Dominant 13-year-old PA softball pitcher back on her feet

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During her early childhood in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Dana Bell couldn’t stand on her own two feet. She sustained four broken ankles. She underwent ankle reconstruction. She was in and out of casts for more than a year. She required three months of intense physical therapy. And she had to be wheeled around kindergarten in a stroller.

Playing competitive sports was out of the question, doctors said.

Today, Dana is one of the premier young softball pitchers in the Northeast. A 2021 National Scouting Report prospect, she is the star player on the Horsham (Pa.) Banshees, a 12U tournament team ranked in the nation’s Top 50 by FloSoftball. She also was chosen as a “Direct Select” for one of the 12U Northeast Region teams that will participate in the second annual USA Elite Futures All American Games this summer in Kissimmee, Fla.

“Dana is the clear leader of our team,” Banshees head coach Dave Myers said. “She, in my humble opinion, is the very best pitcher in our area. … She is also our cleanup hitter and, for the last three years, has led our team in key offensive categories such as home runs and RBIs.

“Most importantly, she is one of the nicest kids I have ever met. She is humble and has a great personality. In the classroom, she gets perfect grades as well. My assumption is that she’ll be high up on one of your Hot 100 lists someday.”

Good thing her parents, Robert and Lisa, didn’t follow doctors orders.

Dana, who recently turned 13, suffered from Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder. She also had hyper-flexibility in her joints. Doctors told her to stick to competitive swimming, her favorite sport growing up, because it was the least endangering sport to her body.

But her parents wanted more for her.

“We wanted to fight the odds,” her mother, Lisa, said. “We wanted her to live like a normal kid.”

At 6, Dana began playing T-Ball. She loved it. Then she progressed to rec ball. She loved it. Then she moved up to CYO ball. She loved it.

“The team had no pitchers, so the coach asked Dana if she would like to try,” Lisa said. “She kept throwing the ball right over the plate.”

A standout pitcher was born.

“By the time she was 9, we knew she had talent,” Lisa said. “We started her in travel ball and then tournament ball.”

However, after her first season with the Banshees, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome reared its ugly head again. Dana suffered a flare-up of her joints. Her hands, wrists and fingers swelled up. As a precautionary measure, she wore a cast on her pitching hand for three weeks.

Fortunately for Dana, she has experienced no further setbacks. Despite pitching as many as four games in a day, she has survived and thrived.

“It’s almost a miracle — touch wood — that she has been free of flare-ups for the past 2½ years,” Lisa said. “She’s been pitching, hitting, running, sliding, everything.”

During that time, Dana has established herself as one of the most dominant 12U players in the Philadelphia area. A 5-foot-8 right-hander with a 57-mph fastball, she has led the Banshees to a 63-7-1 record and four tournament championships this season. Not only is she the team’s ace pitcher, but also a standout outfielder/first baseman who leads the Banshees in virtually every offensive category.

Ranked No. 1 in her seventh-grade class at St. Charles Borromeo School in Bensalem, Pa., Dana is expected to attend Archbishop Ryan High School in 2017 and pitch in the prestigious Philadelphia Catholic League.

In two weeks, she will participate in a pitchers/catchers camp at the University of Tennessee. Then, after competing in several high-level tournaments, she will travel to Florida in early August for the USA Elite All American Games.

Dana’s ultimate goal is to play NCAA Division I softball.

“She works really hard on all aspects of her game,” Lisa said. “If she continues to progress, I think the sky’s the limit for her.”

 

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