Top ‘Cat
Bailey had solid first year as Lovington coach
PETER STEIN/NEWS-SUN
Josh Bailey has known the championship feeling enough times as a Lovington football player, track & field athlete and assistant football coach. So watching his football team fall to Artesia in last Saturday’s state 5A quarterfinal at the Bulldog Bowl in Artesia was not easy to take.
Bailey has that championship mentality, has tried to instill it in his players. That, and his Lovington background, were why he seemed like a no-brainer choice to become Lovington head coach last spring when former coach Anthony Gonzales moved on to athletic director and football coaching jobs in Snyder, Texas.
Bailey is blue and white through and through, and he knows just how it feels when the state playoff trophy is blue too. He also understands the pain of falling short of it.
Bailey wrapped Year 1 as Lovington head coach with Saturday’s state 5A quarterfinal loss to the Bulldogs. As he stood on the turf in Artesia, Bailey had a chance to reflect a bit on that season.
“It’s a lot of work,” he said, “but I love it. And I love the kids, they make every single night when I’m up working, or early morning working, worth it. They make all that time and effort worth it. I see them grow and change and develop leadership skills and integrity. There’s not much else in the world that I would prefer doing.”
Coaching those kids was Bailey’s favorite part of the season.
“Yeah, that’s why I do it,” he said with a voice going hoarse from a long five months of coaching, strategizing and running practices. “This is a ministry for me, it’s a calling for me.”
All coaches, whether in their first season or 30th season, would like do-overs in some games or on specific plays. Bailey tries not to sweat that part too much.
“You can always look back on what-ifs and things like that,” he said. “But I believe that we made great decisions and I’m proud us, I’m proud of our coaching staff and I’m proud of our kids. We’re not going to live with regrets.”
Bailey helped Lovington win a state football championship in 2009, and helped the Wildcats win state track & field titles in 2009 and ’10. He played slot receiver on offense, cornerback and safety on defense before deciding to concentrate on receiving his junior and senior seasons. That decision paid off, as Bailey was named an All-State receiver in both of the seasons.
For college, Bailey attended New Mexico State University first, then moved on to Wayland Baptist and became that university’s all-time leading receiver.
Bailey was a natural fit as Wildcats offensive coordinator, and was part of Gonzales’ coaching staff when the ‘Cats won state 4A championships in 2021 and ’23. He replaced Gonzales as head coach last spring, just as the Wildcats were moving up from 4A to 5A, and just when they were having to replace starting quarterback Wyatt Gomez and linebacker Demarcus Thompson – the News-Sun’s 2023 Defensive Player of the Year – among many other key players. Bailey and his staff were still able to coach this year’s team to a 7-5 finish that included a first-round playoff victory over Goddard.
Now Bailey will have his first full offseason as head coach.
“I’ll have to figure that part out,” he said. “I’m excited for the opportunity.”
Perhaps Bailey’s toughest job this offseason will be replacing so many key players from the class of 2025.
“This senior class is extremely special,” Bailey said. “A very, very big class that contributed everywhere, and they’re hard to replace. But we found a way to replace good players last year, and we’re going to have to do the same this year. We’ve got some very, very good players coming back, we just have to put the pieces together.”
