Former Canadian Football League QB Signs With Intense Football League

To say the CenTex Barracudas have had issues at quarterback in the past would be an extreme understatement.
Last season, the Barracudas had the worst completion percentage in the Intense Football League and had the third-worst passing offense.
Now, the Barracudas are excited about their season after introducing former standout Baylor quarterback Shawn Bell on Thursday at a press conference at Crab Daddy’s. The team had already signed Bart Gloyd, who looks to be the starter.
“Not one quarterback we’ve had is the caliber of these two,” Barracudas director of player personnel Byron Wilkerson said. “If we had either one of these guys last year we’d have been a much better team. That’s why we are all pumped around here.”
Bell, a China Spring product who graduated from Baylor in 2006, set the Bears’ career record with 38 touchdown passes and threw for 5,666 yards, second-best in Baylor history.
After Baylor, Bell spent time with the Canadian Football League and was going to play this year in a new league called the All-American Football League, an outdoor league with teams in six states. But the league failed to launch because of financial issues, and Bell headed back to his Central Texas roots.
“I was born at Scott & White (Hospital),” he said. “I have lived in China Spring and Rosebud-Lott and have family in Killeen. So with all my friends and family here it was a good opportunity to be part of a great organization.”
As son of China Spring coach Mark Bell (also a former Rosebud-Lott and Lampasas coach), Shawn has been around football his entire life but knows he’s getting into a whole new experience in the indoor game.
“I think fundamentally it’s the same thing,” he said. “It’s still dropping back making quick throws. I did that at Baylor. But at the same time it’s totally different. You have to get adjusted to quicker routes, quicker timing. Luckily Bart has been around the game a while and I can learn a lot from him.”
Gloyd was a backup in 2006 with the Odessa Roughnecks and was with the Mississippi Mudcats, another indoor team, last season.
“They’re both smart quarterbacks, real students of the game,” Barracudas first-year coach Chris Duliban said. “They love the game and play for the love of it. It’s very important to have a leader that’s like that. They are very similar guys.
“Our biggest challenge and our top priority was to find that leader. We want to find quality guys across the board who love the game and have that team and family mentality. Because you can have the best athletes in the world, but in football you have to be team-oriented first in order to go anywhere.”
Bell is familiar with a couple of the players on his new team, including Olan Coleman and Cameron Yoe graduate Roderick Knight, who had met each other several times in high school.
Bell is impressed with his new teammates and says that after he gets down the timing down his job will be simple.
“We just try to spread it out, make quick throws to get the ball into people’s hands,” he said. “Let Olan and Kendrick (Wade) and the playmakers do what they do.”