by Malcolm Butler
Last Friday night, everyone was watching Brett Bell.
Saturday morning, nobody was.
And that’s when the Cedar Creek senior may have provided the best example yet of why he’s one of the Cougars’ leaders.
Less than 12 hours after rushing for 185 yards and two touchdowns in Cedar Creek’s 32-10 win over St. Frederick at Origin Bank Field, Bell returned to the school Saturday morning.
His knee was sore after the previous night’s game, so Bell came to ride a stationary bike and loosen it up.
Then he saw the stands. On the visitor’s side.
Trash left behind from Friday night’s crowd was scattered throughout the bleachers. There was nobody else around. No one to cheer him on or even see what he was doing.
It didn’t matter.
“I saw this trash and just couldn’t walk by,” Bell said. “We have a standard here in the football program. You win on the field the night before, you can’t just walk by all that trash in your stands, on the field. It’s not a good look.
“Me being in the position I am, I’m supposed to be a leader. I’m supposed to set the example.”
It’s the leadership that Bell will take back out onto the field at Origin Bank Stadium tonight when the Cougars host Beekman Charter for a 7 p.m. homecoming kickoff.
Bell and his Cougar teammates know people will be watching tonight when they step onto the grass field.
The irony is that Bell didn’t know anyone would ever know what he had done last Saturday morning.
Neither did Cedar Creek coach Jacob Angevine.
An issue with the team’s Hudl camera from Friday night’s game inadvertently provided the evidence. Instead of recording portions of the game, the camera had recorded the empty home stands Saturday morning.
Angevine was clicking through the video trying to determine what had happened when he noticed something.
A trash can moved.
Then he saw someone cleaning the stands.
Angevine initially thought it might have been assistant coach, who sometimes does work around the facility on Saturday mornings. But a phone call revealed that coach was in Baton Rouge for the Louisiana Tech-LSU game.
Angevine sent a message to his coaching staff asking who had cleaned the stands.
The answer was Bell.
“Nobody told him to do it,” Angevine said. “He just took it upon himself. He was trying to come up here and get a little stretch in, saw the trash and picked it up.
“I guess it’s pretty remarkable leadership, if you ask me.”
For Bell, it wasn’t complicated.
Someone was eventually going to have to clean it up. He was there. So he did it.
Bell said that mentality didn’t begin with football.
“My grandparents, my parents told me all the way up, you’ve got to think about other people, too,” Bell said. “Put other people first. You think about somebody having to clean that up, and I just couldn’t let somebody else clean that up.
“My parents have raised me so well. They’ve given me everything I need to succeed. Why not just give to somebody else that might need it?”
It also fits directly into one of the messages Angevine and his staff emphasize within the Cedar Creek football program.
First Timothy 4:12 is an important verse for the Cougars, particularly its message about setting an example regardless of age.
Both Angevine and Bell mentioned it when talking about the subject.
“It’s what we preach in our program — First Timothy 4:12, being the example,” Angevine said. “No matter your age, no matter your youth, no matter your experience, whatever it may be, let your words and let your actions be the example for Christ.
“Taking charge of that with nobody asking him to do it says a lot about him, and it says a lot about what we’re preaching in our program. Anytime you get a guy like Brett to live up to that example, it’s only going to trickle down to the younger classes.”
Bell understands that responsibility.
“That’s the thing we have in our program, First Timothy 4:12 — just be the example,” Bell said.
It’s a philosophy Bell has demonstrated between the lines, too.
The senior quarterback and safety has emerged as one of the driving forces behind Cedar Creek’s 2-0 start. His 185-yard, two-touchdown rushing performance helped the Cougars avenge a 49-6 playoff loss to St. Frederick from the previous season.
Angevine believes the same qualities that prompted Bell to pick up trash in an empty stadium help explain his success on the football field.
“He carries that into everything that he does,” Angevine said. “He’s a little bit of a perfectionist. He likes things to be done a certain way.
“I wish I had a couple more just like him, that’s for sure.”
Bell wasn’t performing for a crowd Saturday morning. He simply saw something that needed to be done.
And did it.
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