As most of you know, especially if you're a Bulldog fan, #36 Nick Bell passed away yesterday after a short battle with cancer. Something I didn't know until last night is that the brain tumor in his head was a form of skin cancer, and that when Nick was 18 he had a lesion (type of skin cancer) removed from his forehead. The details I am unsure of and I don't know if I even want to know, but I think this is an oppurtunity for me to speak out on something I feel very passionately about. Though the type of skin cancer that Nick had is unknown it still is so important that we continually check our bodies for things that aren't normal. Research has shown over and over that early detection is KEY. We have to protect ourselves and see to it that if something doesn't look "right" on us then we should have it checked out, and if we still don't feel comfortable about the prognosis we should seek second opinions. It is so scary how violent and deadly skin cancer can be.
I am so very sad for the family of Nick Bell as well as the MSU football team and coaching staff. May he ring his cowbell loud and proud with Jesus. His plan is perfect and His grace is ENOUGH!!
Article from the Daily Jounal in Tupelo today........
Mississippi State coaches, players mourn loss of teammate Nick Bell
by Brad Locke/NEMS Daily Journal Nems360.Com
STARKVILLE - Nick Bell had a way of lifting the spirits of those around him. But on Tuesday, the collective spirit of Mississippi State's football program was heavy with grief.
Bell, a third-year sophomore defensive end from Bessemer, Ala., died Tuesday afternoon at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Medical Center after a brief battle with skin cancer. He was 20.
A visibly emotional and tired-looking Dan Mullen addressed the media Monday night.
"Nick was a son, Nick was a brother to everybody in this football family," the second-year coach said. "I know he's looking down on us right now. I'm sure he's already been picked for a team up in heaven to be playing football, the game that he loved."
Mullen remembered Bell as an upbeat person.
"He never came in having a bad day. Never came in upset, never came in with anything but a smile on his face. ... Just a great person to be around at all times. Always someone that's going to lift up your spirits, lift up his teammates' spirits, and loved to play the game."
A little over two weeks ago, Bell was diagnosed with a form of skin cancer in his head. He was recovering well from Oct. 1 surgery to remove the tumor - Dr. Allen Sills performed the surgery in Nashville - when things took a swift and tragic turn late last week.
Tests on Friday revealed that Bell had synovial sarcoma, and that it was "very aggressive," according to Moreland Smith, Bell's long-time mentor. Bell was told he'd be facing a minimum of six months of chemotherapy and would not, as previously hoped, be returning to school or the football field any time soon.
"That just rocked his entire world," Smith said.
After experiencing severe headaches Sunday night, Bell went to the emergency room at the UAB hospital's Bessemer branch. Smith said Bell began having seizures in the middle of the night and was in a "deep coma" by 7 a.m. Monday and was put on life support.
Emergency surgery was performed on Bell's head, but doctors told the family that the prospects for recovery were "bleak." Oxygen was not getting to his brain.
That night, Mullen and about 50 members of the team loaded up in the first bus they could find and visited Bell and his family.
Smith said Bell's mother, Linda Bell, and two sisters, Ashley and Monica, eventually decided on Tuesday morning to take Nick off life support. Smith said he was pronounced dead at 2:20 p.m.
Mullen informed the team around 3:30.
"It happened so fast," Smith said. "It just took him away from us."
The Bulldogs held their regularly scheduled practice Tuesday.
"That's the sanctuary for our coaches, for our players, for our football family, to be on that field together doing the thing we love most, the thing I know Nick Bell loved the most," Mullen said. "It kind of felt good to sweat out some of the feelings and emotions that are inside."
Several MSU fans gathered in the Junction tailgating area on campus Tuesday night and rang their cowbells for nearly a full minute in honor of Bell.
It was just 11 days ago that Bell stood on the sidelines at Davis Wade Stadium, wearing his No. 36 jersey, to cheer his team on to victory against UAB.
"We tried to keep him around the team as much as possible, keep him with us as much as possible," Mullen said. "I know he had a lot going on, and I think he got to spend a lot of good time with the guys on the team and a lot of great time with his family over the last couple of weeks. And he'll continue to look down and look over all of us."
Funeral arrangements have not yet been made.
Finding his role
Bell had been a key role player the past two seasons, rotating at right defensive end. He played in 16 games with four starts, recording 22 tackles and 4.5 tackles-for-loss.
This season, Bell played in the first four games, starting two. He made seven tackles and two tackles for loss.
His final game was Sept. 25 against Georgia. He started but made no tackles in MSU's 24-12 win.
Bell, a sports studies and kinesiology major, played most of his high school ball at Jess Lanier High School in Bessemer. As a senior, he played in just six games but made 70 tackles and earned honorable mention all-metro honors from the Birmingham News.
He committed to MSU in November of 2007 and redshirted his freshman year.
Read more: NEMS360.com - Mississippi State coaches players mourn loss of teammate Nick Bell
No comments:
Post a Comment