With the COVID-19 outbreak forcing the cancellation of all high school spring sports, local seniors were forced to deal with the abrupt reality that their prep careers were over. A group of these student-athletes were members of the Cincinnati Reds RBI program, many of who were also regulars at the P&G MLB Cincinnati Reds Youth Academy over the years. With our Senior Spotlight Series, the Reds want to recognize these players for their efforts and wish them well in their future endeavors, both on and off the field.

After thinking for months that her softball career was over, Highlands High School graduate Kierigan Bailey has one last chance to play the game that she loves with her teammates. 

Like so many other student-athletes, the news of a cancelled spring season was a devastating blow to Bailey. With the summer season postponed soon after, Bailey was facing the end of the road. College softball was something she always wanted to do, but after injuring her hip, it was no longer a realistic option, so summer league was her last shot to take the field.

“It felt so unfair for the one thing I have been looking forward to for years being taken away at the last second,” she said. “I felt like I needed closure, like one more chance to go play on the field and with some of my best friends. Luckily, I got the second chance with this summer season starting back up. And now that the season is actually happening, I’m not going to waste it. I'm going to make it the best season I have had so far. I can't wait to play again with all my teammates.”

Bailey hasn’t been a part of Reds RBI for long. She had a few friends already playing for RBI, and they told her to try out after her summer league squad folded last year. Bailey did just that and joined the program in 2019. As she and many RBI members have discovered, it doesn’t take long to feel right at home.

“The social side of RBI was very important to me, and all the people I have met through this program are amazing,” she said. “I enjoyed getting to know the players most in the program because you get to meet people from all over Kentucky and Ohio, and I have found some of my best friends through this program.

“My favorite memory is when we had a tournament that was close to home and the night before we all slept over at my house. The next day we got to the field way too early, all got coffees, and we were sliding across the hoods of our cars and jamming to music.”

Bailey’s immediate attention has shifted back to softball, but she knows her future starts this fall. Looking to venture out on her own but stay close to home at a school offering her field of study, Bailey is heading to Western Kentucky University to major in interior design.  

“It was the perfect school for me, has an amazing interior design program and is only about three hours from where I live, which is perfect,” she said. “When I visited the school, it truly felt like home there.”

Bailey has been interested in the interior design business ever since she was a little kid, constantly rearranging her bedroom furniture (much to her parents’ chagrin). She watches all the HGTV shows and absorbed as much information as she could in high school and even took an interior design class where she grew to love the industry even more.

Plus, Bailey’s dad is a contractor, so she already knows exactly what she wants to do for a living.

“After college, I plan on moving back to my hometown in Fort Thomas, Ky., and fixing and reselling all the old homes with my father,” she said.