A year ago, Rayville’s Kenny Bell played the role of “other” receiver, opening up the coverage for standout receiver Chris Tolliver and helping the Hornets average nearly 41 points per game.

Now, as the team’s No. 1 receiver, it could be expected that Bell feels the pressure of the position and the weight of the being the offense’s go-to guy.

But with Bell, expect the unexpected.

“I don’t feel pressure,” Bell said. “It’s a team thing. My team comes first and I’m there to help my team out.”

Bell, HSGametime.com’s No. 8 player in the state of Louisiana, will do his best to help Rayville improve on a 9-3 record from 2007. Yet, without a known commodity lining up opposite of him, head coach Bo Barton is getting the receiver ready for whatever he can.

However, even if he’s not lighting up the record books with yards and catches, by taking on double-teams, he’s still helping out.

“We’re preparing him to be double-teamed a lot,” Barton said. “If they’re double-teaming him, we’ve got two other guys that will be one-on-one.”

That doesn’t mean Bell won’t get any passes coming his way.

“If he’s double-teamed, we’ll still throw him the ball,” Barton said. “He’s that dang good.”

Bell runs a 10.4 100-yard spring and is clocked at about a 4.3 in the 40. Barton said he’s the fastest of any player he has coached, including Tolliver and current LSU running back Richard Murphy.

Colleges have taken notice. Everyone in the SEC has offered a scholarship to Bell, as have Michigan, Notre Dame, most schools in the Big 12 Conference, California and Stanford.

But game speed is different from sprint speed, and Bell is just as fast on the field as Barton has every seen.

One play stands out for Barton that hammered home just how fast Bell is.

“I’ll tell you, when something happens on the football field and makes me go, ‘Wow,’ then I know there’s something special,” Barton said. “WE were playing Booker T out of Shreveport for the district championship. We threw a double pass and the pass was to our second string quarterback who can throw it unbelievably far.

“When he turned the ball loose, I thought he overthrow it. When Bell went and got it, I shook my head.”

The play helped Rayville take a 35-28 lead into halftime. The Hornet eventually won 56-35, no doubt thanks to the momentum shift provided by Bell on the play.

“Not too many other wide receivers I know of have speed like me,” Bell said.

Bell will join a cast of Rayville players selected to play big-time college football. And he’ll join Murphy and Tolliver at LSU, to which he committed in early August.

Nevertheless, Bell said he doesn’t feel any pressure to live up to any standards on the athletic field set forth by prior players.

“I don’t try to live up to what they did,” Bell said. “I try to live up to what I can do. I try to learn from what they did to make myself better.”