When Lamonte Bell, a cornerback on the Montana State football
team for the past four seasons, told a Bobcat track coach that he
was interested in joining his squad this winter, he made one
small oversight.
"I haven't run track since high school," Bell laughs. "I'd
forgotten that there's a lot of running involved."
Bell's presence on the MSU track squad during the indoor season
which culminates in Bozeman this weekend is anything but a
laughing matter for Bobcat head coach Dale Kennedy. "Lamonte is
our first guy in a long time that is a viable competitor for
all-conference honors in the short sprints," he said. "He's done
realy well, he's getting a little bit better every week. It's
really brought a different dimension to our team."
Aside from his contribution to the squad in terms of points this
weekend, Kennedy said Bell's presence alone has been a
breakthrough. "We've always known there have been some fast guys
on that football team, but for whatever reason it hasn't worked
out that they've come out for indoor track. But Mike (Kramer,
MSU's second-year head football coach) thought it was a workable
idea, and we're having fun with Lamonte. I wish there were more
of those kids that really wanted to do track, because I think
there are some kids that would make our team, and some kids that
we would help as it applies to football."
Bell said that the month he's spent with the Bobcat tracksters
has helped him. "It's improved my speed a lot," he said. "It's
been more form (work), and my running style has changed. Will it
help me to get interceptions? Probably not. But will it help me
run a lot faster to guys as opposed to reacting, and in a lot of
other aspects? Yeah, it will."
Bell's rekindled enthusiasm for track has caught the eye of MSU
sprints coach Christy Otte, herself a former MSU All-America.
"Lamonte, at the (Mountain States Games) in Pocatello, was so
excited to just sit and watch every event," Otte said. "There is
a lot of time in Pocatello because it's a two-day meet to just
sit and watch, so he'd sit in the stands and get excited."
Bell has started for two years for the Bobcat football team, and
enters his senior year next fall as one of the top defensive
backs in the Big Sky. The contrast with football was one thing
that drew him back to track. "It's a different atmosphere, as
opposed to football coaches hounding you and yelling at you,"
Bell said. "I just love Coach Kennedy. He's always motivating us
to do our best."
Otte said sprint speed is always present in an athlete, but that
it takes work to draw it out. "It's not that far away that they
can't reach back and refer to it when they need to," Otte says of
football players in general. "(Having) the speed is definitely
no. one. Changing (Bell's) running form a little bit has helped.
But mostly football is a lot of repetition work, where you run
around and then you come back, then you run around again and come
back. You don't get a chance to work on the raw speed element of
it."
Bell is not the only Bobcat gridder to take advantage of the
track team. Linebacker Mike Woodberry, a record-holding hurdler
from Wyoming, came out, but was injured early on. Also, thrower
Shaun Ross and sprinter Arie Grey will compete in the Big Sky
meet this weekend, but their eligibility in football has expired.
With his first track meet in five years on the horizon, Bell has
one goal. "To win the Big Sky," he says. "I believe I can do it."
Bell's 55 m dash trials are Friday at 2:40 pm, with the finals at
12:25 p.m., on Saturday.
For up-to-date Big Sky Conference Track and Field Championships
results, go to www.msubobcats.com
