Renard Bell played football for the first time when he was 5, but his love for the game began even earlier.

"It first started when I was about 3 years old. I would watch my brother play flag football and I wanted to play," Bell said. "My dad was one of the coaches on the team so I would run on the field when my brother was practicing, and my dad would have to drag me off. They made me the team water boy for that."

Growing up with his father, mother and older brother in Los Angeles, Renard Bell was no stranger to sports. His father was a football coach and his older brother played quarterback all the way through adolescence, high school and college at Western Michigan University.

Bell said that he played a plethora of positions on the football field, but didn't play wide receiver, his role at Washington State University, until his sophomore year of high school. In addition to football, Bell ran track in high school.

"I would be running track at the University of Houston if I went that route," Bell said. "I received offers to play football from multiple small schools, but WSU was the only Pac-12 school to offer me a spot and I was excited because I wanted to play for the Pac-12 against USC."

Despite his eagerness to play at WSU, Bell found the transition from an urban lifestyle in Los Angeles to a rural existence in Pullman difficult his freshman year.

"I can't lie. The transition sucked," Bell said with a laugh. "I had to get used to not being able to do stuff a lot. In L.A. there are so many options, even if I didn't feel like doing something, but in Pullman the options are vastly limited and if I didn't want to do something, then there was nothing else to do."

Bell said that after a while, Pullman began to grow on him.

"I got kind of used to it though," Bell said. "Mainly the atmosphere of it all. Just being able to go on a hill or go walking one of the mountains to see the trees and views, it's all really nice."
He said he'll probably never experience a transition as crazy as L.A. to Pullman, but he really enjoys the area now.

As he prepares for his final season as a redshirt senior, Bell fondly remembers a fellow teammate taking him under his wing.

"Robert Lewis was someone who I looked at as a motivator since he was around my size and played the same position," Bell said. "Just playing with him, hanging out with him on the weekends was really cool. He looked after me if I ever needed it and I looked up to him for that."

Bell said that as committed as he is to competing, football doesn't define him. He is passionate about his craft, but he has other interests including dancing and watching anime, which he said he's most likely doing if not participating in football activities.

Bell said his goal is to play football beyond college.

"Obviously, I want to play for the NFL, but if not, I'll go play in the CFL, or maybe the XFL, anywhere that gives me the chance to play the game I love," Bell said.