# Maycee Bell

Maycee Nicole Bell (born September 18, 2000) is an American professional soccer player who plays as a defender for the North Carolina Courage of the National Women's Soccer League (NWSL). She played college soccer for the North Carolina Tar Heels, where she was named All-ACC four times. She was selected by NJ/NY Gotham FC in the first round of the 2024 NWSL Draft. She represented the United States at the youth international level.

## Early life and college career

Bell was born in Wichita, Kansas, to former college basketball players Brett and Kristy Bell, and has five younger siblings. She began playing soccer as a forward but was converted to center back at her first youth national team training camp in 2014. She said she "realized I loved stopping people from scoring more than I actually loved scoring" and modeled her game partly after national team defender Becky Sauerbrunn.
Bell played one year of high school soccer as a freshman at Trinity Academy, scoring 19 goals at forward in 14 games, and was named Kansas's Gatorade Player of the Year for 2015–16. She moved to the Kansas City area to play year-round with ECNL club Sporting Blue Valley, which she captained from 2014 to 2017, and attended Blue Valley Southwest, Blue Valley West, and Insight School of Kansas. Bell moved to North Carolina in her senior year to play for the North Carolina Courage Academy and would train with the Courage first team during her college off-seasons.

### North Carolina Tar Heels

Bell started for the North Carolina Tar Heels from her first week in 2019, when she was named the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) Defensive Player of the Week. She scored a career-high three goals as a freshman, including one in the ACC tournament final and one during the NCAA tournament, where the team finished runners-up. She was named ACC Freshman of the Year and second-team All-ACC. She was named to the All-ACC first team for fall 2020, and she recovered from ankle surgery to return in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament that spring.
Bell was named first-team All-ACC and second-team All-American as a junior in 2021, though she injured her left ankle in the second-to-last match of the regular season. She sat out her senior year after tearing her meniscus in the first game of the 2022 season. She returned for a fifth year to co-captain North Carolina as a redshirt senior and was named to the All-ACC second team in 2023.

## Club career
### Gotham FC

Reigning NWSL champions NJ/NY Gotham FC selected Bell with the 14th overall pick in the first round of the 2024 NWSL Draft, their sole pick of the night. She was signed to a three-year contract. On March 15, she made her professional debut as a substitute in the NWSL Challenge Cup, a 1–0 loss to the San Diego Wave. She made her first regular-season appearance on April 20, coming in for Bruninha in a 2–1 away defeat to the Washington Spirit. She earned her first start on May 8, taking Bruninha's place in a 1–0 win against the Houston Dash. On June 19, she scored her first professional goal in late stoppage time against the San Diego Wave, finishing off Jenna Nighswonger's cross to secure a 2–1 victory. She started four games in the NWSL x Liga MX Femenil Summer Cup, helping Gotham advance to the final. In half a season with Gotham, she made 13 appearances (7 starts) and scored 1 goal in all competitions.

### North Carolina Courage

On August 21, 2024, Gotham FC traded Bell to the North Carolina Courage for $80,000 in allocation money and $10,000 in intra-league transfer funds. She debuted for her former youth club on September 8, substituting late for Felicitas Rauch in a 4–1 win against the San Diego Wave. She finished her rookie season having made 2 substitute appearances for the Courage.

## International career

Bell trained with the United States youth national team beginning at the under-16 level in 2014. She scored for the under-20 team in a friendly in March 2019 and recorded an assist at the 2020 CONCACAF Women's U-20 Championship, which the United States won. She received her first call-up with the senior national team in December 2019 but had to miss the camp due to injury.

## Honors and awards

Individual
* All-American: 2021 (second team)
* All-ACC: 2020, 2021 (first team); 2019, 2023 (second team)
* ACC Freshman of the Year: 2019
* ACC tournament all-tournament team: 2019