LocalSportsJournal.com
The first-ever Varsity Blues Athletic Awards Show is hitting the Frauenthal Theater stage on Saturday in downtown Muskegon.
Part of the evening celebrates the excellence of student athletes who play high school volleyball.
The Ed Bailey Volleyball Award is one of 18 special sports crowns for the night that highlights top performances of prep players from the area.
LSJ staff perused new articles, consulted with coaches and athletic directors to come up with nominations for the best athlete in each sport for the current 2023-24 school year.
We did our best to find the very best the area has to offer.
Navea Gauthier – Shelby
Taylor Smaka – Grand Haven
Maddy Vaara – Ludington
We chose Ed Bailey’s name to be on the volleyball award for obvious reasons that are known in the prep volleyball arena.
Ed moved into the area in the 1970s to take a teaching job at Holton, after graduating from Portage Northern High School and Western Michigan University.
That was more than 40 years ago and Bailey is still going strong as the current coach at Muskegon Catholic Central High School.
Bailey spent 14 years at Holton and guided the Red Devils to the 1994 Class C volleyball state title. He was named Coach of the Year for that incredible season.
He coached at Western Michigan Christian for three seasons, Reeths-Puffer for two years and Ravenna for one.
Five times he was lauded as The Muskegon Chronicle Coach of the Year. Bailey also served as an assistant coach under Rick Rykse at Muskegon Community College for two seasons. The Jayhawks were unbeaten in 2020-21.
His passion for the game of volleyball is unmatched in the coaching ranks in this area.
