Scott Bailey knows what it's like to lose every game in a season. He's also familiar with winning 57 consecutive games and seven straight state championships.
The former Lamar football coach brings that diverse experience to the Capital City as the head coach for the Jefferson City Jays, a program that's won 10 state titles and was inducted into the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame last year.
"Just having the opportunity to go in and try to be a part of helping rebuild that tradition," Bailey said Tuesday night after he was announced as the new coach for the Jays. "How many people get the chance to do that?"
Bailey is the fifth Jays football coach since Pete Adkins' run of 37 years in charge ended in 1994.
Since then, the Jays have made it to at least the state semifinals seven times, including winning a state championship under Ron Cole in 1997.
But Jefferson City last made it to the state semifinals more than a decade ago in 2008, and the Jays' last winning season was in 2016.
Bailey takes over for Terry Walker, who went 6-14 in two seasons with the team.
One of Bailey's priorities is to make the best of his first season for the senior class.
"Create some form of stability for them and whatever we can create success-wise in their senior year, we've got to make sure we get it done," Bailey said.
Bailey has been searching for a place to land after resigning as football coach at his alma mater Lamar after 14 seasons.
Lamar finished last season 10-3, falling 26-14 to Ava in the state quarterfinals.
Bailey, a Lamar native, decided his time at the school had runs its course.
"We've been on the rise with this growth curve for a long period of time and I kind of felt like it was starting to peak and head south," he said. "I felt like the reason for that was I was struggling to have the level of influence on the kids at Lamar that I've had in the past.
"And it bothered me that at one point I could influence them more so than I was doing right now and couldn't really figure out why that was."
Bailey added: "In coaching, I think maybe at times you might need to change the leader. I think the kids need to maybe hear a different voice in order to create that new growth curve."
The Tigers were winless in their second season with Bailey as their coach in 2007, being outscored 387-48 in 10 games.
Bailey admitted he was stubborn during that season, and considers it the worst in the program's history.
"I tried to get our kids to do things that I was very comfortable with and I knew very well, but they weren't capable of doing it," Bailey said.
Just four years later, Lamar won its first of seven consecutive Class 2 state championships.
"Our kids did the stuff that they were good at," Bailey said. "And we created drills and weight room that kind of flow towards what they were just naturally good at.
"How do I come in and help the Jeff City program? I've got to figure out what our kids do well and try to design stuff that is catered to that."
Bailey planned to meet with the team this morning. With the season scheduled to start in a couple months, he wants to develop relationships as quickly as possible.
"The buy-in part from the players almost has to be immediate," Bailey said. " We're going to have to come in and say, look, there's probably certain times in your life where you just have to trust people, and this is one of them. You're gonna have to trust me because we're short on time, so let's get started and see how far we can take this thing."
The Jays will head to Columbia for a Jamboree on Aug. 21. The home opener is Sept. 4 against Hannibal and the first Central Missouri Activities Conference game for the Jays will be Sept. 11 at Rock Bridge.
The Jefferson City Jays and Capital City Cavaliers are scheduled to face each other in Week 5 on Sept. 25.
The first football crosstown showdown between Jefferson City and Helias is scheduled for Week 7 on Oct. 9.
Bailey has had Jefferson City on his radar for a couple years, applying to be the coach at Capital City in 2018.
"The Capital City job I thought was a really good job," Bailey said. "At that time I didn't think I was done at Lamar. I had some kids here I thought really needed me around for some more time."
That time passed and Bailey thinks he's found the spot that's right for him.
"If I couldn't find something that I thought was a good fit I was going to stay at Lamar and work as an assistant," Bailey said. "I never thought I was done coaching. I felt like if I was going to be a head coach again I needed to be at a different school."