Iraq War Veteran Preparing to Resume
Football Career at Mississippi State University
JACKSON, Miss.
While many other star high school athletes set their sights on college football, Timmy Bailey signed with a different recruiter — Uncle Sam.
Now, after serving a year in Iraq, the 21-year-old private in the U.S. Army National Guard is back home. And remarkably, four years after Bailey graduated from a tiny high school in the rural Mississippi Delta, the soon-to-be sophomore has attracted more attention from college coaches than ever.
“It’s maturity — I’m not your average recruit,” Bailey says. “I can talk better with the coaches on a one-on-one basis, and they love it.”
Bailey signed a binding letter-of-intent to play linebacker at Mississippi State University on Feb. 1, the first day of the national signing period, and will finally begin the college football career that he had put on hold.
“It’s an amazing story, and he’s an amazing kid who’s not a kid anymore — he’s an amazing man,” says Jeff Horn, his coach at Riverside High School in Avon, Miss.
Bailey was a star tight end and linebacker from the town of Glen Allan (pop. 1,118) who was preparing for his senior season in 2001 when he came to a startling decision. Two days after turning 17 — and unbeknownst to his coach — Bailey volunteered to join the Army National Guard.
“At the time, Coach Horn didn’t know I was going to join, and he really didn’t want me to join,” Bailey says.
