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Bell & Schlau seminar draws Lowcountry youth by Dick Peterson Public Relations Like a pied piper in a yellow Bell & Schlau T-shirt and red, white and blue athletic tights, Joe Gentry led his crowd of 5-to-14-year-olds down about 50 feet of running track. First they all dipped to one knee, then stood up, took a step and dipped to the other knee.  Olympic coach Joe Gentry puts a group of young, would-be track stars through the paces of a running exercise designed to build strength. The exercise builds strength for running. “Doesn’t look very pretty,” came a voice from the crowd. “Pretty?! It’s not s’posed to be pretty!” Gentry’s rebuff was dressed in a drill sergeant’s feigned incredulity, but lacked expletive color. Gentry, Lt. Col. U.S. Army (Retired), Olympic track coach with the Amateur Athletic Association of Thailand and former Vietnam Olympic coach, was among a line-up of world class athletes and coaches who gathered at the Charleston Southern University athletic field March 25 for the Bell & Schlau 2000 Track and Field Seminar and Relays. The annual event introduces Lowcountry youth to the discipline of athletic competition and physical fitness. “We’re trying to point this energy in the right direction,” masters track athlete Walt Lancaster said. Lancaster was up to his armpits—literally—with would-be high jumpers as he arched his back to demonstrate a  winning form. As his youngsters took their turn— “Jump from one foot or be disqualified,” he yelled—others queued up across the field to try what they had been taught about the broad jump. For eight years now, MUSC’s Thaddeus Bell, M.D., and Robert Schlau, a Charleston stock broker, both world class masters athletes, have organized the track and field seminar and relays for Lowcountry youth. “I do it in memory of my son,” Bell said. Thaddeus Bell Jr., died in 1992.