Waynesboro High School football coach Shonn Bell was arrested Saturday night on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence, according to a report on RecentlyBooked.com.
The report details that Bell, 50, was booked at 7:36 p.m., and that the charge is for driving under the influence/blood alcohol level greater than .20.
A conviction on this charge would carry with it a mandatory minimum jail sentence of 10 days and a mandatory minimum fine of $250.
Bell, an NAIA All-American at Clinch Valley College, now UVA-Wise, who played in the NFL in 1996 with the Houston Oilers and 1999 with the San Francisco 49ers, with additional pro football stints in NFL Europe, the Arena Football League and the Indoor Football League, was hired by Waynesboro Public Schools last spring to lead the football program at WHS, after the 2022 and 2023 teams went 1-9 and 0-10.
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In addition to his playing career, Bell’s resume included a three-year period as a wide-receivers coach at United Township High School in East Moline, Ill., and a tenure as the defensive coordinator for the Quad City Raiders, a semi-pro football team in the Quad Cities region in Iowa and Illinois.
It was, by all accounts at the time, a splash hire for WHS activities director Jake Peeling, who said in an April 18, 2024, press release that Bell, a Waynesboro native and alum of Stuarts Draft High School, “is someone I think can inspire our athletes to greatness, instill discipline, and foster a culture of teamwork and resilience.”
“He is not just a football coach but someone who possesses the ability to cultivate character, both on and off the field,” Peeling said.
Two weeks after the hiring was announced, we reported that Bell had pleaded guilty to operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol and interference/resisting arrest charges from 2008 and 2010 in Iowa, and had faced a rape charge in Virginia in 1993 during his sophomore year at Clinch Valley College that was later dismissed.
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Bell was sentenced to 120 days of jail on the 2008 operating a motor vehicle under the influence of alcohol charge, with all but two days suspended, and a year of unsupervised probation, which the court record discharged on Oct. 14, 2010.
In 2010, another Iowa court record indicated that Bell had pleaded guilty to a simple misdemeanor charge of interference/resisting arrest, with the offense date listed as May 29, 2010, the guilty plea being entered on July 12, 2010, and the sentence being a $65 fine.
In 2016, another court record from Iowa lists two misdemeanor charges for Bell – for possession of a controlled substance-first offense, and possession of drug paraphernalia.
The offense date, according to the court record, was April 1, 2016.
Bell was arraigned on May 19, 2016, pleaded not guilty, and both cases were ultimately dismissed on July 22, 2016.
The Iowa court system also has a record of a petition for relief from domestic abuse filed against Bell on Oct. 26, 2016, that was later dismissed on Feb. 1, 2017, and several records related to child support debt, the most recent of those filed on July 17, 2023.
We reached out to Waynesboro Public Schools to ask if these matters involving Bell had come up during the hiring process, and got this response, from Ryan Barber, the assistant superintendent who heads up the human resources office at Waynesboro Public Schools:
“As part of our employment process, searches of the FBI database, Virginia State Police database, and central registry for sex offenders are completed for all employees. Currently, the school division does not know of crimes that would constitute a legal barrier to employment,” Barber said.
The WHS football team finished the 2024 season with an 0-10 record, losing by an average score of 49-13.
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Chris Graham
