By JIM STEELE
mckenzierebels.com

Former McKenzie two-sport all-stater and Bethel all-conference performer Drew Hayes is raising the stakes.

Hayes, who earned three all-state football honors and two all-state baseball honors at McKenzie, is headed to Vanderbilt of the Southeastern Conference.

Vanderbilt spent time at No. 1 last season, winning the Southeastern Conference before bowing to Michigan in an upset during the NCAA regionals. Hayes will become the Commodores' next closer and will help bolster Tim Corbin's pitching staff after the departure of David Price (drafted No. 1 by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays) and Casey Weathers (drafted eighth by the Colorado Rockies).

Hayes has always wanted to compete at the highest level and he'll get his chance with the 'Dores, where he'll be immediately eligible.

"I hope it's a big challenge," said Hayes, introspectively. "It will be fun, lots of intensity, exciting, challenging, something I'm looking forward to, no doubt."

Hayes will have three years left to play against some of the nation's toughest competition.

"I've played college baseball, now I'm going to play in the SEC with different teams, different people," he said. "I'm going to have to work harder and improve myself to remain at the top tier; I need to improve my velocity and my breaking ball."

As a Bethel Wildcat, Hayes earned numerous All-TranSouth honors this past season. He was second-team all-conference as a pitcher and second baseman and secured TranSouth gold glove honors for his defensive work as a pitcher. Twice he was named conference pitcher of the week.

Hayes batted .320 with seven homers, seven doubles and 38 RBI. He was 6-4 with two saves on the bump and had a 2.72 earned-run average. Hayes played football for the Wildcats last fall, but curiously never played a down, even when Bethel was well ahead in most of its contests, especially at home.

In high school, Hayes led the McKenzie Rebels to the Class A state baseball championship in 2006. He struck out 170 batters as a senior and won the Class A title game with a 12-strikeout gem over favored Forrest. He earned all-state honors his junior and senior year and was named Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association player-of-the-year. He was drafted by the Arizona Diamondbacks after graduation. Drew batted .522 his senior year with 10 home runs, 49 RBI, 16 doules, two triples, 24 walks, nine stolen bases, 56 runs and he struck out only once. On the hill, Hayes had a microscopic 0.63 earned run average. He was 13-2 on the mound, appeared in 17 games, worked 99 innings, allowed just 43 hits, nine earned runs, 32 walks while striking out 170 his senior season.

"It's a tough decision to leave Bethel. Nobody understood why I wanted to come to Bethel, except a few people," Hayes said. "I met some great people like (Jonathon) Keck and (Jonathan) DeBerry, guys I've known for a while like Scott Dean, Coach (Eric) Patton, Rusty Thompson. I've been part of Bethel for a long time and everyone likes to be in a comfort zone."

In high school football, he completed 73 touchdown passes for 9,292 total yards in his four-year prep career. He set three state marks and one national record (46 completions in a game) as a senior. He is Tennessee's second-leading all-time passer, trailing Westwood's Kenton Evans. Hayes became McKenzie's first Mr. Football winner in 2005. He earned all-state honors in 2003, 2004 and 2005 and was named Region 6-2A and Region 7A MVP. He was never used at Bethel, though his signing was much publicized across the state, largely because of his football legacy.

The former Rebel and Wildcat wished it could have been different on the Wildcat football team.

"That was something that didn't work out, something I didn't expect and something I didn't enjoy," Hayes said. "I wanted to pursue it this year, but I would have had to give up some baseball time to make football workouts and I was told that if I didn't make the workouts, I'd be a lot lower down on the totem pole; I was told I'd be a fourth-string quarterback and that it would be unbelievably difficult to ever be the starting quarterback."

But Hayes did say he enjoyed his time with the players.

"It's nothing against the players and I enjoyed meeting them and being around them," Hayes said. "Guys like Terrence Bell, Brian Nellett, Adrian Smith, Buck Reed, the Baggetts, they are some of the best guys to ever be around, but I wasn't going to be in a good situation."

Drew's mother, Joyce Hayes, says it will be tough to see him go, but she's pleased for him.

"I'm very proud that Drew has worked so hard and I think it's paying off and he's going to see some benefits from his hard work," she said. "I'm looknig forward to watching him pitch. It's sad to see him leave but it's a good move for him and we're only two hours away. Drew will enjoy it and the two-hour trip will be nothing for Glenn and me."

Drew's father and coach, Glenn Hayes, Bethel College athletics director and until recently, Bethel's baseball coach, says Drew has given his family a lot of fun memories.

"We have shared so much from t-ball to Little League to junior high to the golf course," Hayes, the elder, said. "Having Drew at Bethel was an absoluite joy and we'll continue to share things, but it will be different; Drew always has been succesful from the beginning when he was hitting off the tee in the back yard to pitching at Bethel. We had all those great football nights and obviously winning a state baseball championship, and those guys were our Little League boys, so it's bittersweet."

Coach Hayes said it will be an adjustment for Drew.

"We talked about being in Nashville but we also talked about the quality of life and that it doesn't get much better than here in McKenzie," he said. "And he'll be close to home, he has family in Nashville. It's a new chapter for him and totally different for us."

Hayes said he will have every chance to earn the closer's role at Vandy and could move into the starting rotation if that's where he's needed. But one of the biggest challenges will be moving from an everyday player who bats to a player who may just play every so often and not hit. His response was one of those lemons-to-lemonade hyperboles.

"It's going to take time to adjust, but that will just be more time I can devote to pitching, more film study," he said. "It will be tough to give up, but it will help my pitching in the long run."

Hayes had a 3.9 grade-point average while at Bethel and was an honor student at McKenzie High School.

"He has so many athletic honors and accolades," said Coach Hayes. "But a lot of people don't realize how hard it is to do that and have the grades, too. That's really something."

Hayes said he hopes to parlay potential success at Vanderbilt into success at the highest level in baseball someday.

"No matter where I go, I want to make it one day. That's been my focus and ultimate goal since I was 3," he said. "I want to get drafted high and get a chance to play in the Majors."

He'll certainly get that opportunity, having already captured the attention of the Arizona Diamondbacks. He also has drawn interest from the Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers and Los Angeles Dodgers.

Hayes will join John Kermit Laughrey as former Rebels on Vanderbilt rosters. Laughrey, one of Hayes' classmates and a member of that 2006 state baseball championship team, is a non-scholarship football player for the Commodores and is expected to challenge for the kickoff job at Dudley Field this fall.