Tim Bell

Longtime Marshalltown High School track and cross country coach Tim Bell will be one of six new inductees into the Iowa Association of Track Coaches Hall of Fame at the group’s annual awards banquet in December.

Bell, who was the MHS athletic director for 13 years and the boys cross country coach for 32 years, was honored by Marshalltown High School in September 2017 when the shelter house at the cross country course at Marshalltown Community College was dedicated in his name.

Now he will be mentioned among the state’s all-time greats, too.

“I was very blessed to have had a lot of great runners and a lot of great kids and families,” Bell said after serving as the starter for the Bobcat Invite on Sept. 7, 2017. “We had a pretty good gig going there for a long time with how many times we made it to state and all that, but more importantly I think we had a family approach to things and that was the big thing that I learned.”

The IATC awards banquet will be held in Ames on Dec. 7, where Bell will be joined by former statewide standout athletes Rob Brock of Dubuque Senior, George Saling of Corydon, Ellen Reis of North Linn, Faith Burt from Cedar Falls, and contributor Terry Hersom from the Sioux City Journal.

Bell’s Bobcat boys cross country team made 25 state meet appearances in his tenure. Marshalltown was state runner-up three times and finished in third place three times as well.

Bell was named the state’s cross country Coach of the Year in 1998, the regional Coach of the Year 15 times and CIML Iowa Conference Coach of the Year 11 times.