STrip: Kenisha Bell Making the Right Moves

Ignatius L Hoops

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http://www.startribune.com/kenisha-...ing-all-the-right-ones-for-gophers/475588593/

Kenisha Bell’s brothers and sisters tell their friends that their point-guard sister is big-time now. They are her biggest fans — a supportive and fun fan club. Of 16.

“They brag about me a lot,” Bell said with a smile. “I just hope they follow my lead and stay out of trouble.”

Trouble was all around Bell and her big family when she was growing up on Chicago’s southside, and safety was the motivation for Kenisha’s mother, Aishia, to move with her four children to Minnesota a decade ago. The decision to split the blended family apart was difficult, but better days were ahead.

Kenisha, the Gophers’ top scorer and playmaker, was named to the All-Big Ten team this week, and several of her 16 siblings have gone to college and played sports as well. Kenisha, a redshirt junior, is on her way to graduating with a communications degree. Before that big life moment, however, comes at least one big basketball moment for Bell: the Big Ten tournament begins Friday for the No. 4 seed Gophers (22-7, 11-5) against fifth-seed Iowa (24-6, 11-5). A strong showing this weekend in Indianapolis will earn the team its first trip to the NCAA tournament in three years.

“It’s easy to get in trouble in Chicago,” Bell said. “That’s why my mom wanted to move away from there, because of the neighborhood we were staying in. It wasn’t really safe. There were a lot of incidents people getting killed by accident. My dad was supportive for her bringing us out there. He felt like it was the best, too.”..



...After she led Bloomington Kennedy to a Class 4A runner-up finish in 2014, Bell went to Marquette to be near her brother in college. Townsend had moved the rest of the family out of the rougher area Bell was raised in, so she got to spend more time with them in Illinois as well.

But after a year, Bell’s heart told her the right place for her was back in the Twin Cities, where she has always felt supported in life and hoops.

“I left everything behind,” Aishia Bell said, “but I wanted my kids to do something better.” She raised four kids in Minnesota and still managed to go back to college to earn her bachelor’s degree in human services. While her mother worked hard at home, Bell said several high school coaches and trainers in Minnesota helped her develop on and off the court, including coaches from North Tartan’s AAU program.

“I have a lot of support system here and coaches who believed in me,” Bell said. “Even when I didn’t really believe in myself, they got me to the point where I would be ready for this kind of environment.”
 




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