Associate Coach

Chanda Bell

Chanda Bell, who works primarily with the pitchers, was named an assistant coach at Indiana on June 26, 2017 and was promoted to associate coach following the 2018 campaign. Bell was a standout pitcher for Kentucky and in 2020 was inducted into the Kentucky Athletics Hall of Fame. 

INDIANA
Bell is entering her seventh season on Indiana’s staff in 2024.

With Bell’s help and guidance, Indiana took a major step forward in a historic 2023 season. Indiana had a 44-18 record while going 18-5 in the Big Ten. The team reached the Big Ten Tournament Final as the No. 2 seed before falling to No. 1 seed Northwestern in a close 2-1 game. The Hoosiers were selected to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2011, claiming the No. 2 seed in the Knoxville Regional. The Hoosiers won two games over No. 3 seed Louisville but fell to No. 1 seed Tennessee in the Regional Final.

Bell’s work with the pitching staff proved to be instrumental in the team’s success as Indiana made strides from the circle. Brianna Copeland posted a 2.88 ERA with a 22-3 record. She struck out 140 batters on the year, as well. Copeland earned NFCA Third-Team All-American honors.

Fellow Hoosier pitcher Heather Johnson also experienced a great season in the circle, going 15-6 on the year with a 3.46 ERA. In 111.1 innings of work, Johnson struck out 51 batters.

In 2022, the Hoosiers posted a 27-22 record while going 11-3 in neutral site games. The team fell in the opening round of the Big Ten Tournament to No. 7 seed Penn State, 2-1.

In the 2021 season the Hoosiers won or split nine of their 12 Big Ten series. They finished fifth in the Big Ten standings and were one game out of fourth. Gabbi Jenkins set the career record for stolen bases with 96 and Emily Goodin finished with 583 career strikeouts, rankings fourth best in program history. Jenkins and Grace Lorsung earned All-Big Ten First Team honors and Goodin and Grayson Radcliffe earned Second Team honors. Four Hoosiers (Jenkins, Goodin, Radcliffe and Bella Norton) earned NFCA All-Region honors. In the classroom the team had a 3.69 GPA, 12 Academic All-Big Ten selections and Jenkins and Radcliffe earned CoSIDA First Team All-District honors. In the circle Goodin pitched her third perfect game and ranked third in the Big Ten in strikeouts for the season with 173. 

In 2020, Bell and the Indiana coaching staff guided the Hoosiers to an overall record of 12-9 over 21 games prior to the premature cancelation of the rest of the season due to the COVID-19 pandemic in spring 2020. Indiana won nine of their last 12 ballgames on the season and earned an initial NCAA RPI ranking of 52 prior to the season’s cancelation. The Hoosiers amassed 138 hits, 90 runs, 75 RBI’s and 55 stolen bases on the shortened season. IU ended the year ranked third nationally in stolen bases per game (2.62) and first in the Big Ten.

Emily Goodin picked up a conference weekly award for IU winning Big Ten Co-Pitcher of the Week after tossing her second career no-hitter against Bucknell on Feb. 21. She was the senior ace of the staff going 10-7, held a 1.76 ERA, registered 111 strikeouts and became the sixth IU pitcher to record multiple no-hitters.

In 2019, Bell and the Indiana coaching staff led the team to its best start in program history (14-0), the best record since 2011 (36-21) and the best non-conference mark since 1986 (26-8). Thanks to the hot start, Indiana earned a spot in the USA Today/NFCA Coaches Poll, the first ranking for the team since 1996. IU would spend six straight weeks ranked, picking up wins against two top-10 teams in No. 6 Georgia (Feb. 10) and at No. 10 LSU (March 1), the first time that has been done at Indiana.

The IU pitching battery combined for 419 strikeouts, which is the fourth-most in a single season at Indiana.

For the second year in a row, pitcher Tara Trainer earned First Team NFCA All-Midwest Region honors as well as All-Big Ten accolades after leaving IU as one of the most decorated pitchers in Indiana history. This season, Trainer posted career-best numbers with a 1.82 ERA, 231 strikeouts and a 26-11 record while earning two Big Ten Pitcher of the Week honors and a College Sports Madness National Player of the Week honor. Trainer graduates second all-time in strikeouts (803), appearances (170) and games started (130). In addition, she is third in career wins (68) and innings pitched (742.0) and fourth in shutouts (19). Trainer became just the fourth Hoosier to be drafted in the National Pro Fastpitch league when she was selected 21st overall by the Aussie Peppers on April 15.

In her first season at Indiana, Bell saw Indiana to a third-place finish in the Big Ten with a 17-6 conference mark. During Big Ten action, the Hoosier pitching staff combined for a 1.55 ERA, compared to a 4.36 mark for its opponents. For the season, IU’s 2.80 ERA is the best for the program since the 2011 campaign.

The IU pitching staff combined for 372 strikeouts in 2018, the second-most in the Big Ten and the fifth-most in a single season in IU history. Indiana was led by junior Tara Trainer, who set new career bests in ERA (2.64), strikeouts (216), wins (17), appearances (45), innings pitched (198.2) and opponent batting average (.199). Trainer twice earned Big Ten Pitcher of the Week honors, including after tossing her second career no-hitter against Penn State on April 22. Trainer also earned First Team All-Big Ten honors, as well as First Team NFCA All-Midwest Region accolades.

MARSHALL
Bell, along with fellow Hoosier assistant coach Kendall Fearn, was a member of Stanton’s staff at Marshall for four seasons. In that stretch, the team posted a winning percentage of .616, the second-best four-year run in program history.

At Marshall, Bell guided right-handed pitcher Jordan Dixon to 32 victories in the circle in 2017, good for third in the country. Dixon earned All-American honors that year.  In addition, Dixon’s 294 strikeouts ranked ninth nationally, marking the third time in her career she finished top 10 in the country in punchouts. Dixon tossed a pair of no-hitters in 2017, including against Western Kentucky in the C-USA Tournament.

Other highlights of Dixon’s career include a program-record 33 victories in 2016 and breaking nearly ever freshman record in 2014, including strikeouts (245), wins (20), games started (41) and appearances (54).

Dixon is just the second C-USA player to finish her career with at least 100 wins and 1,000 strikeouts. In her four years under Bell’s tutelage, Dixon set nearly every Marshall pitching record and finished her career with the most wins, strikeouts, appearances, games started, complete games and innings pitched.

PERSONAL
Setting records of her own in the circle during her playing career at Kentucky, Bell, who is a native of Indianapolis, left the Wildcats as the all-time winningest pitcher and was the first in team history to record 200-plus strikeouts in all four seasons. Additionally, she was the first Wildcat to throw a no-hitter, as well as the first to toss a perfect game. Bell still sits atop the Kentucky record book with 910 career strikeouts and owns three of the top four single-season strikeout marks.

For her career, Bell went 68-44 with six saves and 17 shutouts. She had a career ERA of 2.55 and pitched 910 strikeouts in 724 innings.