Jun. 4—It has always been a goal for Coach Brant Hayes to become an Athletic Director and the Empire Board of Education and Superintendent Justin Smith agreed he was a great fit and promoted him to the position.

Hayes has been at Empire Public Schools for five years now and is the Head Football Coach for the Bulldogs. His new role as Athletic Director begins in the 2023-2024 school year.

Smith, who has been the Athletic Director along with his Superintendent role, said he felt excited to offer Hayes the position and knows he has been and will continue to be a good fit to help Empire Public Schools.

"Brant Hayes will be the new AD for 23-24. He has proven himself here at Empire and other schools as well as a knowledgeable, fair and reliable coach," Smith said. "The kids like him and he has a good relationship with parents and community members. He is a hard worker and I think he will be a great leader for our district."

Hayes is humbled to be chosen for the new role and meeting a goal he set when interviewing at Empire.

"I'm very humbled to be the new Athletic Director here at Empire, this will be going into my fifth year here and it was one of those, even when I interviewed five years ago that was one of my goals," Hayes said. "Five years later, I get the opportunity and I'm very humble and excited to be in this role. I want to try and bring back alumni and the history about the sports programs. We have some things planned for the upcoming football season, while right now I'm working on updating all the banners for all sports."

Despite being named to the position for the next school year, Hayes has spent time to end the 2022-2023 school year by participating in interviews for three new coaches hired for the 2023-2024 school year.

Hayes felt it was important to be a part of the process to bring in coaches who care about the athletes and the district. He said being involved helped him achieve that goal of finding good fits.

"That is a big process. We have actually had this in the works for a few months now and I got to be in the process of hiring a new wrestling coach, new softball coach and our new baseball coach," Hayes said. "We really think that we have a good staff now that is here and all is pulling on the same rope in the same direction. I think it is really important for those people to really care about our kids and that was one of the main things in our interview — how we think you are going to treat the kids. That is a really important thing, not just the wins and losses, but how you are going to treat our kids and how those relationships are going to be built."

The three coaches hired included Bailey Bradley for softball, Bo Hopkins for baseball and Tyler Lavey as the head wrestling coach for Empire High School.

Hayes will also continue his role as the head football coach for the Empire Bulldogs and says he feels excited for the future of Empire Athletics.