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As a freshman in 2015, Valerie Bell helped the Lynnwood Royals capture the school’s only girls’ basketball state title. That 2014-2015 Royals’ squad won 25 of 27 games and defeated Cleveland 54-42 in the 2015 WIAA 3A state championship game.
Now Bell is back on campus with hopes of leading the Royals back to that level of play and — sometime down the road — to another state title.
Bell is taking over the reins of a Royals’ basketball program that, in addition to a state championship, had great success throughout the mid-2010s but then sunk to a dismal 2-19 record last year.
“I’m ready for the challenge; whatever comes, I’m ready for it,” Bell said. “I want to bring back the old Lynnwood (with) the stands packed.”
Bell was a member of the Royals’ varsity hoops team all four years she was at the school, but had to sit out her entire senior year with a torn ACL.
“It was really disappointing,” Bell said of her 2017-2018 season. “Nobody wants to miss their senior year. But it just made me push harder.”
After graduating from Lynnwood, Bell played two years at Shoreline Community College, leading the Dolphins in scoring during her freshman year with 18.8 points per game average.
Following her time at SCC, Bell transitioned into coaching, first at the middle school level and then more recently as the junior varsity coach at Ballard High School. Now Bell is taking on the role of high school head coach for the first time — and getting to do it at her alma mater.
“It feels great,” Bell said about being back at Lynnwood.
Bell recalls her playing time for the Royals with fondness and is using those memories to help build a blueprint for the current Lynnwood girls basketball program. And she isn’t doing it alone.
“I have Monte (Cooper) with me; she was also part of the state championship team in 2015,” Bell said. “So we’re just trying to bring back the old Lynnwood, those hard practices that are going to pay off. It takes hard practice and dedication and wanting to get better to go to state. It might take us a little while but we’re going to bring that back. And soon you’re going to see us back at state again.”
Conditioning has been a big part of Bell’s early message to her players. She encouraged upperclassmen returning players to lead some early morning conditioning sessions last month before practices could officially begin on Nov. 17 — conditioning sessions that replicated what she went through with the Royals in the mid-2010s.
“I remember running around this whole school, up the stairs, down the stairs,” Bell said. “We were tired but it really paid off in the end. I feel like that’s what made us get to state every year.”
Bell and Cooper haven’t been shy about sharing their state championship experience with the 30-plus student athletes who tried out for the Royals’ girls basketball program this year.
“We’ve told them,” Bell said. “They were a little nervous … they were like, ‘ooh, the state champions are coming; what’s our practices going to look like? Is it going to be a lot of running?’ But I just tell them we’re going to condition, but it’s not going to be something that you don’t want to come back to the next day.”
Bell hopes that, with the big turnout this fall, Lynnwood girls basketball will be able to field not only a varsity and a junior varsity team, but a “C” team as well, something the program hasn’t had in a few years. She also wants to restore a 5th-through-8th-grade feeder program. But for now, Bell is concentrating on improving the athleticism and the skills of the players she has on the Royals’ court.
“I want to teach the girls,” Bell said. “I want the girls to get better at what they want to get better at.”
Bell believes that with a new push for conditioning, improvement in basketball skills and patience with development, this year’s Lynnwood varsity team can show that it is part of a program that has turned the corner and is on the rise again.
“This year, I think, we’re going to surprise people; we’re going to shock people,” Bell said. “I tell the girls that we have to trust the process. We have to trust the process and want to get better and give 100% everyday on the court. That’s how we’re going to get better.”
The 2025-2026 Lynnwood Royals begin the season with three straight home games, opening with a Monday, Dec. 1, matchup against the Kamiak Knights. Tipoff at Lynnwood High School is set for 7:15 p.m.
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