BeaverPoke
Well-known member
Okay I got sick of all the arguing about Marcus Bailey, remembered him and I are "facebook friends" ever since the "Marcus Bailey for Head Coach" facebook group after firing Schroyer.
I messaged him and told him I had a recruiting question about how it all went down and this is what he sent back.
Always glad to help out on a sports argument! It sounds like you are the closest to what actually happened.
Shyatt was coach during my junior year in high school so I never had any contact with him. He did bring in a lot of my teammates though (Josh Davis, Chris McMillan, Ugo and Uche, LeDarion Jones).
My senior year in high school was McClain's first year. And you're right, the only official offer I had throughout that season was from Colorado School of Mines. (I later found out my HS coach had contacted several schools for me but they all said I was not good enough to play at the next level, including BYU. Hahaha!) Anyway, Wyoming had one scholarship left at the end of that season and had a verbal commitment from a pretty big recruit out of Chicago. I think his name was Paul McPherson. But at the last minute, he backed out and ended up going to DePaul. So basically, McClain had one scholarship to fill at the final hour and had been getting a ton of pressure from Wyoming fans to sign at least one local kid. So he called me one day in April of that year (1999) and had my Dad and I meet him in his office. He offered me that final scholarship then and there. So I never walked on. It was an official scholarship offer... kind of. He was basically forced to "take me on." I later found this all out from my teammates. At the time of the signing, they all thought I was a joke and didn't think I deserved to be on the team. But I won them over pretty quick!
Probably more detail than you wanted but that should clear things up.
Take care,
Marcus
I messaged him and told him I had a recruiting question about how it all went down and this is what he sent back.
Always glad to help out on a sports argument! It sounds like you are the closest to what actually happened.
Shyatt was coach during my junior year in high school so I never had any contact with him. He did bring in a lot of my teammates though (Josh Davis, Chris McMillan, Ugo and Uche, LeDarion Jones).
My senior year in high school was McClain's first year. And you're right, the only official offer I had throughout that season was from Colorado School of Mines. (I later found out my HS coach had contacted several schools for me but they all said I was not good enough to play at the next level, including BYU. Hahaha!) Anyway, Wyoming had one scholarship left at the end of that season and had a verbal commitment from a pretty big recruit out of Chicago. I think his name was Paul McPherson. But at the last minute, he backed out and ended up going to DePaul. So basically, McClain had one scholarship to fill at the final hour and had been getting a ton of pressure from Wyoming fans to sign at least one local kid. So he called me one day in April of that year (1999) and had my Dad and I meet him in his office. He offered me that final scholarship then and there. So I never walked on. It was an official scholarship offer... kind of. He was basically forced to "take me on." I later found this all out from my teammates. At the time of the signing, they all thought I was a joke and didn't think I deserved to be on the team. But I won them over pretty quick!
Probably more detail than you wanted but that should clear things up.
Take care,
Marcus
