Before Landon Bell headed up to take in the Washington Huskies’ game against the 11th ranked Michigan Spartans, the Liberty High School (Nevada) 6-3, 185-pound receiver was liking he was hearing from the Huskies.
Liberty High School sits just outside of Las Vegas and just 20 minutes its chief rival, Bishop Gorman.
“It’s a rivalry to where we almost don’t like them, but just on the field,” the class of 2024 wideout said. It’s real competitive between the two schools, that’s for sure.”
Often in the shadow of national power Bishop Gorman High School, Liberty has begun to find their footing winning their first football state crown in and then basketball knocked off Bishop Gorman in overtime in last season. The benefit to the nature of the rivalry is that he has become a student of the game.
“The rivalry has made me more mature (as a player) and I’m more disciplined,” the 3-star receiver said. “I watch film to find their tendencies.”
As a team the Patriots breakdown the skill sets for each player and figure out a game plan against the national powerhouse.
“It gets us ready for college because we’re not just going out there and just playing football,” he said.
The preparation goes beyond game-planning as prepare physically and mentally as they would at the collegiate level.
Ultimately, what Bell is looking for from in a college team is the bond that’s similar with his at Liberty. He wants to go somewhere where we can go through life’s struggles, heartaches together and help each other because of the tight brotherhood.
“At the end of the day, we come together, we accept each other’s flaws,” he said. “But we use that tight bond to go out and win a championship together.”
Recently LHS has put several players onto Power 5 conferences with Washington offensive lineman Troy Fautanu, Oregon defenders Anthony James and Sir Mells, as well as Michigan State’s Germie Bernard–all Washington commits before the coaching change at the end of the 2021 football season.
“Those guys are like my big brothers,” Bell said. “They told me that my recruiting process has to be my own journey.”
He and Bernard stay in contact with the Spartan receiver acting as a mentor.
“He’s always checking up on me, letting me know what I need to stay on,” said of his relationship with Bernard. “He told me that colleges would prefer if I could come in early and that I should take summer classes whenever possible to get enrolled before other players.”
Bell saw those efforts come to fruition when Bernard, in the first game of his true freshman season, took the first pass thrown his way 44 yards into the end zone for Michigan State’s first points this season.
While the Huskies held Bernard in check, Bell enjoyed his trip to Washington.
“I’ve never seen anything like Husky Stadium before,” he said. “The atmosphere was crazy.”
