“THERE aren’t enough days in the week,” says Craigieburn Eagles women’s Division 1 captain Kellie Bailey.
The 25-year-old, about to play in her 250th VBL/Big V game, would probably take up refereeing or any number of other roles with her beloved club if there were more.
Bailey was just a little tacker when she started playing senior basketball. She remembers playing her first game at just 13 1/2 years old.
“There wasn’t too many girls’ teams around at Craigieburn when I started,” she said.
Basketball has grown to become a massive part of Bailey’s life - she has captained the Eagles’ women’s team for the past eight years, won two senior premierships (2006 and 2008), taken out the league’s Golden Hands award in 2007, was most valuable player in the 2008 grand final series and has won the club MVP gong five times.
She has also coached several Craigieburn junior representative teams and is always first to put up her hand to help out at clinics.
One of Bailey’s biggest passions is helping develop young players, and early on in her career she made it a goal to play seniors alongside some of her star pupils.
That goal has been realised, with Bailey now playing alongside up-and-comers such as Haylee Cooper and Olivia Moore, whom she coached when they were under-12s. In fact, Bailey was coaching Cooper when she was only eight.
“They both really developed into fantastic players,” she said.
While this season the Eagles are below halfway on the ladder, and they look a hundred-to-one to make the finals, Bailey says she has not given up hope.
And, she says, it would pay to remember that no one expected the Craigieburn outfits of 2006 and 2008 to even make the finals let alone win championships.
“We do better as the underdogs,” she said.
But it won’t be the end of the world if they do miss the finals because Bailey is excited about the future.
She predicts that within five seasons the Eagles will be playing in Championship Division.
“That’s definitely an aim, and with the talent we’ve got coming through I think it can be achieved,” she said.
Bailey said she had a close relationship with head coach Warren Taylor who, after leading Craigieburn to a premiership in 2008, went and coached Hume City Broncos to glory before returning to the Eagles’ nest this year.
“Yeah, we’ve got a really good relationship as captain and coach,” she said.
“We work really well together.”
With so many seasons still ahead of her, Bailey could reach any number of milestone games.
She acknowledges she feels a little older than she really is.
“There has been quite a bit of player turnover over the seasons,” she said.
“We have quite a few young ones coming through at the moment. There are only a couple of us left (still playing from the 2008 premiership side).
“It doesn’t seem that long but, yeah, I was just a little girl when I started.”
