T.R. Bell, the winningest coach in Midwest Conference soccer history and a 2009 inductee into the Forester Athletic Hall of Fame, served as the program's head coach for the 28th year in 2024.
The 2024 Foresters posted an 14-3-3 overall record and claimed their second consecutive Midwest Conference title with a 7-0-1 mark in league play. They qualified for the four-team MWC Tournament for the 22nd time under Bell's direction. Midfielder Anna Hoffman was named MWC Offensive Player of the Year and Annabelle Schroeder was the team's third MWC Newcomer of the Year in the last three seasons. Hoffman was joined by Izzy DeStefano and Anna Gracia as First Team All-MWC selections and all three players also earned United Soccer Coaches All-Region IX accolades. Lake Forest outscored league opponents by a combined score of 33-3 during the regular season.
Bell led Lake Forest to the program's finest season in 2014. The Foresters won their first 21 games of the year, including each of the team's 10 conference contests and both MWC Tournament match-ups. Lake Forest hosted the first two rounds of the NCAA Division III Tournament for the first time and a 2-1 overtime triumph over the College of St. Scholastica was the program's first NCAA Tourney victory. Bell was voted by his peers as the MWC Coach of the Year and was selected by the NSCAA as the NCAA Division III North Region Coach of the Year.
Bell's teams have compiled a 297-169-33 record in his 28-year career, including a 179-48-16 (.770) mark in conference play. He has amassed 80 more victories than any other women's or men's coach in league history and is a five-time MWC Coach of the Year (2003, 2004, 2012, 2014, 2023). Lake Forest captured conference championships in 2001, 2004, 2012, 2014, 2015, 2023, and 2024 and the 2003, 2012, 2014, and 2023 teams reached the NCAA Tournament.
Four different players have earned All-American honors under Bell's direction and Foresters have been named All-Region by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America 26 times during his tenure. Of the team's 100 all-conference selections over the last 28 seasons, 57 have been first team choices and 21 have been freshmen. His players have also been named Academic All-MWC 236 times with a program record 20 of the team's 27 players earning that distinction in 2024-25.
A 9-0 season-opening rout of visiting Wisconsin Lutheran College on September 1, 2015, made Bell the first men's or women's coach at the College to reach 200 career wins. Other milestone victories for Bell include a 3-1 triumph at UW-Whitewater on September 12, 2000, that made him the program's all-time leader in wins. A 1-0 shutout of visiting Monmouth College on October 21, 2006, was the 100th victory in his coaching career.
Bell, a Milwaukee native, graduated in 1996 from Lake Forest College not only with a bachelor of arts degree in sociology and anthropology, but as a two-time First Team All-MWC performer, two-time Forester Most Valuable Player, and four-year starter. Bell ended his playing career with 91 points, which ranks him fifth on the program's all-time scoring list. He is the school's career leader with 35 assists and ranks tied-for-eighth with 28 goals, despite spending his senior year on the defensive side of the field. He also holds the school record for assists in a season with 16 in 1993. During Bell's four-year collegiate career, the Foresters were 63-12-2 (.831), won at least 11 overall and eight MWC games each season, lost just five times in MWC regular season play (34-5-2), and were 4-2-0 in the MWC Tournament along the way to two conference titles (1992, 1995).
Bell's pre-Lake Forest career was highlighted by seven Wisconsin state championships while playing for the Bavarian Club of Milwaukee.
He, his wife Julie, and their children Luke and Olivia reside in nearby Lake Bluff.
