Quinn Bailey is always late.

That’s because there’s no stopping the kid whether it is when he gets the ball on third-and-long or whether he’s trying to make his eight o’clock class.

His head coach at dear old Chadron High, Michael Sandstrom, has Quinn in his class right at the opening bell and his room is right around the corner from the building’s front door. He knows the kid is in the building, just not in his seat, because he can hear him.

“Quinn is such a personable kid,” says Coach Sandstrom, smiling. “We’ll be ready to go and I look out in the hall and he’ll be there talking with our principal and AD, just chatting it up.”

Coach also knows when Quinn makes land in his history class he will mean business, after all the kid is one of those walking encyclopedias, carrying a perfect 4.0. It is about the same thing when he’s in the weight room, on the football field or in the wrestling arena. Quinn’s almost always perfect.

Want proof? You take away that fudging on making it to his classroom seat on time and what you have is a guy with a perfect academic record who is defending two state wrestling championships, most recently with perfect 47-0 record.

And then there’s that one thing. Or as it turns out, those three things.

“I like to call him Ol’ Minus Three,” kids Coach Sandstrom, who you might want to know has been named the state’s teacher of the year and won several national and state awards for his teaching prowess. It also seems he has a pretty good sense of humor...Ol’ Minus Three...

You only tease the ones you love so what goes unsaid in that exchange is that Quinn’s 1,997 rushing yards during his 10-game 2023 season is a school record. Not surprising since he holds basically every rushing record in school history and has a full season remaining in his career.

Don’t you worry none, Quinn knows the score on the yards. If he wasn’t already pretty good in math he’d know he came up three yards short of the 2,000 yard barrier because of his film study, which is immense.

“Our film account logs how much film each player watches and Quinn has two or three times what our other players register, and they are diligent so that is a real tribute to him,” says Coach Sandstrom. “Some college coaches look at his film and question his top end speed but he is getting better all the time and I can’t imagine trying to tackle in him, he’s so strong and so instinctive as a runner.”

That’s pretty much been the case since the day he walked onto a varsity football field. Quinn entered high school behind a steady drumbeat of junior high hype, rising to somewhat mythic standing with all his accomplishments, which included three gold medals in the Best of the West junior high track meet. Kid was varsity ready as a freshman and everybody knew it.

It’s sorta weird to think about it now but Quinn didn’t start his first two games, rather warming up off stage in a couple of JV games. (Which had to be such a delight for those two JV defenses.) Given the chance to start he moved in at running back and linebacker, still his positions today, and was named first-team all-district.

“My goal that year was to start, never be afraid and to prove a point - that I could play,” says Quinn, who has done that and then some. And today he’s 30 pounds heavier, checking in at a sturdy 5-8, 180. “When I did get the chance to start I remember thinking, oh gosh, I made it. Then I knew I needed to make the most of my opportunity.” (did fine, Quinn)

Born in Chadron, Quinn has two older sisters and for fun during the summer he likes to get the lake as often as possible, go hunting and fishing (waterfowl is his fave), and also work on the family farm. Back in the day he was a regular at Chadron State football games, even serving as the team’s ball boy his eighth grade year, but there’s more to the story. His family served as host for a number of CSC football players over the course of time and Quinn not only became their fans but their friends, ope of his most cherished memories.

And he’s had plenty to choose from. The wrestling thing started back when he was five years old but he “didn’t go all gung ho” until his sixth grade year when he started competing in state and national tournaments. Today he is one of the state’s very best, the odds-on favorite to make it three state straight state titles next February.

Quinn does hold a tidy 4.0 GPA and membership in the National Honor Society and in the spring he competes in track, making state in the sprint relays as a freshman and sophomore. He is also a flag football coach in the local youth league and wears No. 21 in football in honor of his father, Kerry Bailey, who played his high school ball at Banner County and college football at Chadron State. CSC is on Quinn’s recruiting radar - he wants to play college football - with Western Colorado another suitor as Quinn “navigates the process.” Once there he pans to study finance with the idea of becoming a financial advisor like Pops.

Last season Quinn rushed for all those yards and his team made the playoffs, which is sort of the baseline for 2024.

“I was blessed to have a great line last season and to have the team trust me with all those carries. I want to do as much as I can for our team as a senior, and that includes getting over 2,000 yards, have us make a serious playoff run. That would be about perfect.” And right on time, too...