Eric Bell Position: Associate Head Coach Experience: 4th Season Alma Mater: College of Wooster (1992)

Eric Bell enters his third season with the Seminole soccer program and first as associate head coach. He spent his first two years as an assistant coach earning a promotion to associate head coach in the spring of 2008. Bell has served as recruiting coordinator in each of his two seasons at Florida State and will continue to garner those responsibilities in his new capacity.

Since his arrival in Tallahassee, Bell has helped guide the Seminoles to back-to-back College Cup appearances including a berth in the school's first national championship game in 2007. In those two years, the Seminoles have compiled an overall record of 36-10-7 while finishing no lower than second place in the Atlantic Coast Conference. Bell has coached the 2007 MAC Hermann Trophy Winner, a pair of national Freshman of the Year, seven All-Americans and a handful of student-athletes who have competed internationally.

As recruiting coordinator, Bell made school history as the 2007 class earned its highest national ranking. The Seminoles were recognized by Soccer Buzz with the nation's second best recruiting class, while grabbing the top spot in the Southeast Region. At the time, both rankings were the highest garnered in program history. Of the 11 freshman, five ranked in the top 150 by Soccer Buzz while Erin McNulty and Sanna Talonen ranked among the nation's top international recruits.

The 2007 class made major contributions to the offensive success of last year's squad which went on to become the highest scoring team in school history as the Seminoles tallied 233 points on 81 goals and 71 assists. The mark shattered the previous record of 188 points (65 goals, 58 assists) set in 2005. Four freshman including Sanna Talonen, Amanda DaCosta, Marissa Kazbour and Rachel Lim finished among the top scorers on the team while Talonen and DaCosta were named National Freshman of the Year by Soccer America and Soccer Buzz, respectively. The freshmen class was responsible for 88 of the 233 points registered in 2007 contributing to 37 percent of the total scoring.

Defensively, Erin McNulty set a trio of freshman single-season records for wins (18), shutouts (8.0) and goals against average (0.94) as the Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada native started all 27 games in goal last season.

In 2008, Bell once again made school history as Soccer Buzz awarded Florida State with the top recruiting class in the nation. The publication ranked six freshmen in the top 40 with five receiving PARADE All-American honors.

Prior to his arrival in Tallahassee, Bell spent four years as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of Illinois. In 2005, he was named NSCAA Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year while working at one of the top soccer programs in the Big Ten. For the past decade, Bell has been an assistant and head coach on both the men's and women's side of the college game. He is a member of the coaching staff for Region II of the Olympic Development Program.

With Bell on staff at Illinois, the Fighting Illini had tremendous success on the field and on the recruiting trail. After going 9-11-1 in 2002, his first year with the Illini, the team went 16-4-2 the very next season en route to posting an overall record of 44-17-7 from 2003-2005. During that span, the Fighting Illini advanced to three straight NCAA Tournaments. In 2004, Illinois made school history advancing to the national quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.

In his role as recruiting coordinator, Bell attracted some of the nation's top talent to Champaign. His 2005 recruiting class was ranked 23rd by SoccerBuzz and his 2006 class was ranked ninth with six signees among the top 200 in the nation. Bell recruited some of the nation's and the world's top players to Illinois in his four years. Freshman Emily Zurrer played for the Canadian U-20 National Team at the CONCACAF qualifying tournament in Mexico in 2006. The defender was named MVP of the 2004 CONCACAF qualifying tournament and three years ago she led Canada to the CONCACAF title and a berth in the 2004 World Championships. Freshman midfielder Marti Desjarlais, brought to Champaign during Bell's tenure as recruiting coordinator, was a three-time NSCAA high school All-American and the only high school All-American on the 2005 team to earn that honor for three straight years.

Bell comes from a strong academic background as well. As the head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania his team compiled a GPA of 3.43 in 2000, the third-highest team GPA in Division II that year. Three years ago, senior Christen Karniski was named an NSCAA/adidas first team scholar All-American at Illinois. Florida State has also seen academic success under Bell posting an overall team GPA of 3.225 during the 2007-08 season. Katrin Schmidt and Kristen van de Ven became the school's first Academic All-Americans earning first team honors by the NSCAA in 2008.

Before coming to Illinois, Bell spent 2001 as an assistant coach for Minnesota's women's soccer team. He organized and directed the soccer booster club for the Golden Gopher program in addition to his regular coaching and recruiting duties. Bell was also involved with the Minnesota Youth Soccer Association as the ODP state team head coach in 2001. Prior to heading to Minnesota, Bell was the head coach at Indiana University of Pennsylvania for the 2000 season.

From 1997-2000, Bell was an assistant coach for both the men's and women's soccer teams at Ashland University in Ohio. While there, he helped the women's team to three consecutive conference titles from 1997-99 and to the NCAA Division II national semifinals in 1998.

Bell is a United States Soccer Federation A Licensed coach and a member of the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. He attended the College of Wooster where he earned a B.A. in 1992. As a player, he led his team to two NCAA Division III tournament appearances in 1989 and 1990 and to a North Coast Athletic Conference title in 1989. He was voted the team's best offensive player following the 1991 season. Bell and his wife, April, were married in May of 2001. They have two children, Malena, 6, and Cameron, 4.