Dustin D. Bell (born April 18, 1987) is a former

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 ...

defensive back In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the ...

. He played collegiately for

UTEP Miners The UTEP Miners is the name given to the sports teams of the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). They are informally referred to as the Miners, UTEP, or Texas–El Paso. UTEP was a member of the Western Athletic Conference from 1967 to 2005, ...

University of Texas at El Paso The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) is a public university, public research university in El Paso, Texas, United States. Founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, it is the third oldest academic component of the Univers ...

. Bell was considered a top shutdown corner coming out of

Bakersfield Junior College Bakersfield College (BC) is a public community college in Bakersfield, California. BC serves about 31,000 students each semester or 46,500 annually, and offers associate degrees, certificate programs, and is one of fifteen California Community C ...

Early life

Bell attended

Wilmer-Hutchins High School Wilmer-Hutchins High School (nicknamed ''"The Hutch"'') is a public secondary school in Dallas, Texas. A part of the Dallas Independent School District, Wilmer-Hutchins High was formerly part of the now defunct Wilmer-Hutchins Independent School ...

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...

, where he played football, basketball and baseball. He was All-District in all three sports. As a quarterback his sophomore year he led the eagles to the second round in the playoffs, where they lost a thriller against the Rusk Eagles. During his senior year at Hutch he led the Eagles to the third round in the playoffs. He had record-setting QB statistics; 1770 yards with 27 touchdowns. He was named to the ''Dallas Morning News'' Area Top 100 list and was named a Sleeper in The Dave Campbell Texas Football book and TexPreps.com. He was MVP his senior year. He was a three-star athlete excelling in

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

and in

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

College career

After high school, Bell originally signed with

(UTEP) on a football scholarship, but he would end up attending

where he continued his football career. He red-shirted as a freshman in 2005 season. He was considered a contender for starting

cornerback A cornerback (CB) is a member of the defensive backfield or secondary in gridiron football. Cornerbacks cover Wide receiver, receivers most of the time, but also blitz and defend against such Play from scrimmage, offensive running plays as sweep ...

his redshirt freshman season. He compiled 70 tackles and 10 interceptions in two years at Bakersfield. In December 2007, Bell committed to

Kansas State University Kansas State University (KSU, Kansas State, or K-State) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university with its main campus in Manhattan, Kansas, United States. It was opened as the state's land-grant coll ...

to continue his football career. Upon graduation from Bakersfield, Bell enrolled at UTEP as a Multidisciplinary Studies major. Bell began his senior season as a backup for the Miners.

Professional career

Tri-Cities Fever

Bell played a big part in the

Tri-Cities Fever The Tri-Cities Fever was a professional indoor American football, indoor football franchise based in Kennewick, Washington. The Fever joined National Indoor Football League (NIFL) in 2005 as an expansion team. The Fever were owned by Teri Carr. ...

, of the

Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional indoor American football league in the United States. The league comprises 14 teams, divided equally between the Eastern Conference (EC) and Western Conference ...

, making it to the

United Bowl United Bowl may refer to: * The championship game of the former United Indoor Football league from 2005 to 2008 * The championship game of the Indoor Football League, which acquired UIF, from 2009 to the present * The proposed name of the 2009 UFL ...

Cleveland Gladiators

In 2012, Bell played for the

Cleveland Gladiators The Cleveland Gladiators were an arena football team based in Cleveland, Ohio, and members of the Arena Football League (AFL). The Gladiators played their home games at Quicken Loans Arena, which they shared with the Cleveland Cavaliers of the ...

of the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

New Orleans VooDoo

Bell signed with the

New Orleans VooDoo The New Orleans VooDoo were a professional arena football team based in New Orleans, Louisiana. They were members of the Arena Football League from 2004 to 2015. The VooDoo were the second team to play in the Arena Football League and play in ...

for the 2013 season. Bell was reassigned before the season began.

Return to Tri-Cities

Bell re-signed with the Fever for the 2014 season.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bell, Dustin UTEP Miners football players Living people Tri-Cities Fever players Cleveland Gladiators players New Orleans VooDoo players 1987 births American football defensive backs