Winding path had Bedford’s Bell headed in different direction

Whenever the season comes to an end for Julian Bell, she knows what will come next.

The Bedford High School senior is hoping that end will come with the Bulldogs raising the Division I championship plaque, but win or lose, Bell will head to Clemson, S.C., in the fall.

The spring season of her freshman year will mark the first varsity campaign for the women’s lacrosse program at Clemson University, and while there will be a uncertainty on that path at times, it’s an journey that Bell is excited to take.

Two years ago, that path looked a lot different than it does now, and last year, it was even more uncertain.

The 2020 lacrosse season was going to be a special one for Bell, as it would mark the last time she would be teammates with her older sister, Chamberlaine, who was a senior and just finished her sophomore year at Bryant University.

“We both started in first grade and she’s two years ahead of me, so I watched her for two years and then I started up,” Julian Bell said. “We both started Tomahawks in sixth grade. We’d shoot together all the time. We had a lot of chemistry.”

But that all came apart in March of that year, when the COVID-19 pandemic not only canceled the spring high school sports season in New Hampshire, but also wiped out most of the normal recruiting channels that would take place over the summer.

Those months between sophomore and junior year are important ones when it comes to recruiting, and a whole class of players was thrown out of whack.

“It was pretty stressful,” Bell said. “I didn’t know what was going to come on Sept. 1 (of 2020), no one really did. It was very stressful knowing there was no certainty at all. Lots of unknowns.”

Despite all that, she felt like she eventually had it figured out, and early on, made a verbal commitment to play at Navy, and it felt like that was that.

“Navy was an insane opportunity and I’m so proud of that,” Bell said. “I cried when I committed there.”

But after committing, Bell was thrown another twist.

“I dealt with some shin splints, and we were trying to figure out what was going on with that,” she said. “I wasn’t able to play last year.”

Despite not playing, Bell served a crucial role for a young Bulldogs team that ended up reaching the D1 semifinals before falling to Bishop Guertin.

“She’s just so mature,” Bedford coach Christine Hodgdon said. “From the time I’ve had her as a freshman, she was just able to acclimate to our program and our culture, and add to that right away. That’s why it was so beneficial for her to be a captain last year and to know our system and my system. It’s been amazing to have her play that part for the rest of our team.”

With two years off from playing at Bedford, and not knowing how her injuries might linger or react to attending a military academy, Bell decided to take back her verbal commitment to Navy.

“I love the coach, she’s the sweetest person, loved the girls, but just was rethinking the military,” she said. “With my current situation with my legs, I was a little worried about it. It took me a good two months to decide I was going to decommit. I ended up decommitting in July and ever since then, I was talking to probably 12 coaches and got a little feedback.”

Bell found herself with two problems. First, having not played much over the last two years, she didn’t have much current film to send out to coaches. And by the time she decided to open her recruiting back up, a lot of programs had already filled the spots they had had available.

“I know a lot of coaches had ideas of who they wanted, but it was solely based on film,” Bell said. “And that’s how I committed to Clemson. I was just pushing out a ton of film and practicing in the front yard, pushing a lot of videos up on Instagram. That’s what I did. Any film you could get out was really helpful for the coaches.”

Allison Kwolek was hired to be Clemson’s first head coach last August, and not long after that, Bell reached out.

“I got in touch with coach Kwolek and she invited me down for a visit,” she said. “I loved it. Just going into a new program in the ACC is exciting. The coach is the nicest person. Loved the campus. It checked all the boxes off. It’s a big football school as well. It was kind of the whole package combined. I couldn’t pass that up.”

Hodgdon felt that whatever Bell ended up doing, it would be the right one for her.

“Whatever decision she made, I knew it was with good intent and that she really thought about her options and what that meant,” the coach said. “She has an opportunity to make a difference right away there. Just because she does have such a high IQ, I think she’ll do really well.”

Bell has done well in her return to the field, helping Bedford (14-2) to the No. 1 seed in the Division I playoffs, which begin Wednesday. Despite playing just two full years of varsity lacrosse for the Bulldogs, she scored her 100th goal on May 20.

“I had no idea,” she said of reaching the milestone. “I didn’t really pay attention because I kind of get in my head, so I didn’t want to force anything. It happens when it happens. That was a nice cherry on top.”