These days, it just hurts to breathe, much less swim for Kentlake senior Chelsea Bailey.

Bailey, who stands a lanky 6-foot-2, suffered an injury before the state girls swim and dive championships in November 2009 and came away disappointed in her individual efforts.

“Part of it might have been due to the year before last, I got a lot of attention I wasn’t expecting,” she said. “I was a little overwhelmed and nervous.”

In fact, during the 50-yard freestyle at state, she was shaking so bad she got called for a false start on the blocks during the final and was disqualified. This coming from a young woman who had paced the field during the preliminary heats with a 23.95 lap.

On the other hand, the Falcons had an excellent showing as a team, and for Bailey that more than made up for her problems in her individual events.’

“I was very happy with the team’s accomplishments,” she said. “I’m looking forward to this year. We have a good group of girls and I know we’ll do well.”

Part of the problem during state junior season was nerves, but the rest was an aching torso. She had injured a rib and muscles but swam through it for six months.

But, two months ago, she was ordered out of the pool by her medical team and told to let her body heal.

“I injured it quite a bit ago… but, I didn’t take any time off,” she said. “I wanted to come back this year and do something great.”

What she’ll be doing until she’s cleared to swim again is serving as a cheerleader from the pool deck.

“I am a captain, so, I love coming to the pool and being a part of the team,” Bailey said. “I feel like, first of all, I love all these people. Even though I can’t be swimming, I still want to be a part of it, I feel like it’s a better example.”

Bailey may not get to swim again until state, if at all, depending on how her injury heals. She doesn’t have to go to practice, in fact, she could have probably skipped out on her senior season of high school swimming.

But, she wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, even if she can’t be in the pool where she’s been competing since she was 10 years old.

Kentlake’s new coach, Kati Stanford, is counting on Bailey this season to help in whatever way she can.

“She brings a lot of leadership,” Stanford said. “She gets the girls excited. She’s kept a positive outlook. She comes in every day asking, ‘What can I do to help?’”

Stanford has asked Bailey to help some of the less experienced swimmers work on technique, to take on some coaching responsibilities while her injury heals, and her positive approach can help the team.

Even though she can’t swim, Bailey can certainly try to make the team better, and if things go well she may even be able to chip in a bit in the pool come the state championships in November.

If things go really well, though, Stanford said, Bailey may try to accomplish more once she is cleared to swim again.

“She has had a goal since I first met her… to do iron woman,” Stanford said. “She can do that once that injury heals and we can get her back in the water.”

To earn “iron woman” status, Bailey would have to earn state qualifying times in all eight individual events.

For now, Bailey is focused on the team’s goals to win as many league meets as possible, to send as many girls to the post-season as possible and to send at least six swimmers to state.

“This year I’ve seen a lot of improvement,” Bailey said. “I’m excited to invoke more spirit. Personally, I’m a pretty loud spirited person. I want everybody to be a leader. One of my goals would be more team bonding.”

In the end, she hopes to get to a point where it doesn’t hurt to swim or to breathe, and maybe, just maybe get back in the pool in time for state.

For now, she’s just going to have fun cheering from the pool deck and leading by example, which isn’t hard, she noted.

“This is such a nice group of girls,” Bailey said.