With the heart of a champion, coach makes a lasting impression

By John Shaughnessy

When he considers his 22 years of coaching girls in basketball, Jim Hayes hopes he has made a lasting impression on them. He knows they have made a lasting impression on him.

In fact, Hayes has a tattoo imprinted on his left forearm that reminds him of the championship team he coached in 2012—a group of six, sixth-grade girls from Nativity of Our Lord Jesus Christ Parish in Indianapolis who went undefeated.

“I made a promise to the girls that if we won the championship, I’d get a tattoo,” says the 62-year-old Hayes, who has 15 tattoos celebrating memorable parts of his life. “When they saw it, they couldn’t believe it. He actually did it! They gave me something, and I showed them how much I appreciated it.”

Still, the tattooed image of a basketball with the nickname of that team is just the tip of the appreciation he has for all the players he has coached at Nativity and at St. Therese of the Infant Jesus (Little Flower) Parish in Indianapolis.

That appreciation flows back to Hayes, a 2022 recipient of the St. John Bosco Award, the highest honor given by the archdiocese’s Catholic Youth Organization.

“At the Nativity festival, all these young women come up to me and say, ‘Hi, Coach.’ To me, it shows the impact I must have had when I coached them. It’s not only the love of the game for me but getting to know the girls. I try to teach them life lessons from playing basketball—to work hard, that there are consequences to their actions, and there’s a responsibility on their end when they commit to playing.”

His 16 years of leading teams at Nativity and six years at Little Flower have reaffirmed one of the best gifts he’s gained from coaching.

“The relationships I’ve developed not only with the girls, but the parents,” he says. “They belong to part of my family, and I belong to their families.”

One other memory came back to Hayes when he was presented with the St. John Bosco Award.

“When I was 50, I had a heart attack. When I woke up from that, my daughter told me I should have been dead. My faith grew stronger after that. I was searching for a purpose in my life. Why did God spare me? When I got the award that night, I think I got my answer.” †

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