Hayes leaves lasting legacy
Former football coach, athletic director died Saturday at 76
Trending
John Hayes, who won more games than any high school football coach in Blair County history during his 38 years on the sideline for Bellwood-Antis, died Saturday evening.
He had dealt with health problems over the past year and suffered a stroke on Wednesday.
Hayes, who was 76 and would have turned 77 in November, earned several honors in his lifetime, including having Bellwood's football stadium named after him and being inducted into the Blair County Sports Hall of Fame last year.
But he will be remembered most for his impact on his community.
"He has been such a fixture at Bellwood, not only for me as a mentor, but for so many young people as a coach," said Nick Lovrich, who played for Hayes, coached alongside him for 20 years and replaced him as the Blue Devils coach in 2018. "He knew his Xs and Os, but he was more of a molder of men. He made individuals the best version of who they could be. He got the most out of every kid he had, and that was the most important thing to him, bringing out the best in everyone on or off the field."
Hayes was born in Mount Pleasant and attended Juniata College before starting his coaching career as an assistant in Tyrone in 1969. He was hired as the Bellwood-Antis head coach in July of 1980.
He went 323-103-2 before retiring from coaching in 2018. He remained the athletic director at the school through the first of two PIAA championships won by the girls basketball team led by Jim Swaney, whom he hired.
"I am so thankful that he thought of me when the coaching position was open at Bellwood in 2010," Swaney said. "It was probably one of the biggest highlights of my life to be the girls basketball coach at Bellwood-Antis, and I owe it all to John Hayes. I will always be in his debt for that."
Bellwood-Antis also won a PIAA championship in baseball during Hayes' tenure as athletic director.
Charlie Burch, a longtime assistant football coach under Hayes, took over the athletic director role when Hayes retired.
"The passing of Coach Hayes is a huge loss to the Bellwood community and the thousands of lives he had touched since 1980," Burch said. "He impacted generations of young men on the football field and is an absolute legend. I have personally lost a true friend and mentor as a coach and athletic director. He had the tough and gruff image, but he was truly a kind-hearted and caring man. He loved all Bellwood-Antis students and athletes."
Longtime assistants like Lovrich and Burch, among many others over the years, were considered family by Hayes.
"He was very strong emotionally and mentally," said Hayes' wife, Vicky. "I leaned on him to get me through a lot of things, and I really respected his advice. He was very intelligent and very knowledgeable. He was a great guy. One of the things that really attracted me to him was the way he treated his mother, and he treated mine the same way. He was always so respectful, and it meant a lot to me that I really admired. He blended into our family so naturally."
Hayes and fellow longtime Blair County coach John Franco spent several years on opposite sides of the "Backyard Brawl" rivalry between Bellwood-Antis and Tyrone.
"I considered him an early mentor of mine when I just got into coaching," Franco said. "I spoke to him quite a bit, especially at coaching clinics and camps. He always gave me great advice, and then we became adversaries so to speak, but adversaries in the truest sense of the word competition. He really exemplified how a person should conduct themself, and I learned from that. I consider him one of the greatest coaches to ever come out of District 6. His record speaks for itself, and he was a great man. There's no doubt about it. I always had so much respect for him."
Lovrich said he visited Hayes about a week ago and that the longtime coach was still talking about football and world events but was frustrated with his physical limitations.
Over the final nine months of his life, Hayes was only home for two weeks.
"He's really struggled with his health for the last 10 months, which have been really rough for him," Lovrich said. "He's spent time in the hospital and wasn't able to be at home, so all the things he really enjoyed doing like sitting out on his porch and being outside doing things, he wasn't able to do that. He's in a better place right now looking down on us and has the best seat in the house to watch Bellwood football games and everything else that he really enjoyed."
A full obituary with visitation and funeral information will appear in Tuesday's paper.