Back home again: Former IU standout Damon Bailey to coach high school team

INDIANAPOLIS -- Bedford North Lawrence didn't have to search far for a new boys basketball coach.\nWhen the Stars were faced with a coaching vacancy, barely three weeks before the start of the new season, they turned to their most famous alum, Damon Bailey, who led the school to the state championship 15 years ago and finished as the greatest scorer in Indiana high school basketball history.\n"Our head coach resigned last week. ... I talked with Damon at length a couple times and he decided he wanted to take it on," Bedford athletic director Jeff Callahan said Tuesday.\nBailey, who was Indiana's high school Mr. Basketball as a senior, played four years at Indiana and was a second-round NBA draft pick by the Indiana Pacers in 1994. He missed his rookie season with an injury, was the Pacers' final cut in 1995 and played the next four years with the Fort Wayne Fury of the CBA.\n"He's lived here in the community since he's been done with basketball," Callahan said. "He owns a business and his wife's from here and now he has three small children, so he's always been around. ... It's always been something that's been in the back probably of everybody's mind, the possibility of him coaching someday."\nBailey, who played at Bedford for former coach Dan Bush, will take over for Mark Ryan, who had coached the Stars the past 10 years. Bedford was 15-6 last season but lost its sectional tourney opener for the third straight year.\nThe hiring of Bailey still must be approved by the district's school board during its meeting Thursday, but that's regarded as only a formality, Callahan said.\n"He can bring a great deal of knowledge of the game of basketball, having played for so many years at so many different levels and for so many good coaches," said Callahan, who was a senior at Bedford when Bailey was a freshman. "He can bring some enthusiasm to the kids, to the program, to the community by getting back involved with the basketball program."\nBailey first gained national attention as an eighth-grader when he was mentioned in the book "Season on the Brink," in which then-IU coach Bob Knight said he was better than any guard Indiana had at that time. Bailey finished with 3,134 career points, still the Indiana high school scoring record, and was named the national high school player of the year.\nHe averaged 19.6 points a game and was a third-team All-American as a senior at Indiana in 1994.\nBailey had his first workout with Bedford on Monday night and is to make his coaching debut in the season-opener Nov. 26 at home against Bloomington North.\n"A lot of kids came out and were excited about it," Callahan said of Bailey's first practice as coach. "I think they're really going to work hard for him and it's going to be a good year."\nA telephone message seeking comment was left for Bailey at his business, a heavy-duty lubricant distributorship.