Sports

Bailey Hunter spikes to the top in France

Bailey Hunter, in a file photo from May 2013, at Champion Hills.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 27, 2014

Thanks to volleyball, Bailey Hunter had seen the world.

After four years at Hendersonville High School, where she was a three-time state championship MVP, she went on to star on the Georgia Tech volleyball team. Last year she played professional volleyball in Slovakia, and last summer she made the USA national team, which toured China.
Then she settled down, sort of, as a marketing assistant at her college alma mater, running to every sporting event and writing stories, even calling boosters for donations. She loved it. But when she watched Yellow Jacket volleyball games, the fever crept up on her.
"I was still working out, and slowly but surely I started playing and practicing," she said. "If I could get someone to play with me that would be great. But if not I'd go to the gym and play by myself, which some people thought was weird. 'You just play volleyball by yourself?'"
The answer was clear. She wasn't ready to retire.
Then she got a call from her freshman-year Georgia Tech coach, who asked her if she was still interested in professional volleyball in Europe.
"He had a connection with the team I went to," she said. "It was in a beautiful town called Vannes, in the upper west part of France. I loved it. It was not necessarily the best caliber team I've ever been on but it was the best experience. They were the most dedicated hard-working team I've been a part of. They had so many things going against them. I came over to replace a player who blew her knee out."
Then the top player got pregnant and dropped off the team. Throughout most of the year, Vannes was only average. "Then in the last two weeks, the most important part of the season, we just didn't lose," she said. "We made it to the French Cup in Paris."
The team won the French Cup, with Hunter as a front-line leader.
"When they brought me over they were very clear about their expectations and why they were spending so much money bringing in a foreign player," she said. "From the get-go it was very clear they wanted me to come in and take this team to the next level and win the French Cup and wanted me to be a leader. I was so surprised because usually teams in Europe bring Americans in because we have so much spirit and passion when we play but not necessarily to be the leader."
In her varsity career at HHS and at Georgia Tech, Hunter had been a team leader and usually the captain. Last year in Slovakia, "I was actually one of the followers," she said.
Her parents, Alice and Randy Hunter, flew to France, toured the country with Bailey and saw two games.
"It was honestly one of the best vacation experiences that the three of us had together," she said. "I don't know if it was because I'm growing up and maybe it was the last opportunity just the three of us would be together before I get married. I really really loved having them."
Because Vannes won the French Cup, it will move up to the highest league next year.
Hunter, 24, doubts she will go back.
Life — and good things — keep happening to her.
She's getting married in September to Maxwell Randolph, a Georgia Tech swimmer turned triathlete who works for Nike. They live in Dallas. Although she emphasizes that she is "once an athlete always an athlete," she also wants to support her husband. "I would hate to uproot him at this stage," she said.
Unfortunately, the U.S. has no professional volleyball league. So Europe could be in her future again, or she may restart her sports marketing career. "I've played on many continents and played with many people and it's always been my one love," she said. "Volleyball has been so good to me. I can't tell you the opportunities that have come to me through this one sport."