Maycee Bell

Last updated

Maycee Bell
UNC vs VT (Sep 2023) 088 (Bell).jpg
Bell with North Carolina in 2023
Personal information
Full name Maycee Nicole Bell [1]
Date of birth (2000-09-18) September 18, 2000 (age 23)
Place of birth Wichita, Kansas, U.S.
Height 5 ft 11 in (1.80 m)
Position(s) Defender
Team information
Current team
 NJ/NY Gotham FC
Number 25
College career
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2019–2023 North Carolina Tar Heels 77 (7)
Senior career*
YearsTeamApps(Gls)
2024– NJ/NY Gotham FC 1 (0)
International career
2017–2018 United States U-19 2 (0)
2018–2020 United States U-20 8 (1)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals, correct as of April 20, 2024

Maycee Nicole Bell (born September 18, 2000) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender for NJ/NY Gotham FC of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). Born and raised in Wichita, Kansas, she played college soccer for the North Carolina Tar Heels. She was selected by Gotham in the first round of the 2024 NWSL Draft.

Contents

Early life

Bell was born in Wichita, Kansas, to former college basketball players Brett and Kristy Bell, and has five younger siblings. [1] She began playing soccer as a forward but switched to center back at a youth national team training camp in 2014. [1] She said she partly modeled her game after national team defender Becky Sauerbrunn. [2] She played twelve years of club soccer, including for Sporting Blue Valley of the Elite Clubs National League (ECNL) as captain from 2014 to 2017 and the NC Courage Development Academy. [1] She played one year of high school soccer as a freshman at Trinity Academy, scoring 19 goals at forward in 14 games, and was named Kansas's 2015–16 Gatorade Player of the Year, but missed the playoffs while traveling with the youth national team. [3] [4] She attended three other high schools in Kansas: Blue Valley Southwest, Blue Valley West, and Insight School of Kansas. [1]

College career

Bell began playing for the North Carolina Tar Heels in August 2019. In her first week, she played in two shutout wins, helping limit both opponents to three shots combined and none on goal, and was named Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Defensive Player of the Week. [5] She scored three goals as a freshman, including one in the 2019 ACC tournament final and one to advance in the 2019 NCAA tournament, where the team finished runners-up. [6] [7] She was named ACC Freshman of the Year and second-team All-ACC. [8]

Bell was named to the All-ACC first team after the 2020 regular season, but missed most of the postseason that spring after injuring an ankle and having surgery in March 2021. [1] [9] She rehabbed for two months before returning during the 2020–21 NCAA tournament quarterfinals. [9] As a junior, she was named second-team All-American and first-team All-ACC, but injured her left ankle in the second-to-last match of the 2021 regular season. [10] [11] She tore her left meniscus in the first game of her senior year and sat out the rest of the 2022 season. [12] In the summer before her last college season in 2023, she was named to the roster of the Kansas City Current II, an amateur Women's Premier Soccer League (WPSL) club. [13] She co-captained the North Carolina team as a redshirt senior and was named to the All-ACC second team. [1]

Professional career

Reigning NWSL champions NJ/NY Gotham FC selected Bell with the 14th overall pick in the first round of the 2024 NWSL Draft, their sole pick of the night. [14] [15] She signed a three-year guaranteed contract with the team in February 2024. [16] She made her club debut as a substitute in the 2024 NWSL Challenge Cup on March 15 and made her regular season debut as a substitute in an away loss to the Washington Spirit on April 20. [17] [18]

International career

Bell trained with the United States youth national team beginning at the under-16 level in 2014. [1] She scored for the under-20 team in a friendly in March 2019 and recorded her first assist at the under-20 level at the 2020 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship. [19] [20] She was first called up to train with the senior national team in December 2019 but missed the camp due to injury. [21]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Maycee Bell – Women's Soccer". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics . Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  2. ↑ Musarurwa, Kudzi (March 22, 2024). "Maycee Bell is taking it 'day by day' with Gotham FC". All for XI. SB Nation . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Kansas Girls Soccer POY: Maycee Bell". USA Today High School Sports . May 17, 2016. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  4. ↑ Eldridge, Taylor (May 23, 2016). "Girls soccer quarterfinals: Injury-depleted Derby fights on". The Wichita Eagle . Archived from the original on January 7, 2024.
    Eldridge, Taylor (May 26, 2016). "State girls soccer: Trinity Academy reaches semifinals even with absence of state's best player". The Wichita Eagle. Archived from the original on January 7, 2024.
  5. ↑ "Pitt's West, UNC's Bell Earn ACC Player of the Week Honors". Atlantic Coast Conference. August 27, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  6. ↑ "North Carolina Wins ACC Women's Soccer Championship in Double Overtime". Atlantic Coast Conference. November 10, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2014.
  7. ↑ Lohse, Dave (November 29, 2019). "Tar Heels Persevere To Advance To 29th College Cup". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics . Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  8. ↑ "Bell & Dorrance Win Major ACC Awards". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics. November 7, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  9. 1 2 Bode, Natalie (September 3, 2021). "Fully healthy, North Carolina's Maycee Bell is ready for Stanford (again), another NCAA title run". National Collegiate Athletics Association . Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  10. ↑ "Five Tar Heels Earn All-ACC Honors". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics. November 4, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
    "Three Tar Heels Earn Postseason Accolades". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics. December 10, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  11. ↑ "Dorrance, women's soccer captures 900th program win". University of North Carolina. October 25, 2021. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  12. ↑ Jones, Jody (August 26, 2022). "Women's Soccer Defender Maycee Bell To Miss Remainder Of The Season". goheels.com. University of North Carolina Athletics . Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  13. ↑ "Kansas City Current II prepares for second season in Women's Premier Soccer League". Kansas City Current. June 13, 2023. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  14. ↑ Koh, Michael (January 12, 2024). "Sentnor Picked 1st Overall; 5 Other UNC Women's Soccer Players Selected in NWSL Draft". Chapelboro.com . Retrieved January 13, 2024.
  15. ↑ "2024 NWSL Draft". National Women's Soccer League. Archived from the original on January 15, 2024. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  16. ↑ "Gotham FC Signs Defender Maycee Bell to Multiyear Contract". NJ/NY Gotham FC. February 14, 2024. Retrieved February 14, 2024.
  17. ↑ Chale, Caitlyn (March 15, 2024). "Gotham FC falls to the San Diego Wave in the NWSL Challenge Cup". Skyscraper Blues. Minute Media . Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  18. ↑ "Match Recap: Gotham FC Falls 2–0 to Washington Spirit". NJ/NY Gotham FC. April 20, 2024. Retrieved April 24, 2024.
  19. ↑ "U.S. U-20 Women's National Team ends La Manga event on high note". United States Soccer Federation. March 14, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2024– via SoccerWire.
  20. ↑ "U-20 USWNT Advances to Knockout Stage of World Cup Qualifying With 4-0 Win Vs. Dominican Republic". United States Soccer Federation. February 24, 2020. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
  21. ↑ "Andonovski Names 24-Player Roster For U.S. Women's National Team December Identification Training Camp in Florida". United States Soccer Federation. November 27, 2019. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
    "Five Things to Know About the 2020 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship". United States Soccer Federation. February 20, 2020. Retrieved January 6, 2024.
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