Bailey won't let kidney ailment slow him down
One morning a couple of years ago, Jayce Bailey woke up with an aching pain in one of his toes, which seemed unusual for someone who was a slender high school sophomore at the time.
But the pain turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
Bailey’s gout went away, then resurfaced days later. A doctor recommended a visit to a kidney specialist.
The diagnosis?
“I have stage 2 kidney disease,” said Bailey, now a senior outfielder at Coeur d’Alene High. “I was born with it. It’s hereditary on my father’s side.”
There are five stages of kidney disease — stage 1 being the most mild stage, stage 5 being the worst. At his stage, his kidneys function between 60 and 89 percent of normal.
However, it took his bout with gout to trigger the tests that revealed the disease. Otherwise ...
“If we hadn’t found out, he could have been at stage 3, gone into kidney failure and needed a transplant,” said Michael Bailey, Jayce’s father. “The gout gave us the opportunity to find out that he had an issue.”
COMPLICATING MATTERS is that Jayce Bailey is a Division I baseball player, having signed a letter of intent a couple of weeks ago with Boise State.
Most of the things kids would be allowed to put in their body to get bigger were no-nos to Bailey.
“With kidney disease, it’s hard to put on weight because of not having protein,” Jayce said.
“That was always kind of a curious thing. He works out a lot, and he wasn’t putting on weight,” Coeur d’Alene baseball coach Nick Mahin said. “The early signs that I saw was he thought he just had gout, kept having toe issues, but that’s what put the doctors on to what’s happening.”
Prior to the diagnosis, Jayce’s diet was much like the diet of other teenagers — hamburgers, pop, Red Bull, bacon, you name it.
So much for that. Protein was pretty much out. He drinks water — lots of it; upwards of a gallon a day.
“I can eat like 4 ounces a day of red meat,” Jayce said. “I can eat small doses of chicken; chicken is mainly my source of meat.
We’re trying some vegan protein. We’ve met with lots of dietary specialists, and found a diet that works for me. I gained 10 pounds in about a month.”
Still, at 6-foot-3 1/2 inches tall, he still weights just 165 pounds.
“That’s a tough kid out there,” said Caleb Beggerly, also a senior and his baseball teammate at Coeur d’Alene. “I’ve always been impressed by him. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him complain. He has all that stuff going on and he doesn’t complain; he just keeps working. He definitely deserves Boise State; they’re lucky to have him.”
DESPITE ALL that, Bailey continued progressing as a baseball player, born here and raised in Hayden.
He played on a Hayden Little League all-star team that won a state 11-and-under title. The next year, Hayden lost to eventual state champion Post Falls in the 12U division; Post Falls went on to play in the Little League Northwest Regional in San Bernardino, Calif.
Bailey then played several years of travel baseball.
He was a competitive ski racer until he gave that up at age 12 to focus on baseball.
During the fall of his junior and senior years, Bailey earned a spot on the Idaho Cubs, a Boise-based club team that plays throughout the fall against junior colleges in the Northwest.
The head of the Idaho Cubs is Gary Van Tol, who will coach the resurrected Boise State program, which discontinued play following the 1980 season, and which won’t begin play again until the 2020 season.
“He saw us in a tournament or two in the fall,” Bailey said.
Bailey attracted recruiting interest from several junior colleges, including Community Colleges of Spokane, Yakima Valley and College of Southern Idaho, as well as Division III Pacific University and Division II Northwest Nazarene.
Boise State was his first Division I offer; he had a walk-on offer from the University of Washington.
Bailey chose to sign with Boise State, in part because of the relationship he’s built with Van Tol.
His plan is to attend Boise State this coming school year, training during what will essentially be his redshirt year. In fall 2019, the Broncos will actually begin with fall ball games, then play their first regular season in the spring of ’20, on a field which has yet to be built.
Bailey had the option of playing at a junior college this fall, but that would have burned one of his four seasons of college eligibility.
“I think it’s very neat to be a first-time program; it’s definitely cool,” Bailey said. “I think Boise needs something like that in their town with baseball. I think it’s going to be a great new thing for Boise.”
BAILEY WAS a catcher for the Vikings up until a couple years ago, when he hit a growth spurt and sprouted up 6-7 inches in a year.
“So catching was probably not the best position for him, because of how fast he is,” said Mahin, in his third season as Viking coach. “But put him in the outfield and he’s done a real good job working, and trusting the process, and obviously people noticed.”
Early on, speed was Bailey’s strength. Now, he’s developing into a power hitter.
“He might be a five-tool player at the end of the day,” said Mahin, who played at Cal State Fullerton, then played 8 1/2 seasons of pro ball, in the minors and in independent ball. “I started him in left field, and he wasn’t as comfortable. When you’ve got a kid that can fly, you just put him in the middle of the field, and the instincts start growing on him. He’s saved a lot of runs for us this year.”
The soft-spoken Bailey leads more by example.
“Jayce does a really good job of not letting things affect him,” Mahin said. “He’s not a pitcher, so to speak, but I like pitching him because he never lets the moment get bigger than what it is.”
Mahin and Jayce’s father both praise Jayce’s hard work.
“The kids that have the work ethic are the ones that are going to have the opportunity to shine at the next level,” Mahin said. “And Jayce has a bright future ahead of him, despite everything.”
Mark Nelke is sports editor of The Press. He can be reached at 664-8176, Ext. 2019, or via email at mnelke@cdapress.com. Follow him on Twitter@CdAPressSports.