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Hernando Today

Dream Come True

Photo by JOE DiCRISTOFALO

Nature Coast’s Kayla Bailey signs to attend and play volleyball at South Florida Community College in Avon Park with her mother Robin Bailey (front row, left) as well (back row, l to r) Nature Coast Head Coach Dan Murphy, South Florida Head Coach Kim Crawford and Nature Coast Athletic Director Travis Lamle.

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By CHRIS BERNHARDT JR.

Hernando Today

Published: January 25, 2009

When the call came during school, Kayla Bailey walked to the bathroom to listen to the message. Then she broke down in tears. They were tears of joy, but the emotion was no less overwhelming.

The news that caused the reaction: South Florida Community College had offered the Nature Coast Technical senior a full two-year scholarship to play volleyball at the Avon Park campus.

"It felt good knowing I'd be the first in my family to go to college and try to finish out college," Bailey said.

No too long ago, the daughter of Spring Hill's David and Robin Bailey didn't even think she'd go to college.

Despite her combination of height (6-foot-1) and talent, she admits she began losing interest in the sport somewhere between her sophomore and junior seasons.

But then schools began showing interest, and a visit to the South Florida campus and a tryout with the team sealed the deal.

"As soon as I got there I loved it," Bailey said. "And when I planned on going to another tryout, I just didn't. I loved the school so much."

It was her mother who set up the tryout with the coach at South Florida. Robin Bailey earned her own volleyball scholarship to Florida Southern College after graduating from Hernando High in 1987.

However, she left college after one year when her mother fell ill and never returned having started up a family.

"It's wonderful," Robin Bailey said of her daughter's signing. "It's what she wanted to do. She worked for it. Once she got it, it made her happy. That's all I wanted."

Committing to the sport

Robin Bailey noted the hard work her daughter had put into volleyball since she started playing it as a seventh-grader at Powell Middle School.

As a freshman at Hernando, Kayla Bailey went as far as to quit the basketball team, totally committing to just one sport.

"I wanted to go all the way in volleyball," Bailey said, "as far as I could go."

She never played varsity volleyball as a freshman at Hernando, and when her family moved to Spring Hill, she transferred to Nature Coast.

During Bailey's three years playing varsity for the Lady Sharks, they went a combined 55-21 and reached the regional playoffs every season.

A two-time All-County selection, Bailey served an invaluable role as a tall middle hitter even as teammate Alex Livengood earned most of the headlines as the county's Player of the Year.

As a senior, Bailey led the team with 69 blocks to go along with 206 kills, third behind Livengood and freshman Courtney Liddle. Her kills went up from 195 as a junior.

"She was our go-to person just like Alex was," Nature Coast Head Coach Dan Murphy said. "Kayla came through for us. We'd set her in the middle and she'd pop it down. At times she made the decisive block that really set the tone."

Bailey actually felt as though she underperformed as a senior, at least compared to her previous two seasons, primarily because of a shoulder injury suffered while playing AAU.

Yet clearly she still did enough to prove herself. Murphy noted that between her size, hitting potential and blocking ability, she had plenty of elements to entice a college coach.

"She's got the potential," Murphy said. "It's going to be a lot of hard work. She says she's up for it and we've seen what she can be at Nature Coast. If she puts her mind to it, she's strong enough. She will be there and do a good job."

Perfect situation

It would seem Bailey will walk into a perfect situation at South Florida based on the personnel already in place.

The coach, Kim Crawford, played in the middle for the Lady Panthers and still holds the school record for blocks in a match (25). Bailey said she'd like to break that mark.

As for the players, one of the things that stood out most to Bailey was the camaraderie of her soon-to-be new teammates.

"Just the team is bonded so closely, I know they'll be able to keep me up," Bailey said. "I took a tour of the campus. I have a thing about leaving home and it felt like home."

In shifting her life to Highlands County, she can at least stay reasonably close to the family that has meant so much to her and that she will try to make even prouder by earning a degree.

"I want to say thank you to my mom and dad and my whole family for supporting me and pushing me through volleyball," Bailey said. "All the times I wanted to quit they got me going to get a scholarship."

BY THE NUMBERS: KAYLA BAILEY
Year Blocks Kills
2008 69* 206
* Denotes team high

Sports writer Chris Bernhardt Jr. can be reached at 352-544-5288 or cbernhardt@hernandotoday.com.

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