Dia Bell is an

American football American football, referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada and also known as gridiron football, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular American football field, field with goalposts at e ...

quarterback The quarterback (QB) is a position in gridiron football who are members of the offensive side of the ball and mostly line up directly behind the Lineman (football), offensive line. In modern American football, the quarterback is usually consider ...

Early life

Bell is the son of

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA) player

Raja Bell Raja Dia Bell (born September 19, 1976) is an American former professional basketball player. He played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) for the Philadelphia 76ers, Dallas Mavericks, Utah Jazz, Phoenix Suns, Charlotte Bobcats, and Go ...

. He grew up playing

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

and attended the Plantation American Heritage School in

Florida Florida ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

, where he made the

varsity team A varsity team is the highest-level team in a sport or activity representing an educational institution. Varsity teams train to compete against each other during an athletic season or in periodic matches against rival institutions. At high schools ...

seventh grade Seventh grade (also 7th Grade or Grade 7) is the seventh year of formal or compulsory education. The seventh grade is typically the first or second year of middle school. In the United States, kids in seventh grade are usually around 12–13 years ...

. He was a backup for American Heritage until his

sophomore In the United States, a sophomore ( or ) is a person in the second year at an educational institution; usually at a secondary school or at the college and university level, but also in other forms of Post-secondary school, post-secondary educatio ...

year of high school, when he won the starting role. He completed 122 of 189 pass attempts for 1,929 yards and 20

touchdown A touchdown (abbreviated as TD) is a scoring play in gridiron football. Scoring a touchdown grants the team that scored it 6 points. Whether running, passing, returning a kickoff or punt, or recovering a turnover, a team scores a touchd ...

s with only four

interception In Ball game, ball-playing Competitive sport, competitive team sports, an interception or pick is a move by a player involving a pass of the ball—whether by foot or hand, depending on the rules of the sport—in which the ball is intended for ...

s in his first year as a starter, leading his team to an appearance in the class 2M state championship game. After his sophomore season, Bell was ranked a top recruit for the class of 2026, with

247Sports 247Sports is an American network of websites that focus mainly on college recruiting, athletic recruitment in college football and college basketball, basketball. It is owned and operated by Paramount Global, Paramount. The website hosts a large ...

ranking him the second-best quarterback nationally and a five-star recruit. He was also ranked the ninth-best player in the nation by

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

. As a

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

in 2024, he threw for 2,597 yards and 29 touchdowns to six interceptions while completing 71% of his passes, also running for 561 yards and five touchdowns while being named the Florida Gatorade Player of the Year. Bell is committed in June 2024 to play

college football College football is gridiron football that is played by teams of amateur Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. It was through collegiate competition that gridiron football American football in the United States, firs ...

for the

Texas Longhorns The Texas Longhorns are the athletic teams representing the University of Texas at Austin. The teams are sometimes referred to as the Horns and take their name from Longhorn cattle that were an important part of the development of Texas, and ...

. Bell won the MVP at the 2025 Elite 11 Finals.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Dia Year of birth missing (living people) Living people American football quarterbacks American Heritage School (Florida) alumni