Coach Bailey is a name that not many people know. Coach Bailey is someone who deserves more recognition than he gets, he is one of the most caring, helpful, and supportive coaches I have had the chance to learn from. My goal in writing this story is to inform everyone on how Coach Bailey became the teacher he is today.
Coach Bailey, also known as “Bailey” on the golf team, got his education from MCC, where he studied Liberal Arts, and SUNY Brockport, where he received his bachelor’s and studied Physical Education.
When I asked Coach Bailey if he always wanted to become a PE teacher he responded with, “PE teacher was kinda the backup plan to coaching”, Bailey has always wanted to become a Coach, and being a PE teacher is a bonus, as he states, “I can still help young people with the life skills of things and still use sports as a metaphor for life”.
As very few people know, before becoming a PE teacher at Victor Intermediate School, Bailey was a student teacher here last year. Bailey had to do observation hours throughout college which included him teaching at Holy Cross for elementary, Rush Henrietta Junior High, and then finally student teaching at Victor Senior High School, and our early childhood school.
While Coach Bailey was a student teaching here at Victor he got the chance to work with Coach Potenza and learned many things from her. “She taught me a ton throughout student teaching. One of my favorite things was that she was like a coach and we would sit down after my lessons and almost review game film, she’d be like, ‘Okay this is where we can be better’”. Bailey heard a lot of bad stigmas about student teachers at Victor, “it was my own goal to change the stigma”. Bailey came to Victor with a plan and stuck to it.
Coach Bailey’s decision to stay at Victor goes back a long way. Bailey’s past experiences being a hockey player gave him connections with Coach Sousa, Coach Ferrari, and Coach Vancowenberg, Coach Bailey said “I knew the culture was really good”, and “Culture was a big thing for me”. During our interview, Coach Bailey mentioned that he wanted to work somewhere where he would enjoy the people around him and that place would be Victor.
Bailey loves working with the younger kids. He loves their energy and how they always come into PE class ready to get after it. He loves the motivation that the younger kids bring into the class. “The little kids come fired up” Bailey stated, “you don’t have to motivate them to go in and play floor hockey”.
Bailey states that it’s easier to tame the little kids being fired up versus having to try and get them fired up. He finds that working with the older kids in sports and the younger kids at school is “the best of both worlds”. He enjoys being able to get work done with the little kids but then comes to practice and has real-life conversations with the blogger kids. “It’s not necessarily a challenge, it’s the best of both worlds”.
Bailey is not only a great PE teacher but he is also an amazing Coach, I can speak from experience. There are not many like him and I am glad he chose the Girl’s Golf team over all the other fall sports. When asked what sport he would like to be put with during his student teaching year he said, “Golf is where I can help the most but I’m also willing to learn and figure out a new sport if you need me somewhere else more”, he was then placed with the girls golf team so he would be able to learn from Coach Sousa. “I was ready to come back” relating to his second year coaching the team, “You guys made it a blast, Sousa made it a blast. And like Thursday, I wasn’t having a great day…”
Bailey was told to not even come to the match, he was offered to go and handle his outside problems but he had other plans. “I was like no, I want to see the girls, I need someone to be positive today, so I’m going to go see the girls”. “You guys made it hard not to come back”. Being in this interview, hearing Coach Bailey say that meant a lot to me and I know it meant a lot to our team.
Not only does Bailey enjoy being there but we enjoy having him and we all look forward to seeing him pull up in his golf cart at our match and give us words of encouragement after a bad shot or a bad hole. I can’t count the times he has saved me from breaking down on course from having a bad bad round, and I know others can say the same. He even said he got yelled at by a few of our golfers as he didnt get to see them during one of the matches, that shows a lot about how big of an impact he has had on our entire team, we all look forward to seeing Bailey. Bailey looks forward to being here every day, “… the two main highlights are getting to come to work and doing something that I truly enjoy and truly love, and then getting to go to practice and coach something I truly love and have a passion for”.
Now that we know a little bit about Coach Bailey’s position and Victor let’s get to know him as an individual a little bit better with some quick fun facts. Bailey’s favorite golfer on tour is Rory McIlroy “We’re roughly the same and I saw a lot of me in him”.
His favorite brand of golf balls is ProV 1Xs and TP5 Xs. If he was told to use any three clubs through 9 holes of golf he would choose his driver, 7 iron and putter. And if he could play any course in the world it would be Augusta National. Lastly, he has a few superstitions while playing golf, his pre-shot routine always needs to be the same, “all my ball marks, divot tools, tees, golf ball, they all go in my right pocket. The golf glove always goes in the back left”.
If you have never met Coach Bailey you’re missing out. Bailey deserves to be recognized around our school, he is one of the few coaches I’ve had that have made a long-lasting impact on me as a person. I hope everyone gets the chance to know Bailey, and I’m glad I was able to interview him so others can finally know who he is and how important he is to our school district.
