The Hay Way: How Kevin Hayhurst has made Beecher softball a dynasty

Beecher senior shortstop Ava Olson had three words that continued to pop into her mind on the Bobcats’ bus ride to the Class 2A East Peoria Supersectional Monday.

“We’ve always had this softball legacy on our backs,” Olson said. “I’m keeping the word legacy with me this entire weekend. ... The words legacy and Beecher softball, they just go together.”

And nobody is responsible for that legacy more than coach Kevin Hayhurst.

Hayhurst was a senior himself at Beecher when the school’s softball program began play during the 1974-75 school year, led in its early years by Penny Mosley and Mary Watson.

As Rick Ratliff took over the program ahead of the spring of 1990, Hayhurst was winning his first of three state championships as Gary Lagesse’s assistant at Thornwood. Hayhurst also eventually became the boys basketball coach at Thornwood, earning second place in Class AA in 2001 with a team led by All-American and eventual Chicago Bull Eddy Curry.

Around the turn of the century, Hayhurst quietly took the junior high softball job at Beecher, leaving Thornwood to take the high school job at his alma mater for the 2002-03 school year. A year later, the program earned its first IHSA state championship by winning the Class A trophy.

Now, 23 years later, the Bobcats are headed back to state for the ninth time in program history this weekend, where they’ll look to win the Class 2A title for the program’s fifth state championship.

Whether the journey is completed at state or ends along the way, Hayhurst has never taken an ounce of credit for the program’s success, so much so that he’s become well known for passing on postgame interviews, instead insisting on having reporters talk to more players, the ones who got the job done on the field.

And that love for them is not lost on the players. Junior pitcher Taylor Norkus, whose walk-off single in the 10th inning Monday secured a 4-3 win over Brimfield to send the Bobcats back to state, has seen that firsthand for six years now, beginning as a sixth grader.

“It’s very for the kids,” Norkus said of Hayhurst’s coaching style. “He really tries to include everyone, and it’s good to have him as a coach because he does it for us.”

The father of two Beecher graduates, Jack and Emily, the latter of whom pitched for the Bobcats herself, that love Hayhurst has for each and every team has made Hayhurst a father figure to scores of girls that have grown up in Beecher. Kate Landis, who was on the 2017 Class 2A championship team and 2018 runner-up team, experienced it herself as a player and sees it now as one of Hayhurst’s assistants.

“Playing with him, I felt like I was his own daughter sometimes,” Landis said. “That’s how much love and confidence he gave to me with the way he coached.”

One of his former assistants, Beecher boys basketball coach Tyler Shireman, who has Hayhurst on his staff as an assistant, has started to see that in a different way, as well. Shireman’s 7-year-old daughter, Piper, has started to take up softball pitching. The morning after Shireman sent Hayhurst a video of his daughter in action, Hayhurst was at the school waiting to give some pointers for Shireman to pass along, blending the two areas of life Shireman’s felt Hayhurst’s impact the most.

“Coach Hayhurst has taught me a lot about making sure I remember what’s at home as both my career and my family grow,” Shireman said. “It’s helped me keep both of those arenas in perspective.”

As the wins, trophies and memories have piled up, so has the experience that’s allowed Hayhurst to see the game in a different light. He’s not scared to make what outsiders might see as zany decisions, such as changing the team’s lineup to a new order for the first time all season Monday or burning a speedy pinch-runner in the second inning of a scoreless game, knowing that if she can score then, it might be the only run of the game.

For junior outfielder/catcher Makenzie Johnson and her teammates, some of his decisions might leave his players wondering what’s going through his mind. But then it works out and they remember that they’re playing for one of softball’s greatest minds.

“We all think sometimes he’s a little bit crazy, but he’s one of the best coaches I’ve ever played for and probably will be the best coach I ever play for,” Johnson said. “Being around the sport for so long, he knows so much that when it comes that time, he knows the situations we need to do certain things in. He’ll pull in our outfield for crying out loud, and we don’t know if the girl is gonna smash one over our heads. But he trusts the game, trusts our pitchers, trusts our defense. He’s an amazing coach.”