Shane Thomas | The Valdosta Daily TimesLowndes volleyball player Kenzley Bell, center, signs a letter of intent to attend Suffolk University as her father Kerwin (front left), mother Cosette (front right), coach Laine Craven (back left), brother Kade (back center) and sister-in-law Charlotte look on Monday at Lowndes High School.

VALDOSTA –– Every athletic program starts somewhere.

Whether it goes anywhere, however, is up to the players and coaching staff.

When it comes to Lowndes volleyball, Kenzley Bell was the player responsible for getting the program off the ground. Three years ago, Kenzley arrived on the Lowndes campus as the lone volleyball player on a roster full of brand new players getting into the sport. On Monday, she made history as the first Lowndes volleyball player to sign with a college as she agreed to join Suffolk University in Boston.

“It’s a very exciting day for Lowndes High volleyball,” Lowndes head volleyball coach Laine Craven said. “(Kenzley) is our first player to sign out of Lowndes High. With the program being three years old, she’s our first player to sign with a college so we’re very excited about that.

“When Kenzley moved here in 10th grade and they were starting a program here obviously with another coach, which was Abigail Dalton, Kenzley was a wonderful person to have move in because she had so much volleyball experience and playing time. She was the only one on the team that had any experience playing volleyball. She has helped to build this program and to see her moving on to be able to play college ball is wonderful with all the hard work that she’s put into it.”

Accompanied by her father, former Valdosta State head football coach Kerwin Bell and her mother/assistant coach Cosette Bell, Kenzley talked about what joining the Rams means to her as the first Viking volleyballer to play in college.

“It means a lot –– I’ve been wanting to play college ball since I first started playing,” Kenzley said. “When I moved here, volleyball was brand new. It was really interesting. … It’s a really big day because no one has ever signed in volleyball so it’s a big step, a monumental kind of thing. This sport is so new and I’m the first one to sign out of this high school; it’s crazy.”

Picking the right school was “really hard”, Kenzley says, but after meeting Rams coach Scott Blanchard and a few of her future teammates, Kenzley came away having fallen in love with Suffolk.

I knew, exactly, that’s where I wanted to be. The coach, he’s very serious and he wants to win. That’s what I want. That’s the whole point of going to play somewhere.

“Coach Blanchard is in his second year there and he’s trying to change the culture and make it a more competitive program there because volleyball hasn’t been super big at the college there either. I like that because he’s very competitive and I’m also very competitive. All the girls, they were so welcoming and I stayed the night in the dorms with them and it was really good overall.”

Described by Craven as a coach on the floor, Kenzley manned the setter position with the Vikings –– arguably the most important position in volleyball. According to Craven, having Kenzley be the first player to set the example for the rest of her teammates was critical to the growth of the program.

“Kenzley can play any position on the floor,” Craven said. “She played setter (here) and could also hit. She also can play libero –– she can play anywhere. She can teach anyone on the floor and she’s such a coach on the floor. With her leadership and her coaching ability on the floor, it’s just amazing and what she meant to each of the players on the team in that way. Without her on the floor, they always felt lost [laughs].”

Her father Kerwin, who was presented his national championship ring in a ceremony later Monday afternoon, called Kenzley’s signing with Suffolk “pretty special.” After all, Bell was coach at Jacksonville University prior to Kenzley’s sophomore year in high school. Once he agreed to become the head coach at Valdosta State, Bell remembers what it was like bringing his daughter to south Georgia to continue her schooling at a school with no previous history of volleyball.

“It’s pretty special,” Bell said. “It’s funny, when I took the head coaching job at Valdosta State, I made a commitment to come here and I remember going home to Jacksonville and Kenzley asked me, ‘Dad, what about the volleyball?’ She was a little upset with me at first, but the last three years has been good for her. She feels really proud that she helped start the program here and she was a big part of that and helped take it the first three years through its infancy to where it’s at now. She was on the first team and she’s really proud of that.

“When I took the (offensive coordinator) job at South Florida, she’s like, ‘Dad, I’m not leaving. I’m graduating from Lowndes High School.’ She’s really enjoyed her time here and from that period three years ago being unsure because she loved volleyball so much and this was pretty much a first-year program, she’s really grown a lot and I’m proud of her and the work she’s put in to get where she’s at.”

Unlike his daughter, Bell maintains he’s never cared much for the big-city life despite having played in the NFL and the CFL in places such as Miami, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Toronto and Edmonton. With his son Kolton set to graduate from Ole Miss next week, Bell discusses what it’ll mean for his daughter to be moving farther away in the northeast.

“It’s going to be tough –– she’s my little girl,” Bell said of Kenzley moving to Boston. “I’ve got two older sons –– Kade and then Kolton’s graduating next week from Ole Miss so he’s been away the last four years. To have my daughter up there, it’s going to be quite an adjustment for us, me and my wife. She’s sort of a trailblazer –– she’s always said she wanted to live in the big city, she loves it. She loves the idea of living in downtown Boston and going to school there, I think she’s going to have a great time going to college and playing volleyball there. We’re going to support her all we can.”

Kenzley admittedly has always had her eyes on city life and is eager to make her move in a few weeks.

“I’ve just always loved the city life,” Kenzley said. “Once we moved here, I was ready to get back (to that). In Boston, (Suffolk) is right downtown so I walk everywhere. My dorms are across from the Boston Commons. I like how life never stops, I love how there’s so many people and you can take the train places. I’m not even taking my car. I’m going to be walking everywhere. I’m excited.”

Kenzley credits her time playing and being a student at Lowndes for her growth as a leader on and off the court. For her, being the only player with any experience when the team first began operation fostered that growth over time. A big part of that growth, Kenzley says, is setting the tone in the classroom and showing her younger teammates how to be successful.

With graduation a few weeks away, Kenzley was steadfast identifying what she’ll miss most about being a part of the Viking family.

“All of my friends,” Kenzley said smiling. “I did not like it here the first year. It was really rough, but I love it now and I’m gonna miss playing too because it’s high school ball –– it’s fun, you play with all your friends and your friends come and watch you. I know college will be the same way eventually. I’m gonna miss all my friends. It’s going to be interesting.

“Just moving in and trying to make good friends, I felt like it was a weird year moving because it was my sophomore year. I’m already very quiet –– it takes me a while before I get comfortable with people. Volleyball helped a lot with me making friends because we started in the summer. I knew a lot of people going into the school year which helped a lot. … It was a difficult move, but it was a good one looking back at it now.”