Lafeyette Bell named new boys basketball coach at Marian Central

Jacobs and Marian Central aren’t scheduled to play each other in boys basketball during the 2025-26 season.

If the matchup between the two McHenry County schools happens in the next season or two, it will have a built-in storyline.

Bragging rights will be on the table for the Bell family.

Lafeyette Bell recently was named head boys basketball coach at Marian Central, replacing Rick Peterson, while his basketball-playing sons Elijah and Malachi are the newest members of Jacobs’ basketball team.

Elijah and Malachi Bell are transfers from Harvest Christian Academy in Elgin, where their dad served as head coach of the boys basketball team the past two years. Elijah is a 6-foot-3 guard who was named to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association Class 1A All-State third team as a sophomore last season. Malachi is a 6-1 guard who will be a freshman this fall.

“If I was able to get [Jacobs] on the schedule, that would be a first [time coaching against them],” said Lafeyette, a Lake in the Hills resident, who also has another son, Tayshaun, 20, and twin girls, Kylah and Nylah, 12.

Lafeyette Bell coached Harvest Christian to 21 wins and a Class 1A regional championship in 2024. His 2024-25 team, which had only one senior, won 14 games and lost in the regional finals.

Bell, a two-time all-conference guard for Glenbard West (Class of 2003), is the founder of Fast Basketball Academy, which has been an AAU program since 2015. About nine months ago, he opened an academy in Woodstock off Castle Road.

“The main reason I opened it was because I see in this area that there’s a lack of skills training,” said Bell, who grew up in Glendale Heights and played college ball at Elmhurst and Concordia in Chicago. “I see a bunch of programs that just have kids playing games and having very minimal practices. My expertise is teaching kids the game of basketball. [The Woodstock facility] is a good, centralized location. We really don’t have anything like that in the McHenry County area, so it was just right timing.”

Bell takes over a Marian Central team that went 12-21, including 3-8 (seventh place) in the Chicagoland Christian Conference, in Peterson’s only season. The Hurricanes started 1-8 but finished with three more wins than they did the previous season.

Peterson, who returned to coach Alden-Hebron’s basketball team, has said he’s excited about the potential that last season’s sophomore class showed.

“Marian has had a history of good athletics,” Bell said. “I think there’s an untapped market, especially with us being in Woodstock. We have a big community right in our backyard with Crystal Lake, Huntley, Woodstock. I think there are a lot of athletes out there that just need an opportunity to be coached.”

Bell is Marian’s fourth coach in the past four seasons, following Peterson, Sean Stochl and Charley Walsh.

“We’re young. I like our nucleus,” Bell said. “The biggest thing that we have to focus on at Marian is just the fundamentals, teaching these kids how to win meaningful games.”