Growing up in a single-parent house, Farragut's Ollie Bailey
looked to his grammar school teacher for guidance in tough times.

Being there for him

--3-20-04--
By Frank Rusnak
    Mark Lee couldn’t help but smile Tuesday night at the United Center as Farragut’s Ollie Bailey celebrated his team’s triumph over Von Steuben to advance to the Class AA Elite Eight.

    Having known Bailey for the past six years, Lee, 36, has been everything from a mentor, friend and father-figure to the hulking 6’8” senior.

    Sitting next to Bailey’s sister and mother among the 14,000 at the game, Lee has seen the complete maturation process of Bailey since he entered his classroom in seventh grade.

    Bailey’s game-high 21 points and nine rebounds helped Farragut advance to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1995. Bailey’s dream of a state title, however, was cut short in a 42-40 quarterfinals loss on Friday to Peoria Central, the defending Class AA champions. Bailey added a team-high 18 points to go along with seven rebounds in the losing effort.

    Win, lose or draw, Lee surly still looks on with proud eyes. After all, when Lee first met Bailey, he was nothing of the man he has become.

    When he first began teaching at Gladstone Elementary on Chicago’s West Side, Lee remembers Bailey as a bad student who was constantly getting into trouble with his classmates.

    “He was the tallest kid in the class, but the least mature,” Lee said. “It probably stemmed from the fact his mother sheltered him so much. She wouldn't allow him to do much at all before or after school, which included being on the basketball team.”

    Lee saw something special in Bailey and two of his classmates: Frank Clair (Leo) and Andrew Ready (Westinghouse). But Bailey received the most attention of the three because of his family situation with his mom being the only parent and them not being in the best of situations financially.

    “I knew that he could go the wrong way if no one was there for him,” Lee said. “I would take him places with me, have him do chores around the house to teach him responsibility, hang out at home with my wife and baby watching a movie, and just be someone he could talk to. He comes to most of my family functions and is considered a member of the family.”

    Combining basketball with education to teach responsibility, Lee and Bailey grew closer and closer.

    “Basically, he's Ollie's mentor,” said Farragut coach Wolf Nelson of Lee. “He shows him how to do things the right way; And I like that. He's just a guy that wants Ollie to succeed and he's not out for anything else, but to see Ollie be successful. Mark has been there for him when no one else was.”

    Not always a star on the basketball court, Bailey got his first start of hoops in eighth grade after his coach had to convince his mom it would be a good idea to allow her son to go out for the team, Bailey said.

    His beginnings on the court were very humble, as were his education early on.

    “He was not a very good student,” Lee said. “But by eight-grade year, he had become one of the top four or five students in eighth grade. He had made the honor roll and was a member of an academic team I coached in which you had to answer questions on Black History. People who had taught him when he was little thought I was crazy to put him on that team and were shocked to see how much he had improved as a person and a student.”

    “In my grammar school year,” said Bailey, “I wasn't as good of a student as now. But Mark started talking to me and told me to take it more serious.”

    Now, committed to Rutgers in New Jersey, Bailey is the proud owner of a 3.5 grade point average. To that, and much more, he thanks Lee.

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