Oregon basketball player Sofia Bell achieves rare classroom feat

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) -- Jesuit alum Sofia Bell has been finding her way on the Oregon women’s basketball team the past few years, but apparently, she’s found her way around a classroom or two as well.

Bell came into Oregon with enough AP and summer term credits to graduate in three years. But then she asked her advisor a question.

“I basically was like, ‘Could I go any faster?’ She kind of laid out a plan, and it was possible to graduate in two, so I went with it,” said the guard.

You read that right, Sofia Bell graduated Oregon with a business degree with a concentration in finance while playing basketball in just two years.

It wasn’t just fans who were surprised at her accomplishment.

“Now that it’s over I’m kind of looking back like, ‘Wow, I really did that,’” said Bell.

“It’s been really funny. I didn’t tell that many people just because I didn’t know whether I was going to finish or not. I’ve had a bunch of friends text just shocked so I had to explain to them how it happened. Even my grandpa, he didn’t know until recently,” she said.

Sofia will now start getting her master’s at the tender age of 20.

“The sports business MBA is actually a two-year program so it works out, like, perfectly and yeah, it’s super cool that once I’m done with my four years of eligibility, I’ll walk away with a master’s degree,” said Bell.

And as all of this was going on, Oregon women’s basketball head coach Kelly Graves told online blog Duck Territory that he thought Sofia had the best spring of all of his players.

“It means a lot. He’s an awesome coach, and we love him, so to hear those words from him are super special, but I’m just really looking forward to seeing the growth in all of my teammates,” said Bell. “I think we have a really good group coming back.”