Tennis coach Christi Hays adds Quaker Valley Hall of Fame to remarkable resume

By means of: Ray Visser


Sunday October 27, 2024 | 11:01 am

Christi Hays is no newcomer to the Hall of Fame.

After a successful athletic career at Sewickley Academy, Hays was a standout athlete at Hollins University and was inducted into the Hollins College Athletic Hall of Fame in 2004.

After graduating, Hays returned to the Sewickley area and embarked on what can only be described as a Hall of Fame career on several fronts.

She is currently in charge of the Quaker Valley girls and boys tennis programs.

Hays was scheduled to be inducted into the QV Sports Hall of Fame last weekend – Oct. 25-27 – along with four former QV athletes and two teams.

The QV HOF class of 2024, joining Hays, 72, includes Dr. Rick Ruperto (football, basketball, track and field) from 1992, Bobby Farrington (basketball, track and field) from 1982, Spencer Caravaggio (tennis) from 2013 and Willie Jordan (football, 1985 graduate). , basketball), the 1968 football team and the 2002 girls track and field team.

In short, Hays' tennis background is as follows.

In 2007, she won the national championship at the American Platform Tennis Association Nationals, finishing with Chris Ford as the nation's No. 1 team in their age group that year.

Hays was awarded the West Penn Paddle Tennis Association's first WPPTA Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.

After a brief stint in California working at Lagunitas Country Club, Hays returned to Sewickley to continue her impressive career and become the foundation for racquet sports in the area.

Her list of achievements as a player and coach is long and spans generations in the region.

• She founded the Sewickley Area Junior Tennis team and the Quaker Valley Middle School Tennis Club.

• She was named Paddle Facilitator/Head Education Professional at the Sewickley Area YMCA in 2012, where she continues in that role today as well as serving on the YMCA pickleball staff.

• She has spent the summer months directing the Sewickley Area Junior Tennis Team program, which just completed its 16th year.

• She teaches private and small group lessons and junior age group clinics in Quaker Valley.

• She became head coach of the QV girls tennis team in 2013 and the boys tennis team in 2018.

Prior to the 2024 PIAA Tennis Tournament, Hays compiled an overall record of 197-70, won six sectional titles, advanced to the WPIAL team finals five times and won the WPIAL team championship in 2021 and 2022.

Hays was honored as the 2021 USTA Middle States High School Coach of the Year.

The following is a Q&A session with QV's tennis coach:

What do you think of the selection for the Quaker Valley Sports Hall of Fame?

To adequately express my thoughts on the selection (which is actually impossible), I had to pull out my trusty thesaurus because words failed me. Words like amazed, surprised, humbled, thrilled, thrilled, grateful, shocked. And what an absolute honor to be selected this year even as much less together with one of my brightest students (Caravaggio).

Do you remember your reaction when you first heard that you had been selected for the Hall of Fame?

Yes. Our AD Mike Mastroianni took me aside after a brief meeting in his office and told me that he had something to share with me, but that I had to keep it quiet until it was made public. He told me that I had been unanimously chosen for this year's HOF class.

Being the good Irish girl that I am, I burst into tears right there in the hallway. Luckily no one walked by at the time as they thought it was bad news – it was quite the opposite. I was completely surprised because I thought it might be a few years before I would even be eligible to apply. So the news came completely out of the blue, and I'm still floating.

But if I'm honest, I didn't keep the news quiet for too long.

What are some of your fondest memories of your coaching career so far at QV?

Every year and every team has its own personality, challenges, successes and disappointments. But if I had to pick a girls season that will always stick with me, it would have to be the 2020 Covid season. The 2020 boys season was unfortunately canceled after our first competition – with probably the strongest boys team I have had at QV. We were devastated, and I had sweatshirts with a map of Pennsylvania on them made for the boys, noting that we had “all the pieces to go all the way.”

I also lost to my Sewickley Area Junior Tennis one summer. It was devastating. And as we entered the fall, the governor recommended that no more sports take place until 2021. Thank goodness my friend Amy Scheuneman, then head of the WPIAL, gave a press conference telling the governor that his data was flawed, and that we shouldn't have done it alone. exercise, but we can do it and do it safely. And that it was something that the children needed. So thanks to her courageous leadership, we were able to have our season just like other sports.

What was also memorable about that 2020 girls season were all the precautions we had to take: social distancing (even with your doubles partner), temperatures every day, players using their own can of balls with their initials on them. But we were happy to do 'whatever was necessary'. It was a blessing to only have one season. Thank you, Amy.

Also memorable was the incredible 2019-2024 boys run – WPIAL finalist in 2019 and fifth in the United States; 2020: covid-19; 2021: WPIAL champion and fifth again at states; 2022: Repeat as WPIAL champion and third at states.

But it was the way we clinched the 2021 WPIAL title that still makes me grin the biggest grin — and still shake my head in disbelief — because you couldn't have written a better or more improbable script. We played an always tough South Park team in North Allegheny. Doubles was on one side of the courts and singles on the other. We hoped to win all three singles. We won the first singles, but we lost lines 2 and 3 in very close matches. We won the first doubles match in an exciting three-set match.

It came down to our second doubles team of senior Jack Bresch and junior Justin Hajdukiewicz, with all the spectators and players from both teams watching. They won the first set and lost the second, forcing a third and decisive match for the WPIAL title. Jack and Justin thought we had already won, so none of us told them otherwise; we just let them play.

They went up 5-3 with Jack serving for the WPIAL title. His first serve was an ace. To my knowledge, Jack had never registered an ace in his entire career. The second point was a service winner. The next point was a winning volley and the match point was a groundstroke error by South Park. The title was ours.

I am also very proud that over the years many of my former team members (boys and girls) have returned and worked with me during my summer programs.

What do you enjoy most about coaching tennis? What do you enjoy the least?

Playing a high school sport is not easy. It's like walking on a tightrope; it's a great balancing act – balancing school, training, competitions, friends, parents, injuries, a social life and so on. Helping these young student-athletes walk the tightrope is challenging and rewarding. It's okay to have a few unstable moments, but the key is to keep them from falling off. That's what I enjoy the most. Obviously success is important, but seeing each team member grow and support each other is also what I enjoy.

Another challenge I enjoy every season is building a “team mentality” in a short period of time. Tennis is inherently a unique sport, so molding these individuals into a cohesive force is one of the aspects I enjoy. It cannot be emphasized enough how important each player's contribution is to the team outcome.

I would like to see some changes in the high school format. I would like to see more head-to-head matches. Currently the format is three singles matches and two doubles matches. Since no substitutions are allowed during a match, only seven players are involved. It is sometimes difficult for a coach to find sufficient playing time and maintain a competitive level over the course of a season. I would like to see the high school competitions follow the college format more closely.

And there are no timeouts in tennis matches. Yes, there are certain times when we can talk to our players. But sometimes a well-timed timeout can change the momentum and course of a match.

When did you start coaching tennis at the high school level?

I have been a professional tennis teacher since 1979. But my high school coaching career actually started at Sewickley Academy. The AD at the time was the great Win Palmer. He and I met the year (2004) I was inducted into the Sewickley Academy Sports Hall of Fame. I had left the Edgeworth Club after 24 years and struck out on my own, coaching high school tennis for Quaker Valley and teaching privately at the Kopf's courts on Edgeworth Lane.

Win told me they were looking for a girls varsity coach at Sewickley and asked if I was interested. I took the leap of faith and took up the challenge. It was a new landscape for me, dealing with a group of teenage girls and trying to form them into a team and everything that means.

We had two great years in 2005 and 2006 and qualified for the state tournament for the first time in team history. And it was during that time that I met and coached Jeff Sebastian, the coach at QV. I moved to California from 2007-2011. When I got back to town, Jeff reached out to see if I would be interested in helping out at QV as a volunteer coach in his last year (of coaching) in 2012. When he retired after that year, I took it about and have been there ever since.

What is your basic coaching philosophy?

I think it can be summarized with a nice quote: 'The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery', Mark van Doren.

Coaching is my passion and has been for 45 years. What an incredible gift it is to be able to give someone a safe space to try and fail, then succeed and know the confidence that comes with that success.

Coaching is very different from teaching tennis. When teaching, you mainly focus on the technical side of the game. With coaching you are dealing with the whole game and the whole player: the mental, emotional and technical side. And match play is especially challenging because you have to react to your opponent's style and make the necessary adjustments, while at the same time maintaining your own style. A player must be able to stay on course, because every match has peaks and valleys.

And coaching high school sports is so rewarding. Many believe that high school sports are the purest forms of sports.

What is your background in your distinguished athletic career?

Sewickley Academy (1967-1970): Lettered in six sports – field hockey, tennis, volleyball, basketball, lacrosse and softball – all three years. Hollins University (1971-1974): Lettered in four sports – field hockey, tennis, basketball and lacrosse – all four years.

Any final thoughts?

As I reflect on the past twenty years, I am very grateful for all the opportunities Quaker Valley has given me.

Keywords: Quaker Valley