THE ELK REFLECTS: Jim Hayes

JIM HAYES, HHHS CLASS OF 1965

HIGH SCORER AND ALL-STATE RECOGNITION

This month ERL remembers Herbert Hoover High School (HHHS) 1965 graduate Jim Hayes, who held the scoring record in basketball at Hoover from 1963 to 2020. By the way, in 1963 there were no 3-point shots and he only attended the newly built HHHS during his 11th and 12th grade year which makes this record even more memorable. Jim led the Kanawha Valley Conference in scoring and averaged about 28 points per game for Hoover.

Jim attended Morris Harvey College (now University of Charleston) where he was inducted into the Morris Harvey College Basketball of Fame. A news clipping from the Charleston Daily Mail in the Elk River Communities Museum stated that, “Hayes was sought by several big colleges (WVU, Virginia Tech, and North Carolina State University) but chose local Morris Harvey College where he felt he could obtain a good education and play basketball without the pressure of big time basketball.” While there, he played with several other talented young men from Kanawha County, including Roger Hart from former Charleston High School and Jim Fout from Dupont High School.

He graduated from college in 1969 and went to work for Kanawha County Schools in the fall of 1969 at Woodrow Wilson Junior High School. Jim said, “In the fall of 1970 I was back at my alma mater, HHHS, teaching math and coaching, a dream come true! I give credit to Mr. Jim Hamrick for his choice of the math and coaching combination. I was fortunate to have some great mentors in my lifetime.” In the spring of 1978, Jim left HHHS to go to the oil industry as a safety and training manager for an oil and gas drilling company. After two years, he purchased an Exxon service station in Clendenin, which he said, “was another dream come true, to own my own business.” Jim realized he missed teaching and working with kids and in 1984, he sold the station and went to work in the fall of 1985 at Geary School in Roane County where his wife was already teaching. During the summer of 1986 they inquired about teaching in Berkeley County, South Carolina and both were offered jobs. Jim coached and taught at Hanahan High School for 22 years and was an administrator for 5 years at Goose Creek High School before retiring in 2013. Jim said, “I had 37 years of teaching and coaching and I do not regret one day of those years. In fact, I have had a very blessed life.”

Jim and his wife now reside in Moncks Corner, South Carolina. He married his junior high school sweetheart, Sharon Dye Hayes and they have been married for 53 years. They have two daughters, Shelley and Jessica (who are also school teachers), and 5 grandchildren. Jim is the son of the late Delmar and Mary Campbell Hayes of Walker Addition (Walker Bottom) in Elkview.