For Bell Athletics, It’s All D’s : A coaching philosophy that emphasizes discipline, devotion and dedication has given the school one of the area’s top sports programs.

As South Gate pitcher Alonso Lopez was pulled from the game after giving up another run, his team trailing Bell, 4-3, the Eagles dugout serenaded Lopez:

Na-na na-na . . . .

Na-na na-na . . . .

Hey, hey, hey . . . .

Goodby.

Coach Henry Santiago, standing outside the dugout, quickly turned and scolded his team.

“We don’t taunt other players,” Santiago told them. “We encourage our good play but we don’t discourage others. That is not the type of players you are. That is not the type of player I want on this team. The next person (to repeat that song) will not take the field.”

Exchanges like this between Santiago and his team are rare.

“Discipline is real high in our programs,” said the three-year varsity coach. “(It’s all about) winning with class and losing with class.”

That philosophy and the positive interaction between coaches and athletes, faculty and students has made Bell home to one of the area’s top all-around high school sports programs.

“I think the key is that we have a very dedicated staff and when we show the kids how to play a sport, they are very aggressive at learning,” said volleyball Coach Mike Mayfield.

Bell’s volleyball squad has reached the playoffs each of Mayfield’s eight years as coach, including a 15-8, 15-12, 15-10 loss to City Section 4-A Division Champion University in this season’s semifinals. And Bell reached the City Finals three of the four years, 1986-90, it competed in City Section 3-A Division volleyball.

Considering the fact that Bell’s volleyball players don’t receive club-level instruction like many Valley school players, their accomplishments are even more impressive.

“They don’t have the outside coaching advantages, so they rely on us at school,” Mayfield said. “(Coaches) have to put in a little extra time and so do the kids.”

The dependency that athletes develop on their coaches for instruction and guidance is vital, said Athletic Director Sue Kamiyama.

“We don’t get the true athlete in ninth grade, so they have to develop. Coaches do a good job of teaching them good fundamental skills,” said Kamiyama. “Coaches teach them from the ninth grade on, so that they (can) become leaders as 11th- and 12th-graders.”

Kamiyama, who has been at Bell in some capacity since 1972, the past 10 years as athletic director, has “seen a real growth in our girls’ and boys’ programs.”

Bell offers 20 different sports, the most in the area, to its students. Golf and gymnastics are the only exceptions. Bell did offer golf until 1991 but cut it due to Los Angeles Unified School District budget cuts.

The school’s 23 coaches, all certificated teachers, are involved in all the sports.

Kamiyama believes the variety of sports at Bell attracts students to get involved: “Kids that come to Bell find a place with our sports. We keep a lot of kids in school through sports.”

Those who have found their niche in Bell’s sports society have reaped the benefits of a vastly successful program.

Since 1979, Bell has won City Championships in football (‘85), girls’ volleyball (‘87), baseball (‘87), cross country (‘91), wrestling (’93 and ‘94) and soccer (‘89).

This season, the Bell basketball team lost, 66-63, to Banning in the City 3-A semifinals.

On May 9, Bell reached the City 3-A Team Tennis final for the first time before losing to Van Nuys, 18-11 1/2.

Blazing trails is nothing new for Bell, last year having become the first team outside the San Fernando Valley to win a City wrestling championship since Franklin won in 1984.

Under Coach Frank O’Connor, Bell’s wrestlers repeated as City champs this year.

“All the teams are successful at Bell,” O’Connor said. “It’s the nature of the school.”

And Santiago hopes to add to Bell’s long list of City champs by winning the school’s first baseball championship in seven years. “This is the best all-around team I have had by far,” he said.

However, Bell’s title drought has not been without accomplishment as the Eagles finished as City 3-A runners-up in ’88 and ’89. Last year Bell lost to Crenshaw, 3-2, in the City 3-A semifinals.

Bell is 19-4 this season and won 13 consecutive games--a school record.

The 33-year-old Santiago, who is also the mayor of Maywood, will assume the reins as full-time varsity football head coach in the fall after sharing a co-head coaching position with Ray Galarze for two seasons.

And while the coaches encourage their players to improve, they do likewise.

Santiago, as well as several other coaches, attend coaching clinics and classes in the hope of “finding ways to better ourselves.”

Stovall’s Clinic in Anaheim and Cal State L.A. offers instruction in baseball; USC and UCLA football clinics teach the lastest drills and techniques.

“When the kids see that the coaches are dedicated and have high standards, they want to be successful,” Kamiyama said. “The kids realize that success comes through hard work.”

Of the many factors responsible for Bell’s athletic prosperity is the stress on academic excellence. Coaches concern themselves with the athlete as a student during the offseason.

At Bell, it is rare for a sport to lose more than five students to ineligibility during an academic school year, Kamiyama said.

“The emphasis is on student-athlete and not just athlete,” Kamiyama said. “Sports and school go hand-in-hand.”

Just like winning and winning.