Bailey Antoine no longer loved the game.

From the days and nights of playing in the neighborhood park to traveling across the southeast with her AAU team to eventually becoming a starter for the New Iberia Senior High Lady Jackets, basketball was by far what Antoine loved more than anything else in life. 

For a brief period this past spring though that changed when Antoine found herself no longer loving the game of basketball. In fact, she had grown to despise it.

“I felt like I didn’t have a life anymore,” Bailey said. “The only thing I did was basketball. I was at the gym 24-7 and I was just like ‘I didn’t want to do this anymore.’ I hated to go to practice or even be in a gym. It got to the point that I hated even looking at a basketball. I just didn’t want to do it anymore.”

So Antoine decided to not play AAU ball in the summer, and even decided not to play in her high school team’s summer league team. There was also a strong possibility that she might decide not to play at all her senior season — which included giving up on securing an athletic scholarship.

Antoine thought she was done with basketball, but she thought wrong.

After spending a few weeks watching her teammates play without her, Antoine realized she had made a mistake and returned to basketball. But only a few weeks after returning to the game, the 5-foot-7 combo guard known for her aggressive style of play suffered a devastating knee injury, one which not only jeopardized her senior season but also any prospects she had of playing college ball.

“I didn’t think I would be able to come back and play ever again,” Bailey said.

Natural on the court

Antoine was drawn to basketball at an early age.

It all started when she picked up a ball at the age of five years old, and her love affair with the game continued to grow over the years as she developed her skills playing first against her father and uncle, then taking on the older boys down at the neighborhood park.

“It would be every day,” Bailey’s father Ryan Antoine said. “The first thing she did when she would come home would be to do her homework and then go play basketball. It was always ‘dad, let’s go play’ or she would play with her uncle. I mean she would go play with anybody down the street.”

At first Antoine didn’t think she was very good but that quickly changed.

“I started getting confident when I realized that I wasn’t scared to do what I needed to do to score or win a game,” Bailey said. “The first couple of times someone came to guard me and I could get past them was when I realized that I could really play. I wasn’t going to be backing down from anybody.”

It was during this time facing players that were so much bigger and stronger than she was that Antoine also developed her aggressive style of play — slash to the basket on offense and press the player while on defense. 

“I don’t like to play on the outside,” Bailey said. “I like to attack the rim. Being the aggressor instead of standing on the outside shooting 3s is so much better. If you drive to the basket you have a greater chance of making a bucket than you do from the outside shooting a 3-pointer.”

That mindset of course meant that Antoine would find herself many times a game being fouled as she slashed her way to the basket. That additional contact didn’t bother her one bit.

“I don’t ever get frustrated about being fouled,” Bailey said. “Getting hit hard doesn’t matter. I look at it as I get a chance to make a free shot.”

“She’s always had to play above her age group and has had to play against guys,” said father Ryan, who serves as the head football coach at Westgate High School. “She always hung around football as well so she has that contact mentality. She plays like that.”

Antoine joined the Jackets as a freshman and came off the bench that season as NISH advanced to the Top 28 in Lake Charles, falling to Walker in the semifinals. The next year she became a starter and helped the team reach the Class 5A quarterfinals, and last season she helped lead the team to the second round of the playoffs.

In between, Antoine further developed her game by playing for the Louisiana Lady Pumas, an AAU team out of New Orleans that has produced dozens of highly ranked college recruits including Meoshonti Knight (Alabama), Kalani Brown (Baylor), Rakell Spencer (Texas A&M and LSU) and Natalie Kelly (Auburn).

“I saw it as an opportunity to get seen by colleges,” Bailey said. “Plus I am always trying to improve at basketball so I wanted to play AAU ball against better players to make me a better player.”

Even though she developed into one of the area’s best players, the grind of playing basketball all the time began to take away her love for the game earlier this year. 

“You could kind of tell,” NISH coach Robert Pinckney said. “She wouldn’t come around as often in the spring. I knew something was going on.

“With the demands of practice, it is time consuming. Sometimes they get to senior year and they just want to enjoy their senior year. With basketball we take your Thanksgiving, your Christmas and sometimes your Mardi Gras holidays. It takes a lot of time.”

Early in the summer, Pinckney sat down with Antoine and her father, and mapped out the plan he envisioned for her.

“We told her that she was going to be the face of the program,” Pinckney said. “With us losing four starters from last year’s team, everything would fall on her shoulders. We were counting on her to lead this team.”

A few weeks later, Antoine was back on the team.

“It didn’t take long for me to want to come back,” Bailey said. “I hated seeing my teammates playing without me.”

Antoine picked up right where she had left off but her time back on the hardwood was short-lived.

The road to recovery

In a summer league game on June 22nd against Hanson Memorial, Antoine was executing a play she has done thousands of times before — setting up a screen. This time though the play went wrong. 

“The girl came off the screen and ran right into my knee and I fell,” Bailey said. “I really didn’t feel anything — like pain — but it didn’t feel right. I stayed on the ground for a little while and when I got up and I knew something had happened. But I still didn’t think it was a bad knee injury.

“Then we went to the training room and he was moving my knee and my bones were moving. I had never had that before.”

Two days later, an MRI at Iberia Medical Center confirmed the worst possible scenario. Antoine had completely torn the ACL in her right knee and would require surgery to repair it. 

“I just felt like I wouldn’t ever get to play again,” Bailey said. “I felt like I didn’t have a reason to play.”

“It was tough on us,” Ryan said. “What made it even more difficult was the months beforehand when she decided she didn’t want to play anymore. You’re right on the brink of being a Division I athlete, which was always her dream, but then she didn’t want to play anymore. Then for her to want to come back and then immediately tear her ACL in her leg was devastating. It was tough watching it.”

Antoine had surgery on July 20 and then had five months of grueling rehabilitation in front of her. The NISH star didn’t feel sorry for herself for very long, as she attacked her rehab process (two hours plus every day after school) much like she does the basket — with ferocity.

“I don’t like sitting down and not doing anything,” Bailey said. “I knew that I had to push myself. To come back and I play I had to get my mind right. My daddy had to push me some days. Everybody had to come together to help me but I hate being helped.

“The first day after my surgery my dad had to carry me to the bathroom,” Bailey added. “After that I took myself. I struggled but I had to do it.”

Antoine also had to make sure to be patient during the process. Even though she desperately wanted to be back out there, she knew if she rushed it that she could suffer a setback in the recovery process.

“It was a challenge for sure,” Bailey said. “But I knew I had to give it to God and take it one day at a time. I knew that I couldn’t rush it and get injured again.”

Throughout the rehab process, Antoine continued to be focused on one thing and one thing only — rejoining her team. 

“I felt since that we had to replace the top four players from last year’s team that I needed to rehab and come back,” Bailey said. “I couldn’t turn my back on the team. It would have been selfish of me to just protect my own self and not help this young team.”

After months of rehab, Antoine finally got to rejoin her team a few weeks ago and then the Friday before last, she got her first game action of the season. In a win against Hanson Memorial, Antoine scored 13 points. 

“My first game back I couldn’t really do what I wanted to do but I had it in me,” Bailey said. “I just settled for outside shots. I can’t wait to attack the basket again.”

“We made her go through a week of practice before she played,” Pinckney said. “We tried to limit her minutes. She was so mad because she wants to stay in the game. When we subbed her out she looked at us like ‘why are you taking me out.’”

The moment of watching his daughter back on the court proved to be emotional for Antoine’s father.

“I had to hold back the tears,” Ryan said. “I was expecting her to maybe play two or three minutes. She got a steal and then scored her first bucket off of that. The next shot she made was 3-pointer. Just seeing her out there with her team again was amazing.”

Antoine, who already has a scholarship offer from Jacksonville State, is now focused on helping her team win a district title and return to the Top 28. As for nearly having her senior season taken from her due to an injury, the time away from the court has made her appreciate the sport she briefly fell out of love with even more.

“It has made me stronger as a person,” Bailey said. “It has given me a better and bigger outlook on life. I never thought that I would get injured or that I would have to have surgery. It never crossed my mind but when it did it was an eye opener for me. 

“It was basically God’s way of telling me to slow down because I didn’t want to slow down,” Bailey added. “I wanted to play volleyball this year, and basketball and do so many other things. I wanted to do everything. God knew that I couldn’t do everything. This whole thing has truly been a blessing.”