Wearing green means tons to Birds' Bailey: He reflects on time with basketball program

SEE JUSTIN BAILEY VIDEO INTERVIEW:

WOOD RIVER – Friday night's Piasa Southwestern 45-37 loss to Trenton Wesclin in the IHSA Class 2A East Alton-Wood River Regional final brought to an end the high school careers of four seniors that Piasa coach Jason Darr said: “have taken our basketball program to another level.”

Justin Bailey, Caleb Robinson, Cayden Heyen and Ben Lowis all saw their high school basketball days finish together recently. The memories and achievements of these four seniors will live on with them wherever they go in their lives.

“We all worked together as a team and jelled together,” Bailey said following his last game in a Piasa Birds uniform. “You couldn't ask for a better group of teammates; I've been playing with them since I was five years old and I love every one of them.”

The past four years with the Piasa Birds have certainly made many memories for Bailey and his fellow seniors. “There's been plenty of them,” Bailey said of the memories made, “and all four years have been great – you couldn't ask for better teams each of the last four years. We all worked hard and had a great coach – it was amazing.”

Being a part of the Southwestern program has meant much to Bailey. “It's meant a lot to me,” Bailey said. “I grew up here, lived here all my life in this school district. I've been playing basketball since I could hold a ball and grew up around the sport; my dad was a coach.

“From winning back-to-back regionals and sectionals when I was in middle school to make it to three regional championships in high school – it means a lot to me, and to do it as a Piasa Bird – you couldn't ask for a better team, a better program, and a better coach. It was amazing.

“Wearing the green and gold meant a lot to me.”

From here, Bailey will be looking at colleges to go to but has not selected one as of yet. “Just taking it one step at a time, I guess,” Bailey said of what he will do, “looking at colleges, seeing what goes down from there – just move on and go through my life.”

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