletes, and sometimes they’ll falter.

That’s when he steps in.

‘When they start to slip, we like to think we’re there to remind them why they came here,’ Bell said.

While Bell is active in coaching the current track stars, he carries another important role for the program in looking for future track stars as the program’s head recruiter.

When Fox brought Bell to Syracuse, Bell’s main job within the program was convincing high school runners to come to an ever-improving program. Bell estimates he makes the most phone calls out of the entire athletic program.

His pitch to high school runners focuses on the coach’s philosophy and training program, the passion everyone has on the team and how great the university is overall. He said the passion in the athletic department translates well for the athletes.

But while Bell doesn’t like to focus on himself — preferring to only talk about what’s ahead for SU track and field — others within the program have no problem bragging about him.

Misenti, a junior, said he’s improved with Bell’s tutelage. He’s learned how to cut down on the small things that hurt a runner and said he wouldn’t be surprised if Bell is calling the shots as the head coach of his own running program one day.

‘I feel like that’s the path he is going to go on,’ Misenti said. ‘He definitely has the ability to do it.’

Fox agrees with Misenti. For the same reason he brought Bell with him to Syracuse, he sees Bell’s future as a head coach. He has that passion to make a team better.

‘He’s on that fast track,’ Fox said. ‘He certainly will be a guy that people would want in the next few years.’

dgproppe@syr.edu

Published on January 25, 2011 at 12:00 pm