When Fenwick High School alum Karli Bell had to give up her basketball career following her sophomore year due to a back injury and a severe concussion, she looked for a way to stay involved with athletics. One day while sitting at home watching a Chicago Bears football game, Bell came up with a solution.
“I talked about sports constantly and wanted to make money off of it,” said Bell, a 2012 graduate. “I always enjoyed writing and multimedia with cameras, lighting, and editing, so broadcasting was the perfect blend of those two passions.”
With that in mind, during her junior year, Bell encouraged Fenwick to create a program that would provide hands-on training and experience for students looking to go into broadcasting. That program — now known as the Fenwick Broadcasting Club — continues to this day.
She graduated from Ohio University in 2016. Her first television job was in Hazard, Kentucky at WYMT. She covered high school sports as well as University of Kentucky and other local college sports.
In 2018, Bell, who grew up in Chicago’s Portage Park neighborhood, returned to Illinois, covering high school and college sports at WICS in Springfield. Then two years later, she came back home, joining the brand new Marquee Sports Network, which is owned and operated by the Chicago Cubs of Major League Baseball.
Currently, Bell is a digital producer and editor. She is also a reporter for the Chicago Sky of the WNBA, something she calls a “real life dream.”
“I played with and against current and former WNBA players as a kid in travel ball throughout the city,” Bell said. “I saw firsthand the amount of dedication, effort, and work it takes for these women to make it as a pro athlete, and it’s something I’ve always admired and acknowledged.
“Now, being able to share their journeys and stories on how they got here, what they want to do moving forward, and how they play this beautiful game is something I never take for granted,” she added. “I am so blessed to be in sports and have this be my job every day. I will never lose sight of that.”
In addition to her job with Marquee, Bell stays close to her basketball roots by coaching a sixth-grade girls team in Chicago.
“It’s so rewarding,” she said. “I just saw a social media post about a local school looking for someone to coach their basketball program, and I reached out and said I’d love to help.”
Bell said the girls she had last season were largely inexperienced and needed development at the start. She was pleased with how her team rapidly grew.
“By the end of the season, they were calling out screens and defensive rotations, and drawing up plays that worked,” Bell said. “To see their love for the game grow and witness their IQ growth in each game and practice was so beautiful to watch, and I felt so honored to be part of that.”
Although Bell admits she doesn’t follow Fenwick’s program much, she’s aware of Friars’ head coach Lenae Fergerson and likes what she’s doing.
“A woman coaching the girls program is a great thing to see, especially someone with such a storied professional career,” Bell said. “[Fergerson] absolutely knows how to pull the best out of her players and keep the legacy of Fenwick girls basketball going but with a renewed energy. I’m excited to see her coaching career grow at Fenwick and beyond.”
Bell has some good advice for young women looking to get into broadcasting. The love of writing is a plus, along with developing strong networking skills. Moreover, she said aspiring broadcasters should be knowledgeable about the sport they would like to cover, and also understand the business side of the industry.
Finally, self-confidence goes a long way toward overcoming the early obstacles sure to arise at the start of a broadcasting career.
“There will be hard days and bad days, and having a support system around you is so unbelievably important and impactful,” she said. “You need to have thick skin to deal with the constant criticism you will get as a woman in this industry. Don’t take everything too personal and learn which battles are worth fighting, and only you can figure that out.”