By Brock Sisney (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
Hollister senior guard Kendrick “Bug” Bailey has both one of the best nicknames and 3-point shots in Missouri girls high school basketball.
She’s averaging 23.2 points, five assists, 2.5 steals, four rebounds, and she’s committed only 35 turnovers after her first 21 games this season. The Lady Tigers are 18-3 overall and ranked No. 2 in Class 4 by the Missouri Basketball Coaches Association.
“I coached boys basketball for 20 years and this is my sixth year coaching girls,” Hollister head coach Jimmy Lincoln said. “In all my years, I’ve never had a more unselfish player that has scored as much as she has. A lot of times, she could score 40 a night if she wanted to be selfish. Tonight (against East Newton), there were two or three times she could have been selfish and took the ball to the basket, but instead she made the pass. I had to say, ‘Will you please shoot the ball?’ so we can get ourselves going sometime. That’s a quality (unselfishness) she has.”
Bailey recently surpassed 1,500 career points, during a 55-41 win over Big 8 East rival Springfield Catholic.
“Going into the game, I didn’t know how close I was,” Bailey said. “(Coach Lincoln) knew, but he didn’t tell me, so I had no idea. Then, all of a sudden, I came down and shot a layup and got fouled on it. The bench started yelling and I didn’t know why. The other team was shooting free throws and the announcer announced that I got my 1,500th point. That was the first I knew of it. After the game, they all came out with a little poster that said 1,500 points.”
Bailey scored 25 points during a 63-39 win Thursday over East Newton, her night highlighted by multiple 3-point baskets from NBA range. East Newton defenders continued to give her room to shoot, and Bailey made them pay.
“If I do have enough room, most of the time I hear someone from the bench yelling PULL IT,” Bailey said, “and that just gives me the sign to go for it.”
Back to Bailey’s nickname. Both player and coach told the origin story.
“I got the nickname from (Coach Lincoln) when I was a seventh grader when he came to Omaha (Ark.) as my coach,” Bailey said. “It started out as ‘Waterbug’ because we were going through drills and he couldn’t yell that fast enough, so it shortened to ‘Bug’ because I was about 4-foot-11.”
“She was 4-11 and 69 pounds,” Lincoln said. “She wanted to go play against the varsity, as a seventh grader. It was a good nickname and it’s stuck with her. Most of the people in the Springfield area don’t even know her first name. They just know her as ‘Bug.’”
Lincoln took over the Hollister Lady Tigers program in 2018 and Bailey transferred from Omaha during the summer after her freshman year.
In 2017-18, the season before Lincoln and Bailey entered the program, Hollister finished 6-18 overall. The next season, Hollister improved by nine wins. Last season, Hollister won 17 games. This season, the Lady Tigers are well on their way to passing 20 wins and earning the top seed in the upcoming District 11 tournament.
Bailey signed with NCAA Division II women’s basketball program Harding (Ark.) in November. The Lady Bisons compete in the Great American Conference and qualified for the NCAA Tournament in 2014, 2015 and 2017 with a Final Four appearance in 2017.
“I liked the campus,” Bailey said. “Talking with the coach and the players and seeing their playing style just sealed the deal. It was just a great atmosphere.
“I want to go into physical therapy for athletic training. Stay around sports, stay around basketball if I can and go into that field.”
During times of unrest and upheaval, basketball can take on a deeper meaning.
“It’s just an escape from everything else,” Bailey said. “If you’ve got something else going on, you can go to the gym, you’ve got plenty of time to do whatever you want, you can work on your shot. We go to practice every day and get shots in afterwards. Any time we’re in the gym for P.E and we have extra time, we all just grab a ball and start shooting. At the end of practice, we have to make 50 free throws before we leave.”
