Out of harms way

ROGERS -- Coby Bailey's taking advantage of a second chance.

A year ago, he was selling drugs and dodging gunfire in Jackson, Miss. He moved to Rogers to live with his uncle last August, and his life has taken a different turn.

The Rogers High senior started at cornerback in his first varsity high school football game a week ago and is now making A's and B's in school instead of cutting classes.

Bailey, 17, said he decided to make changes in his life when he said someone shot at him outside his father's house in Jackson in July 2017. Bailey recalled the early morning incident vividly. His father had gone to work, and Bailey was walking his dog when he noticed a vehicle moving slowly down the street out of the corner of his eye, he said.

"It was a brown tinted-van. He crept up the street and slowed down a little bit, and I looked and I saw fire come out of the barrel of a gun," Bailey said. "I'm like 'whoa,' my first reaction was to run behind a tree to protect myself.

"I'm just thinking, man, this fast life and this fast money is putting my family in harm's way. That's the consequence you've got to deal with living that life."

Willie Nash, Bailey's uncle, had already been talking with his sister, Bailey's mother, about moving him to Arkansas to get him out of that bad environment. Following the drive-by shooting, Bailey said he was ready to make the move. No police report was filed in the shooting.

The new start came with strict rules, like a curfew. Nash also told his nephew he would also need to buckle down in the classroom if he wanted to participate in athletics.

"He wasn't interested in school," Nash said. "I told him 'We don't bring C's in the house. We maintain A's and B's.' For Coby that was different, but I knew it was attainable."

It has worked out well, but even Bailey wasn't sure early on.

Just attending classes regularly was something he had not done in Mississippi.

"He put me on the A and B plan, I was like 'A and B plan?' I'm coming up here, and I just missed 68 days of school, Unc," Bailey said of Nash's stringent rules. "He said 'You can do whatever you put your mind to. You're not a dumb kid. You can come up here and make A's and B's.' That's what I did."

Just changing addresses did not remove Bailey from the temptation of drugs. He recalled one specific situation where he was put back in a familiar position shortly after he arrived from Mississippi.

He'd only been in Northwest Arkansas a week or so when someone he met invited Bailey to his house after school. Not long after they got to the house, the other person pulled out a marijuana cigarette and lit it.

"I was like 'Naw, man,'" Bailey said. "This has gotta be a test right here. Stop blowing that smoke over here. I don't even want it near me. I made a promise to my uncle, and I was just thinking I was not about to do this."

Bailey was raised in a poverty-stricken area but didn't use that as an excuse as to why he decided to sell drugs.

The lure of quick cash and the independent status it brought was appealing to the young man, and it was something he could not resist, he said.

"I just started wanting more, getting greedy, wanting fast money," Bailey said. "My parents gave me whatever I could ask for, but my mindset, I wanted all the shoes, fancy clothes, watches, phones.

"But now my mom and my uncle gave me to the opportunity to get out, and now I've got to take it and run with it. I can't let nobody down because I got no excuses. I don't have to worry about if I'm gonna eat tonight or where I'm gonna lay my head. I don't have to worry about none of that."

He also got the chance to play football, but that also came with some challenges as well.

Since Bailey's custodial parents didn't live in the Rogers school district, he was ineligible for varsity athletics according to Arkansas Activities Association rules. Instead, he was relegated to playing junior varsity games on Monday nights last year even though he had the talent to be playing on Friday, Rogers coaches said.

Bailey is now eligible by rule since he's lived in the school district for the required 365 days.

Mounties football coach Mike Loyd said there's no question Bailey would have started a year ago, but that didn't deter Bailey. He brings a smile that could light up a room and a personality that can command it, Loyd said. He also has the physical ability to play college football at 5-foot-11 and now almost 170 pounds.

"He's put on 15 or 20 pounds, improved his speed to where he runs a legit 4.5 (seconds) in the 40," said Loyd, a high school and college coaching veteran who also played quarterback in the NFL. "I've had 18 to 20 Division I corners. I think he could develop into that. He could be a really good receiver. I'll use him there at times.

"He's a success story from where he comes from. To have the attitude he has, it's contagious. For a young man to come out every day last year, he knew, I knew, everyone else knew that he could have started as a receiver or a DB. To come out and light up JV games, have fun, elevate us as competitors because he plays like you're supposed to play. That speaks volumes about who he is."

Bailey is grateful to his uncle for showing him another path in life, but he said many others have been helpful, too.

"Up here, he made me see life from a different angle," Bailey said. "It's more than just fast money. It feels great to actually work for something. The coaching staff, teachers, counselors everybody here wants to help you."

He talks with his parents often by phone and admits he misses them. Bailey is the first to acknowledge his actions and the lifestyle he chose are what made the move necessary.

He also wants to show them the progress he's made.

"I got a lot to prove," Bailey said. "They say you've gotta crawl before you can walk. My first year up here I crawled, and now I"m starting to walk. Life doesn't get any better than going from bad to OK to good. That should make you want to love life."

Especially after seeing your life flash before your eyes in a hail of gunfire.

Sports on 09/07/2018