Freak Accident Forces Bell Into New Role Off Field
Months from now, when he watches his daughter blaze from base to base, Greg Bell will offer up some fatherly advice: “Forget the slide-by and just go in regular.”
Almost certainly, however, he will come to realize that it is easier said than done when the young athlete he wants so badly to protect is as competitive and talented as she is.
Heather Bell of Calabasas High--the top hitter on the 16-and-under Southern California Stealth Black team--is only 14 years old. At 5 feet 10, 160 pounds, she looks and plays like a college veteran.
But, because of a freak accident last week that left her leg broken in two places, Bell isn’t playing at all these days. And it could be as long as a year before she plays again.
What hurts most, Heather Bell says, is that she “was having a really good season.”
Bell was leading the team with a .410 batting average and a .513 slugging percentage. She had stolen 11 of 12 bases and was batting .469 with runners in scoring position.
And she is the second youngest player on the team.
Instead of preparing for the Stealth’s upcoming appearance in the national tournament in Fresno next month, Bell is busy learning how to manipulate a wheelchair and walk with crutches so she can attend the tournament as a spectator.
It was an accident the Bells won’t soon forget.
“I ran out on the field so fast. . . . there was a vapor trail behind me,” Greg Bell said. “I was holding her hand. . . . and bawling the whole time.”
During a pool-play game of the Franklin Cup tournament in Irvine, Bell singled up the middle, then stole second and third base.
On her approach into third, Bell opted to do a slide-by, a feet-first slide on the right side and beyond the bag while reaching out a hand to grab the bag at the end of the slide.
Bell felt “a snap” in her left leg, but wasn’t aware of the severity of the injury.
“The umpire called me safe and I went to get up and [the shortstop] tagged me [again] but the umpire called timeout because he heard it pop,” Bell said.
Bell broke both the tibia and fibula--the two bones between the knee and ankle--in her left leg.
“It looks to me like she slid late and her left leg got caught underneath her,” Greg Bell said.
Nearly a week after the accident, which included an ambulance ride to Saddleback Hospital and subsequent ride in her parents’ car to Kaiser Hospital in Woodland Hills--a 12-hour ordeal--Bell had to return to Kaiser on Wednesday so doctors could reset her leg.
Doctors also placed four pins in her leg to help speed the healing. Two pins above the breaks, two below.
The prognosis is 12 to 20 weeks in a cast.
Teammates from the Stealth have been with her every step of the way. Each night since the accident a player spends the night and helps comfort Bell. One night it was twins Brandi and Lacey Cope of Thousand Oaks, the next night Maureen LeCocq of Chaminade, then Sara Hall of Calabasas.
“I tell the parents to keep ‘em coming,” Greg Bell said. “I’ll feed ‘em, just keep ‘em coming.”
The Bells have tried their best to accommodate Heather and her bulky, heavy cast, which stretches from her ankle to her upper thigh. Her bedroom upstairs has been moved to the downstairs living room.
“She’s handling it pretty well,” Greg Bell said. “As long as the players are around to keep her company, she’s doesn’t seem to be in as much pain.”
To complicate matters, the Bells recently moved to Westlake from Calabasas and were in the midst of talking Heather into a transfer to Westlake.
Heather, who will be sophomore, wants to stay at Calabasas to be with her friends. But to stay there, Heather’s parents would have to adjust their schedules in order to get her to and from school each day. It’s an option Greg Bell isn’t crazy about.
But at this point, he just wants her to be happy.
“Right now she has me wrapped around her finger because of her injury. So, I don’t know [about a transfer],” he said. “But, I haven’t ruled [Westlake] out yet.”