LAKEPORT — Tyler Hayes is confident, talented and a bit stubborn at times, three traits all great athletes possess.
The recent Clear Lake High School graduate is also the Lake County Record-Bee”s Athlete of the Year in boys” sports for the 2007-08 high school season.
Hayes, 18, plans to join the Coast Guard soon with the goal of becoming a rescue diver, an occupation that will require him to jump out of helicopters into the ocean below, regardless of weather conditions. He would appear to be well suited for that challenge based on the athletic prowess he demonstrated the last four years at Clear Lake, but especially during a senior season in which he was the only Lake County wrestler to qualify for the CIF State Championships.
“I”m aggressive, very aggressive,” said Hayes, who is the son of Gary and Stacey Hayes of Kelseyville, and the middle child in family that includes older brothers Mike and Ben, and younger sisters Kristy and Emily.
Ben Hayes, an Army Ranger, is currently stationed in Iraq. Like Tyler, both of his older brothers also wrestled.
The best one of the three?
“Me,” Hayes said without a moment”s hesitation. “I was the only one to medal at sectionals.”
Hayes, who also ran cross country and track at Clear Lake, entered the North Coast Section Championships in February as the No. 6 seed at 105 pounds. He did his best to mess up those rankings by finishing third, which earned him a berth in the state finals.
Before he could reach the third-place match in the sectional tournament, Hayes had to get past a wrestler who had beaten him earlier in the season and he did just that, scoring a 7-5 decision over Vince Molita of De La Salle High School. He then pinned Theo Phan of San Marin to claim the third-place medal, a jump of four places from Hayes” 2007 finish at the same tournament.
“Everybody I”ve lost to I”ve come back to beat,” Hayes said of an admirable career trend.
Hayes” wrestling career didn”t get off to such a great start.
“My first year of wrestling, I lost every single match (in the fourth grade),” Hayes said. “But I went undefeated through middle school.”
Hayes credits Ron Campos, whose coaching stops have included Clear Lake, Upper Lake and Kelseyville high schools, with being his mentor during those early years.
“He pushed me the hardest,” Hayes said.
Hayes” whirlwind wrestling season in 2007-08 included tournament wins at Maria Carrillo, Liberty, San Marin, Clear Lake and the Coastal Mountain Conference Championships. He finished the season 39-5, the final two losses coming in the state tournament.
“It”s really hard for wrestlers in our area to mentally prepare for what they”re going to see at state because the competition is just incredible,” Clear Lake wrestling coach Mike Humble said. “I think it would have really helped Tyler if he had made it his junior year. There”s really no way to prepare for something like that unless you”ve experienced it before.”
While Humble and Hayes clashed at times in regards to strategy on the mat, Humble said he”s never had a more well-rounded wrestler in his program.
“What you do in the offseason to prepare is important and Tyler was one of the few kids I”ve had who really grasped that concept,” Humble said. “On your first day of vacation, when you wake up, are you going to take it easy? Is that what the guy you”re going to face (down the road) is doing? Tyler worked hard in the offseason to improve himself.”
Hayes describes his wrestling style in one word. “Aggressive,” he said. “I don”t want to stop for a second, I don”t like to give the other guy a chance to rest.”
His only real regret about this past wrestling season was the state tournament.
“I caught the flu and I fell asleep in the warmup room before my first match,” Hayes said. “I lost to the guy who went on to finish third. I would love to have another shot at state.”
The state champion at 105 pounds, Gilbert Camacho of Fresno, also was no stranger to Hayes, who lost to him by a single point a year earlier at a tournament at Reno.
“He had a work ethic that you wish all your wrestlers had,” Humble said of Hayes. “He ran cross country and track all just to improve his wrestling.”
While that was true during his junior year, Hayes did more than just show up and run during this past cross country season.
“I”m pretty much all about competing in any sport, I always want to win,” Hayes said. “I did it for cardiovascular training, but it”s in my nature to be competitive.”
And Hayes was exactly that for coach Peter Stanley”s cross country team, bettering his times throughout the season and finishing a solid 18th in a star-studded field of runners at the Coastal Mountain Conference Championships at Spring Lake in Santa Rosa, where he clocked in with a personal-best time of 18 minutes, 13 seconds on the 3.05-mile course.
“He was the fastest runner on the team,” Stanley said. “In races, he would pick out an opponent on another team, a good runner that he wanted to beat and try to stay up with him. He had the race thought out ahead of time.”
Hayes said he also studied his opponents in wrestling to gain whatever advantage he could.
“In workouts he would go out in front of everyone else, but if he got too far ahead, he would double back to join the group, then go out again,” Stanley said.
“The thing about Tyler is he would strive to beat people who were better than him. He didn”t back off,” Stanley added. “He”s a nice kid with a good sense of humor.”
In track, Hayes” events were the 110 and 300 hurdles and the pole vault.
“It”s a total adrenalin rush,” Hayes said of the pole vault.
When he”s not competing in some sort of athletic activity, which is almost never, Hayes enjoys being with his friends, camping, hunting and fishing. He said he hopes to continue his wrestling career one day at the Coast Guard Academy, and when his wrestling days are over, he would like to become a wrestling coach, with the goal of coaching at the collegiate level one day.
Right now, he”s enjoying his summer vacation and looking forward to his next step, which just might out the door of a Coast Guard helicopter.
