Press Box: Bailey looks to be the right man at the right time for Jays

Scott Bailey was named the head football coach for the Jefferson city Jays on Tuesday after 14 years at Lamar, where he coached the Tigers to seven state championships.
Scott Bailey was named the head football coach for the Jefferson city Jays on Tuesday after 14 years at Lamar, where he coached the Tigers to seven state championships.

It was more than a surprise earlier this month when Terry Walker stepped down after two seasons as head coach of the Jefferson City Jays football program.

And when it was announced last week who would be replacing him? Well...

Timing is everything and the time was right for Scott Bailey, who stepped down last fall after leading Lamar to seven state championships in 14 seasons, to take over leading the Jays.

I had heard through the grapevine a couple of years ago Bailey had expressed interest in the new head coaching position at Capital City High School. Not going to lie, I did a double-take, followed by a triple-take when I heard that.

Why would someone leave one of the most successful programs in Missouri to take a job at a new school with all of the hurdles that come along with that? I believed what I was told, it just didn't make a lot of sense to me.

But then I talked to a successful coach who was interested in a position in another sport at Capital City. They explained the challenge, the opportunity to start a program from scratch and put your personal stamp on it, is what excited them about the position.

And that probably is what interested Bailey in the position as well.

"The Capital City job I thought was a really good job," he said to Jason Strickland in a story that appeared in Thursday's edition of the News Tribune. "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."

Knowing he was interested in the job at Capital City, I told a couple of people after Walker resigned the first call I would make if I was Jefferson City was to Bailey to gauge his enthusiasm.

Did I think he would be interested? Yes. But taking over a position with just a couple of months of preparation before the start of the season? I thought he might want to take a pass for the 2020 season, let an interim coach handle it this fall, then start fresh after the season.

I was wrong. And he is stressing the importance of making the best of the fall season for the seniors.

"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.

And for those people who think, "Yeah, he was successful in Class 2. But this is big-boy football. That run offense isn't going to work in Class 6."

While the run game will be a key part of Jefferson City's offense this fall, it's not going to be three yards and a cloud of rubber pellets out of the artificial turf. I think Bailey knows better than to try to knock a square peg into a round hole, his coaching history shows that. Lamar was winless in Bailey's second season and it taught him something about coaching.

"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," he said.

So tweaks were made and the new round pegs steadily started to fit the round holes.

"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."

Things aren't perfect right now for Jefferson City's football program, the Jays wouldn't be going into this fall with their third head coach in four years if they were. Stories abound about how some of the best athletes in the school are walking the halls during the school day, then heading for home before sports practices begin.

Getting those kids out may be a challenge, but not an insurmountable one.

"In coaching, I think maybe at times you might need to change the leader," Bailey said. "I think the kids need to maybe hear a different voice in order to create that new growth curve."

Athletes like to play on winning teams and Jefferson City has hired a proven winner. Things won't magically turn around this fall, it will take some time.

Bailey may have needed the challenge of "big-boy" football to put the spark back into his coaching career. It will be fun to watch the program develop for the next few years.