Mariah and Morgan Bell have been able to turn back the clock in the past two years, sharing their love for skating in a new way.
BELL SISTERS REUNITE IN DALLAS SUBURB
BY TROY SCHWINDT
Mariah, 28, said.
of the sport and be competitive. It’s also a good push for the girls, because you go 30 minutes down the road and there is another rink with more girls trying to compete, so there is always something to challenge them here, which is nice. There are so many rinks, it always keeps you on your toes.” Like last year when Skate America was held in nearby Allen, Texas, a large contin- gent of skaters from NYTEX plan to attend this year’s event. “I think we even had a suite last year,” Morgan said. “They all go as a big group. There was like 15 walking around. We had a few do the sweeper thing. Mariah and I attended a few sessions together, as well.” Unfortunately for Morgan and Mariah, their time together will be coming to an end in December. Mariah is finishing up her sophomore year in college, where she is majoring in communications and minoring in psychology. She will be moving to Cal- ifornia for a year-long internship with the LA 2028 Olympics. She’ll be working in the communications department. After that, she plans to attend UCLA for two years and finish her degree. “I think communications is great for me,” Mariah said. “… I love talking to peo- ple.” “I’m excited for her,” Morgan said. “Of course, selfishly, I want her to stay and con- tinue helping build this program. She’s been a big tool for us.”
“Moving and coming to Dallas was great. I am near my family. I get to be part of skating still and coaching, and to do that with my sister, is such a cool, full-circle thing, because I started skating because of my sister. To be helping her at her rink is wonderful. I always joke, I’ve never lived so close to a rink as I do now. This is the one time in my life when I don’t need to live close to a rink. I walk to the rink; it takes me maybe two minutes. It’s made coaching nice, especially with the early morning stuff — you just wake up and walk to the rink.” Morgan, 33, is the skating director at the facility, which houses two sheets of ice, a pro shop, a restaurant and many other amenities. “It’s been super special,” Morgan said of being able to spend time with her sister and parents after being apart for many years. “To have everybody so close and to have Mariah bring that extra edge to the girls has been special. I think they are super excited about it. When she first came in, they about lost their minds; she always has lesson requests. It’s been fun to work with her. I feel like I’m constantly learning some- thing new, too.” NYTEX Sports, Morgan said, is an inde- pendently owned facility. A few years ago, it was primarily recreational in scope. “Since then, we’ve been able to incor- porate U.S. Figure Skating into it with Learn to Skate USA. We are able to be in that side
For the past two years, sisters Mor- gan and Mariah Bell have woken up each morning in the condo that they share in North Richland Hills, Texas, near Dallas, and walked across the street to the NYTEX Sports complex, where they teach figure skating to hundreds of children, teens and adults. It’s been a family reunion of sorts. Morgan and Mariah spent their childhoods as competitive figure skaters in the Houston area before eventually moving to Denver when they became more serious about the sport. Morgan went on to become a principal skater with Disney on Ice, performing for seven years as Anna in the production of Frozen . Mariah qualified for nine U.S. Figure Skating Championships at the senior level, becoming a U.S. champion and an Olympi- an in 2022; she placed fourth at the 2022 World Championships. Being apart for most of the last de- cade, Mariah jumped at the chance to join Morgan at NYTEX Sports after she retired from competitive skating in October 2022. The Icing on the cake, their parents, Kendra and Andy, live up the street — about a 10-minute walk — from their girls now. “I really have enjoyed these couple of years, because when you retire, even if you feel you have the next step planned out, it’s really a shock to your system because it’s something you’ve done for your whole life,”
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