High School Girls Volleyball Postseason
Stags advance to sectional championship
Coach Jennifer Hayes notches her 800th win

 

[November 06, 2024] 

The Hartsburg-Emden Stags defeated Augusta Southeastern in front of a packed house of 750 volleyball fans on Tuesday night in Hartsburg as the 2024 Class 1A Sectional tournament got underway.

It’s tough to beat the Stags on their home court in the postseason and especially when the crowd knows Coach Hayes is nearing a milestone. While earning the victory in three sets, Hayes has now achieved 800 career wins.

The Stags won set one 25-18, then dropped set two 20-25 before winning it all 25-20 in set three.

Alayna Briggs led the Stags with 17 kills.

Celia Cross had 38 assists to lead the Stags.

Shoutout to Allie Grelck, who is filling in for the injured Kylie Starcevic. Grelck led the team with 16 digs.

The Stags improve to 29-8 on the season and will now seek win no. 801 for the coach tonight as they take on Camp Point Central (23-7) at 6:00 p.m. in the sectional championship in Hartsburg.

Camp Point Central defeated Decatur Unity Christian 25-16 and 25-18 in the early semifinal on Tuesday.

Decatur Unity Christian ends the season with a 35-3 record.

Augusta Southeastern ends the season with a 30-6 record.

How about that win no. 800?!

Upon reaching this milestone in her coaching career, Jennifer Hayes commented, “800 wasn’t near as important as the sweet sixteen advancement!”

Undoubtedly, postseason volleyball is what Coach Hayes lives for!

And nobody knows her passion for volleyball more than her mom and dad. It’s only fitting after all these years to hear from the two people who created this volleyball legend.

Jennifer’s parents, Ron and Sandy Crane, have been with Hayes throughout this volleyball coaching journey, which has now spanned 30 years. Prior to coaching, Jennifer spent nearly a decade playing the game.

Ron has been keeping stats for the Stags since day one of his daughter’s coaching career and Sandy has been right there next to him, cheering on her daughter’s teams.

“Proudness, I guess, as much as anything else for all the work that they put in, not just her, but her assistants,” answered Ron, when asked about his daughter’s most recent accomplishment. “She’s got a wonderful set of assistants who have been with her quite a while now. And the girls on the team just work their tails off. They’re willing to do whatever it takes to try and be the best that they can be and that’s probably the biggest thing of all. They are willing to do the extra things. They go to club ball in the winter. We play the heavier tournaments so when you get in these situations you don’t fold up in a heap because you’ve never been there before. The progression of tournaments is sure fun.”

Hayes has a coaching staff that also includes Jordan Detmers, Shauna Wetherell and her oldest son, Alec Hayes.

“Shauna (Fletcher) Wetherell she was on the first ball club that Jennifer coached,” said Ron. “Molly (Meeker) Hayes was on the first ball club that Jennifer coached. And yet Shauna is coaching for her now. That’s kind of a big deal. Shauna was the setter on the first ball club back then.”

Jennifer’s mom, Sandy, was sitting next to Ron, smiling the entire time he spoke and she offered her own thoughts.

“I will say this,” began Sandy, “Since Jennifer’s been a little girl, she’s always been aggressive, always been competitive and always had that spirit. When she was learning to ride a bicycle she could fall down ten times but she would still stay on that bicycle until she got that two-wheeler. She’s just got that competitive spirit. She had played volleyball since she was a fifth grader. She had that winning instinct and she carries that through til this day with her team and all her coaches and that’s what it takes to be a winner.”

Ron chimed in telling the story that Jennifer started playing volleyball in the fifth grade for Stags Coach Lisa Miller. It wasn’t long before Jennifer wanted to raise her game to the next level, he said.

“When Jennifer got to high school, we knew then that she wanted to try and play at a higher level. Around here, back then, you weren’t able to do that. We got hooked up with the head coach of Sacred Heart in Springfield. Her name was Dulle,” he said with a chuckle.

Her first name was Helen and she was a legend in the Springfield area volleyball scene. Dulle started the girls sports program at Sacred Heart in 1973-74. She is retired and sits at no. 9 on the all-time wins list in Illinois with 933 wins.

“She was Jennifer’s first club coach,” said Ron of Helen Dulle. “We had an Oldsmobile back then and Jennifer started with the Sacred Heart girls when she was a sophomore in high school. All the club tournaments were in Chicago. There was nowhere else to play club ball. My Oldsmobile got to the point where you could set it on automatic drive and it would drive itself to Chicago and back just about every weekend. So we went that route and Jennifer got recruited to play volleyball at Illinois Wesleyan. About two-thirds of the way through her first season as the starting setter, she blew out her knee and that was the end of her playing career. She had hurt her knee in high school during softball and said she didn’t want to go through rehab again.”

Jennifer then came home one day and told her parents she was going to transfer from Illinois Wesleyan University to Illinois State University and he recalled her saying, “I’m going to become a teacher and a coach.”

Ron’s reply, “For God’s sake, Jennifer, I’ve been on the school board for ten years and didn’t I teach you anything at all?”

He tried to tell her she’d get “brow-beat” being a teacher and a coach.

Jennifer told him, “That’s what I want to do.”

There is no doubt that she’s not only done what she’s wanted to do in life, but that she has mastered it. She has reached legendary status in her chosen career and her exceptional record speaks for itself.

It’s a whole other story, but recently the Hartsburg-Emden Stags volleyball program was named no. 18 on the list of the Top 50 volleyball programs in the state of Illinois.

Hayes certainly has the longest tenure of anybody in Stags volleyball history and with no end in sight, she will continue to rack up the wins and collect those trophies.

Congratulations, Coach Hayes, on 800 wins and yet another Sweet Sixteen!

Keep it rolling!

Stags stats

Points

Cambelle Hopkins 11
Allie Grelck 9
Sadie Williams 8
Alayna Briggs 7
Addi Briggs 6
Celia Cross 4

Kills

Alayna Briggs 17
Cambelle Hopkins 11
Ellie Klokkenga 10
Addi Briggs 7
Emma Eeten 3

Blocks

Alayna Briggs 1
Emma Eeten 1
Addi Briggs 1

Assists

Celia Cross 38

Digs

Allie Grelck 16
Alayna Briggs 13
Cambelle Hopkins 11
Celia Cross 11
Sadie Williams 11
Addie Briggs 7
Ellie Klokkenga 7

[Teena Lowery with photo courtesy of Hartem Volleyball]