Vonn Bell looked like a finished product the first time he stepped on the field for Ridgeland High in the northwest corner of Georgia. At least to the untrained eye. Bell, a junior transfer from the Chattanooga area, racked up somewhere between 10 and 15 tackles, picked off a pass, even scooped up a fumble and raced for a score that gave Ridgeland a chance in a 17-14 loss to Adairsville. Bell seemed like the bright, breakout star on a disappointing night for the Panthers. Imagine the young safety’s shock when found out a day or two later that he’d graded out at a 38 for the game. “I’ve been coaching for 32 years, and he was one of the best athletes I’d ever seen, but he wasn’t a great football player when he walked on campus,” former Ridgeland coach Mark Mariakis said. “There were so many little things he was doing wrong.” Bell sat down to watch the film in shock. The numbers didn’t seem to match. Then the Ridgeland coaches showed Bell the mistakes he’d made: Bad angles, letting his eyes drift to the wrong part of the field, blown coverages that Bell had made look good by using his freakish physical gifts to recover. Bell, only a junior at the time, took the criticism in stride. “I tell you that story,” Mariakis said. …
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