After Playing Career Cut Short, Bailey Brings Expertise as Coach

CSS Assistant Coach Hosting Spring Skills Camp

PROCTOR, Minn.- St. Scholastica Men’s Hockey Assistant Coach Colin Bailey is spending his offseason teaching kids on-ice fundamentals at his own spring skills camp at the St. Luke’s Sports & Events Center.

“This is my first year doing this, so (I) definitely kind of took a chance on myself,” says Bailey, the founder of Bailey Hockey Development and a Level 4 USA Hockey Certified Coach.

At CSS, Bailey is around student-athletes that have been around the game of hockey their entire lives. However, coaching children requires a lot more patience. “I think coaching kids makes me a better coach,” he says. “You definitely have to be more particular and articulate with what you’re saying. It’s definitely a challenge, but I think it makes you a better coach, and it keeps me on my toes. But I love working with the little ones.”

Like many young hockey players, Bailey had ambitions of competing as long as his body would allow him. But after feeling the effects of multiple concussions, he was forced to end his playing career early. With no clear next step, Bailey started working at a skills camp, which led to another unexpected detour.

“School wasn’t in the cards for me at the time; the brain wasn’t working necessarily the right way,” Bailey explained. “So, I talked to the owner of that camp. I was working with him one day, and he went driving in the city and was gone for a good two hours, I was kind of sitting there twiddling my thumbs, and he comes back, and he said, ‘Hey, I signed you up to coach a bantam team.’ So, you know, at the time, I was pretty upset. But I think that ended up being the best thing that ever happened to me. And I got my start coaching bantams over in Breezy Point, Minnesota.”

From there, Bailey was on the coaching fast track, eventually finding himself in his hometown of Wausau coaching the NA3HL’s Cyclones. “I was 22 when I was when I was named head coach,” says Bailey.  “I was coaching kids that were two years younger than me, and that’s obviously quite a quite a challenge. There was a little bit of trial-by-fire, but it was the best experience and best education from a coaching perspective I could have ever gotten.”

Bailey, now 27, is thankful for the path that led him to becoming a full-time coach. “This is what I’m supposed to be doing in life. I was put on earth to coach hockey and just to be around this and help other young athletes just to get to where they want to be and hopefully make a difference on their lives too.”

Bailey’s swift rise in the coaching ranks is uncommon since there are countless former hockey players competing for those jobs once they’re done playing. But Bailey has advice for those looking to separate themselves from other coaching candidates.

“Some of the best advice I’ve ever gotten is (to) be yourself and chase your passion,” he explained. “If you love what you’re doing every single day and work hard at it too. Good things will happen. I think it’s been a trying profession…The highs are high, and the lows are pretty low. But I love it and I wouldn’t change it for thing. If you chase your passion and just love what you’re doing every single day, it’s not work, and you’ll get to where you want to be.”