Coupeville Sports

McKayla Bailey

Rumors Bailey went on to photo-bomb the surgery team — while knocked out by anesthesia — are unsubstantiated, but very, very believable. (Donna Bailey photo)

Six months.

That’s how long Coupeville High School senior softball sensation McKayla Bailey is expected to be out after shoulder surgery Tuesday.

She’ll be in a sling for six weeks to start off the healing process.

Bailey will miss the rest of volleyball season and all of basketball season, with the hope of being healthy in time for her #1 sport, softball, in the spring.

The problems with her shoulder began after a long junior softball season, in which she was a one-woman pitching staff who carried CHS to its first state appearance in more than a decade.

Once the high school season was done, she tried to jump right into playing with her select traveling squad, but arm pain shut her down.

Bailey was originally diagnosed with two small tears in her pitching shoulder. One was in her rotator cuff, the other a “SLAP tear” in her super labrum.

The hope had been that the surgery would be minor, but doctors ran into bigger issues when they began to work.

“It went well but not as well as we hoped,” Bailey said. “There was more damage than we thought. They had to anchor down the tendon.

“No more volleyball and no basketball for me. It was really hard to hear,” she added. “But I know that in the future I’ll be glad I did this.”

Her mom, Donna Bailey, said her daughter’s natural sunniness never faded, even during the arduous hospital visit.

“She survived the anesthesia and I must say she was very polite to the nurses,” she said. “She thanked them for everything from taking her blood pressure to getting her saltine crackers. Pretty funny!”