The Bailey Bros: Kaleb and Jhalyn win state title together, honor late grandmother

HOUSTON – In their lifetime, there hasn’t been much that Jhalyn and Kaleb Bailey haven’t done together.

But with a four-year age difference, the only time that they could have feasibly played football together at the high school level would come this fall. Jhalyn a senior at North Shore and Kaleb just a freshman.

Kaleb worked his way up the ranks this fall into being the eventual full-time starting quarterback for the Mustangs. The freshman guided North Shore through the playoffs ending up at AT&T Stadium on a brisk December afternoon.

It was here they would get to play this game together one more time. And on the sport’s biggest stage.

“It was my brother's last game of his high school career, so we had to give it all we got,” Kaleb, who was the 6A Division I Championship game Offensive MVP, said.

The duo connected for North Shore’s lone first half touchdown as Kaleb on a play-action call rolled out to his left and tossed a short three-yard pass to Jhalyn, who turned and spun through the air into the end zone after taking a low hit.

North Shore would go on to score 10 more points in the afternoon contest, finishing with a 17-10 victory over Duncanville for the Class 6A Division I State Championship.

“It means everything in the world to me man,” Jhalyn said. “It’s something we’ve been dreaming about ever since we were little kids. We finally came up. We finally got it together and now we’re here.”

As the celebration ensued on the field, wherever you found Jhalyn, Kaleb wouldn’t be too far off.

In the line of players, it was Jhalyn and Kaleb standing side-by-side as they received their gold medals around their necks. Then it was Kaleb helping Jhalyn, who suffered a slight injury in the game, over to a television interview.

“It was wonderful,” Kaleb said. “I love my brother so much and I know that meant so much to him, because we worked so hard for that moment.”

The moment for the Baileys was much bigger than just brothers being state champions but for who they did this for.

This past year, their grandmother Veritta Bailey passed away.

Just hours after the game had ended, Jhalyn from his Twitter account posted a photo of the trophy strapped into a seat on the North Shore bus home and a photo of him and Kaleb. The end of the tweet saying, “we did it for the beautiful angel upstairs”.

“We just wanted to come out and do it for her,” Jhalyn said. “We’ve been grinding every day talking about this one goal we were trying to reach. We finally reached it.

“I’m just happy. I just don’t know what to do.”