Murray State University Athletics
Williams Completes Coaching Staff With Addition Of Altenhofen, Bell
6/19/2003 12:00:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Lady Racer head coach Joi Williams completed her first-year staff with the addition of Nathan Altenhofen and Tombi Bell.
ALTENHOFEN (pron.: ALT-en-hoe-fen), who will serve as the team's recruiting coordinator, was a talent scout for The All-Star Girls Report and a former recruiting coordinator and defensive coach for Arkansas State. In his tenure at ASU (1999-2002), Altenhofen helped the Lady Indians improve in almost every defensive category in his first season.
His first season saw the Lady Indians set a school record by winning their first seven games of the season, with road wins over nationally-ranked Kansas, propelling ASU to a first-ever Top-25 ranking in the Associated Press poll. Altenhofen's only recruiting class at Arkansas State was ranked nationally in two publications.
Altenhofen, a native of Springfield, Minn., also was the executive director for the 2003 L'adidas All-American Game in Atlanta. He was an AAU girls' coach for five years in Minnesota, where 43 of his players went on to play for NCAA Division I schools. Among those players were Lindsay Whalen, an All-American at Minnesota who was the 2002 Big Ten Player of the Year, and Tera Bjorklund, who plays at Colorado, averaging 24.7 points per game in the 2003 NCAA Championship, and competed on the 2001 USA Junior National Team.
Altenhofen, 32, founded and directed the Minnesota Stars summer program for two years prior to going to Arkansas State. He was a boys' high school coach at Le Sueur-Henderson High School in Le Sueur, Minn., and was a men's assistant coach at Gustavus Adolphus, a Division III college in St. Peter, Minn.
Altenhofen completed his bachelor of general studies degree at Arkansas State. He is engaged to Connie Heard of Jonesboro, Ark.
BELL (first name pron.: TOOM-bee) played collegiate ball at the University of Florida from 1997 to 2001, where she completed her four-year career ranked third in career assists (431), sixth in free throws made (274), seventh in career steals (191) and seventh in career free throws attempted (408). She holds the team record for free throws made in a Southeastern Conference game (13), and had 34 career double-figure scoring games, including 19 in her senior season.
Bell was an All-SEC Second Team honoree in the coaches' ballot and an All-SEC Honorable Mention in the media ballot for the 2000-02 season. She was also awarded the Leadership Award, voted on by teammates, and the Fightin' Gator Hustle Award for taking the most charges, deflections and defensive rebounds. In 1999-2000, her junior season, Bell averaged a conference-high 6.0 assists per game. She was named to the 2001-02 SEC Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll.
Bell was one of 15 seniors selected to play in the 2001 WBCA All-Star Challenge, played in St. Louis, Mo. She was drafted in 2001 by the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA. In 2002, she played on the U.S. Virgin Islands National Team, bolstering the team to a bronze medal in the Caricom Basketball Tournament.
Bell, 24, is a native of Miami, Fla., having been born in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Her older brother, Raja, plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the NBA. Her father, Roger, is the associate athletics director for community relations at the University of Miami.
Bell graduated from Florida with a bachelor of science degree in exercise and sports sciences, with a specialization in sport management.
