STRINGER ADDS NEW TITLES

Bailey Stringer has chased a lot of titles in her life. Others have chased her.

Since the end of the 2020-2021 school year Stringer has added a couple of titles, one being the head coach of the Lady Cat volleyball program.

The only head coach.

Stringer – then Bailey Bunch, she was married in June to add the Mrs. Stringer title to her collection – came to the Booneville School District as the junior high and seventh grade head coach for volleyball as well as junior high head track coach last summer.

When former senior high head coach McKenzie Morris left the district after the school year Stringer was promoted to the top job for senior high as well. She kept all the other titles too, and still oversees some elementary school physical education classes.

Stringer is no stranger to titles when it comes to volleyball. As a junior at Mena High School, Stringer and her teammates lost a championship match to Valley View, after the Blazers had dropped from Class 5A to 4A.

“I was in the state finals for volleyball and softball, and we lost both,” said Stringer. “My senior year – 2014 fall – we won state in volleyball and (later) won state in softball. We had a bitter taste in our mouth after our junior year.

“(Losing) two of them wasn’t fun. One was like ‘ok that stinks,’ but two, was like we were fired up quick.”

With Stringer away in college Mena continued its run with another title run in softball and another runner-up in volleyball.

Fast forward a couple of years, Stringer has played two years at Crowder College in Neosho, Mo., before transferring to Arkansas Tech in Russellville.

“From high school I wanted to go where I could get everything paid,” Stringer explained the recruitment choice. “I don’t care about the labels. I don’t care about D1, D2, JUCO. If I’m getting to play a sport I love, actually play it – not sitting the bench – and I didn’t want to make my parents pay, I didn’t want to get student loans and get in debt over it.”

The coach at Crowder offered a full ride.

“He came up to me and said ‘I’ll pay for everything.’ I said, where do I sign,” said Stringer.

Stringer had already tried her hand at coaching, having worked with Club Velocity travel ball team while in high school, and while in college at Crowder she started coaching a 7- and 8-year old club team at a YMCA near the campus.

After leaving the D1 JUCO in Neosho, a team that was successful, Stringer would collect two more titles playing second base for the Golden Suns teams that won back-to-back Great American Conference tournaments.

“There were three of us that came from Crowder together. We won the first conference tournament in Tech history and got rings. It was super exciting,” said Stringer.

From there was a regional appearance in Minnesota where a semifinal loss fueled another fire.

“Senior year we again won the GAC tournament, there wasn’t one the next year because of COVID, but they won it again this year so they’re kind of on a roll over there,” said Bunch.

She would like to start a roll like that here, and says she has the personnel to make things interesting, despite playing in a conference that boasts two previous state champions.

The senior high roster is 24 strong – there are 18 in junior high and 25 seventh grade players.

I’ll play about nine on a starting lineup, which leaves two sets of nine plus a few extra in case of injury,” said Stringer.

There are seven seniors.

“We’re going to have an experienced team, mixed in with a couple of juniors,” she said. “We also have a couple of juniors who are as good but I just don’t have a place for them.”

Among the seniors are Hayley Lunsford, a libero last year and Joleigh Tate.

“This year she is going to pretty much be our setter and hitting. She’s going to play all the way around. She’s a very smart volleyball player. She sees the court really well,” Stringer said of Lunsford. “Jo is on fire right now when it comes to hitting.
She’s big up at the net.”

Like any volleyball coach, Stringer is happy to have taller girls.
We have a lot of height. I’m going to use a lot of height,” Stringer continues.

“We’ll put tall people on the front every chance I get. I told the girls the other day you’re not going to have set spot. You’re not going to just be a middle, just be an outside, just be a backside, you’re going to be all.

“I don’t want someone to be like ‘Booneville only has one good middle.' No, Booneville has five good middles, six good middles that will come at you at any time. I think that’s going to make us stronger.”

Among those up front are Karmen Kent and Abby O’Bar. Stringer said Kent played a lot as a sophomore and will play as much as a junior.

“Abby was good last year. She’s better now,” Stringer said.
“Playing hard and aggressive, everything is 110 percent when she swings. There’s no half swings, she’s trying to kill it and I love that mentality.”

The back row will feature Halee Villarreal, Katelynn Spain, and Paisley Vickers, all seniors, as well as Teagen McMaster, Sara Ulmer, and Camdyn Dove, all juniors.

“I have a lot of good puzzle pieces, I’ve just got to find the ones that make the best picture for us as a team,” said Stringer. “I’ve seen this group grow more together this past year with offseason than when I first walked in.

“Now I see they want the team success. They get excited, they have fun. It’s fun to watch, it’s fun to see them compete. I told them when we walk in the gym I want (opponents) to think ‘hey there’s Booneville.’ I want them to think hey there’s Booneville. They may not be the best as in they may not be ranked the highest – we have Paris and Hackett in our conference and they get a lot of publicity – but we’re going to compete because we’re scrappy, we have heart, and we go as hard as we possibly can. I think that group has all of that 100 percent.”

While at Tech Stringer also met her now husband, Brayden about four years ago.

“He played football at Tech. He was a punt returner, kick returner and I played softball. We met in a training room, kind of through mutual friends. I walked out to my car and he knocked on the window. I guess the rest is history,” Stringer said.

Because Brayden Stringer would embark on a career with Edward Jones through their office in Greenwood, the then Bailey Bunch applied for only one job before the 2020-2021 school year: in Booneville. It was listed as a head coaching job, which she believed to be a long shot, but was happy when she was added to the staff as an assistant.

Though not necessarily another title, the head coaching role has brought on some new responsibilities for Stringer.

“When you get into coaching you get into things you didn’t think about when you were playing. Like I didn’t think about getting officials or getting concession stand workers,” said Stringer. “Now that I’m alone I’m trying to make all these lists because I don’t want to forget anything.”

Before any of her current titles, Stringer had the title of youngest child to Laura and Joe Bunch, the later who played football for and coached at Mena – winning a state title in 1976 – as well as serving as the school’s athletic director.

“It was really fun growing up in they gym, in the fieldhouse. It’s fun being a coach’s kid. Being around it all the time I just have a love for sport,” said Stringer. “He’s very competitive.”