On Aug. 29, the Kenyon Department of Athletics, Fitness and Recreation announced that Tommy Bell will be filling the role of interim director of Athletics, Fitness and Recreation. Jill McCartney, who was the former director of Athletics, left the College. Over the summer, Assistant Director of Athletics for Sports Performance Mark Teeples briefly stood in as interim director of Athletics before Bell was chosen to take over on an interim basis for the fall semester.

Bell has spent most of his career in sports administration. He served as assistant athletic director at Northern Illinois University for 11 years, director of athletics at Southern Illinois University for six years, athletic director at Purdue Fort Wayne for six years, director of athletics at Western Illinois University for two years and returned to Southern Illinois University for three more years. Kenyon College found Bell through a company called “The Registry,” which connects educational institutions with qualified professionals and executives.

All of Bell’s work history has been with Division I universities, but according to him, the experience translates relatively well to a DIII college. “I was able to use those institutions and that experience to mirror Kenyon, because the only difference between budgeting here and those institutions is maybe a couple of million dollars that they would dedicate for scholarships and programs, athletics, athletic scholarships,” Bell told the Collegian in an interview. Bell had nothing but praise for the Lowry Center and Kenyon’s facilities, which he said were far ahead of those at many of the DI universities he had worked for.

Bell continuously emphasized Kenyon’s historic athletic program and the significance of his role, as he told the Collegian: “My number one goal is ‘don’t mess it up.’ My thing is just to deliver and do exactly what the College wants and maybe provide some information that may be helpful for the leadership of the College. But just make sure you don’t mess it up, don’t break it.”

The Collegian asked Bell about KenyonFit, the group exercise classes organized by the Lowry Center. These classes are not offered this semester, and the associated website says that the classes are on hiatus until the spring. But the context that has led to this hiatus seems to be lost to time, Bell told the Collegian: “There were a lot of administrative decisions made at the end of the academic years. So the decisions were made, and they are seeing now that there were some voids there.” On May 2, the athletics department sent a student-info email announcing that it would be hiring fitness and recreation instructors for the 2025-26 academic year. Signs point to a staff shortage compounded by McCartney’s departure.

The College is currently conducting a nationwide search for a new director of Athletics, Fitness and Recreation. But, for the fall semester, Bell is excited to fill the role and do what he can for the Kenyon athletics department.