Wills heading home to coach at Bell City

BELL CITY -- After spending the past three years coaching at Kelly High School, Nate Wills has decided to accept an offer to become boy's head basketball coach and athletic director at Bell City.

"I'm excited to go home," said Wills, a Bell City native. "It's something I never anticipated doing, but I'm extremely excited about it.

"It's always in the back of my mind that you want to go home and coach and I'm thrilled to death that I'm going to get to work with a lot of kids that grew up the same sort of way I did."

While at Kelly, Wills has guided both the boy's basketball and baseball programs all three years of his tenure.

In his run as basketball coach the Hawks compiled a 23-51 record, going 10-15, 13-14 and 0-22 in those years respectively.

Highlighting his seasons at the head of the baseball program Kelly made a push all the way to the Class 2, District 3 finals last season, where they fell to St. Vincent 6-4.

This season the Hawks are 4-15 through the regular season and seeded eighth going into districts.

With roots already in the Bell City community, Wills see himself as having a good starting point entering the program.

"I think the thing that kind of gives me an edge is that I know those kids," he said. "I know their families and I know what they're capable of and I know how hard I can push them.

"That's the thing. They know that I'm going to come in and get maximum effort out of them."

With the Cubs coming off a 7-16 season and having to adjust to a new coaches system Wills added his expectations for the first year are going to be simple.

"I expect them to work hard, to be dedicated to what we're doing and to have discipline on and off the court," he said.

"Those are the three things we're going to work for is discipline, dedication and hard work. I think if we can have those three things and can establish those early on in our program then we're going to be very successful."

Though looking forward to his new position, Wills said he has enjoyed his time at Kelly.

"The kids here are first rate," he said. "I've had very supportive administration,

"I can't say enough about the kids here. They're going to be very successful out of here.

"They know that I'll always do anything I can for them. They know I'm just a phone call away. It is bittersweet no doubt."