Bailee Sobczak is Stevens High School’s first female recipient of The Spirit of Su award. She has worked hard since she was young to try and live up to SuAnne Big Crow and has been inspired by Big Crow to shine light into other people’s lives.

Receiving this award has been her dream since she was little, starting in sixth grade when she learned about SuAnne Big Crow and she became Sobczak’s hero. She has wanted to live up to the award since then. Getting to wear SuAnne Big Crow’s jersey during the wax museum was very special to Sobczak, so getting the award meant more than words can explain to her and it was very emotional. She said, “it was cool to be recognized for something like that, but more so getting the honor that was because of my hero.”

The Spirit of Su award was made to commemorate SuAnne Big Crow and how she lived her life. She was an amazing basketball player who died in a car accident on her way to receive the most prestigious women’s basketball award, Miss Basketball. According to Bailee Sobczak, “they built it in honor of just this amazing person she was” and how “she was an inspiration…she left her mark.” The award is based off five pillars: sportsmanship, academics, athletic ability, leadership, and community involvement. Those pillars are what the family looks for when deciding who should receive the award. The coaches nominate a few senior girls from their team who they think embody those things and, if the team makes it to state, the girls who were nominated have the chance to get the honor of winning the award.

Sobczak, who goes to West Middle School during her free time to, “go and make friends” – she knows over 150 kids there, “I eat lunch with sixth, seventh, and eighth graders,” and her newest thing she has taken up is, “going to PE and playing games with the sixth grade girls” embodies the spirit of the award perfectly. She said she usually spends 3-6 hours with the kids at West every week. Sobczak likes to go into one of her old teacher’s classroom and hangout with the kids in there when she can. She thinks that it is fun, and she loves the kids. She is also a Wyldife leader to give back to the kids in the community.

Sobczak believes that the athletic part of the award is important, but how these athletes interact with the community is far more important. She has always said, “What you do with your life should be shining a light in the lives of others” and that is one of the main reasons she won. Embodying all the qualities listed above, Sobczak is also a hard worker and determined with sports, academics, and serving her community in any way she can. She thinks the biggest part is “making sure you use your life to help others.”

In fifth grade she was on her way home from the state tournament in Spearfish and she thought that the award they had given out was so cool, so she researched it the whole way home. Fast forward to sixth grade, Bailee did not really connect to any of the suggested people, then she realized, “why don’t you do the person who inspired you up until this point?” So, Bailee decided she would do the “amazing basketball player” who “did all these amazing things for her community” and loved getting to do the research on her and thought it was super cool to interview SuAnne Big Crow’s mom.

In sixth grade, Sobczak had an English assignment where they had to make a bucket list and number one on her bucket list was winning the Spirit of Su award. Few people knew what it was then, but Sobczak loved to tell people about the award and SuAnne Big Crow. In sixth grade, she did not really know everything that went with receiving the award, just that you must be a good person in your community. Sobczak said she told herself then, “Bailee, you’re going to do that,” she wanted to be sure she did everything she could to give back and “make sure you make a difference in people’s life.” She thought it was an honor for SuAnne. At the state tournaments she would always watch the basketball players that she thought would win the award closely and would wonder what they did in their communities. She did not know much about the award at the time, but she knew a great deal about SuAnne’s story.

Sobczak knew that “it took a special kind of person to receive that kind of award.” She was unsure if it would ever be her, but she knew what she had to do to get there. Sobczak shaped her life off SuAnne’s inspiration and how she was and lives like her everyday not because she wanted to win an award, but because she knows that the way SuAnne lived and served her community is the way Sobczak wants to live too. She never really thought that she would win when she did the wax museum in sixth grade, even though it was one of her goals; Sobczak did not even think that she won on the night the award was presented and was excited to see who won it, since she did not think it was her. Sobczak was floored when she won, it was the last thing she expected, and she said, “when it was me, I was kind of a mess. It was pretty cool.”

Being SuAnne Big Crow for the wax museum made the award even more meaningful for Sobczak. She said that when she was walking out there, she “remembered back to when I was wearing her jersey and had a different star quilt wrapped around me.” Sobczak was crying and very emotional when she won.  Sobczak described winning the award by saying, “Wearing my jersey and receiving the award that was built around her was just kind of like a super surreal moment, it was pretty awesome.” Doing the wax museum made it mean even more to her because – while most people only know the little snippet from what they say at the beginning before presenting the award – Sobczak knew SuAnne’s story and her lifetime. Sobczak thought it meant more because, “it was something that I wanted so bad for like, little sixth grade me,” she then added, “it was more special.”

Sobczak views the award as an honor because of SuAnne’s passing and why they built the award. She was so excited and emotional when she won the award. Sobczak carries SuAnne Big Crow’s spirit with her every day and uses it to touch the lives of everyone she meets.