‘I thought: Coach Hays, he’s going to coach until he dies.’

The word has spread across the nation – Dan Hays, the icon of men’s basketball at Oklahoma Christian University, is resigning. In the days and weeks following the announcement, Hays’s former and current players, student employees and co-workers discuss how he changed lives on and off the court.

Oklahoma Christian’s sports department released the news publicly on Jan. 15 and started a chain reaction of news coverage across the state of Oklahoma and the rest of the nation.

“I was surprised because honestly I thought, ‘Coach Hays, he’s going to coach until he dies,’” Kelsie Wright, the program assistant, said. “And he’s a legend, so to me he’s invincible, he’s never going to quit, he’ll always be there.”

Will Chapman, assistant coach and scholastic coordinator for Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, played under Hays from 2008-2010, worked as the program assistant from 2010-2012 and moved up to graduate assistant for the 2012-13 season.

After learning of Hays’s resignation, Chapman said he felt mixed emotions but tried to reflect on the good things Hays accomplished.

“It was weird because when you think of OC basketball you think of Coach Hays,” Chapman said. “And with him not being there anymore it’s something in your mind you’ve never pictured before. It’s an unusual feeling that’s for sure.”

Chapman said he entered the Eagles basketball program as a freshman with the desire to coach after graduation. He said Hays impacted his future coaching career by the way he conducted himself as a person and a coach: how hard he worked, how he handled daily business items and his approach to the program as a whole.

“His knowledge of the game, his expertise…his overall personality helped me make that decision [to be a coach] and gave me opportunities to become a coach,” Chapman said.

Hays also influenced the current graduate assistant, Kendre Talley, in his path to coaching, according to Talley.

“This is my first year [as graduate assistant],” Talley said. “It’s really important to have on your resume a grad assistantship when you want to be a coach, and who better to learn under?”

Talley said he felt surprised at Hays’s announcement, “but basketball is a crazy game – if you don’t have that love for it that you always had, you know when you’re done.”

Talley said the news is not all negative, however, and can be used to inspire the Dan Hays’s final basketball team.

“Our last game I was in the locker room and I told the guys ‘If you didn’t have anything to play for this year, now you do,’” Talley said. “We’re dealing with a lot of injuries, still kind of young – we only have one senior – so it’s a struggle but I told them not to worry about playing for themselves but to play for him since it’s his last go around.”

Talley’s words reached men’s basketball captain Luis Lopez as he reflected on Hays’s influence and support for many years outside of college.

“He’s been a role model for me since the summer of 2004 when I first attended his camp,” Lopez said. “Ever since then it’s been a dream – I never thought it would happen – to play under him. He’s been great to me. I would’ve loved to have him for all four years but I’ve just been blessed to play under him for three years.”

Lopez said Hays is “the most selfless man I know. So I will take away that aspect of his character – his selflessness.”

Outside of the men’s former and current team, Wright works as the program assistant – handling the technology used for the men’s games and practices. She said Hays shows that he cares for all of his players and staff on and off the court.

“When you come to college it’s hard because your whole life changes,” Wright said. “I don’t care where you’re from, college is still a crazy experience and so coach Hays … just makes you feel welcome and warm and like family.”

Where the name Dan Hays ignites admiration in some and respect in others, for Wright the name brings humorous memories.

“Whenever we’re on road trips we have this movie bag and he brings a bunch of movies and we watch it on the big Village Tours buses,” Wright said. “He’ll crank that up when everyone’s trying to sleep and say ‘I can’t hear it.’ Last trip we watched all of the Rocky movies.”

Curtis Janz, Oklahoma Christian athletic director, said he and Hays have worked side by side for 33 years, causing high admiration.

“Other than my father, no one has had a bigger impact on my life than him,” Janz said.

Janz said he believes Hays has been the face of the athletic department for the past 33 years because of his impact on campus and in the community by teaching the game of basketball “the right way” and putting “people ahead of the game and people ahead of wins.”

As Hays’s final game day, Feb. 27, comes closer and the realization his friend will no longer be the head coach sinks in, Janz said he is sad to say goodbye but “very happy that he’s going out on his own terms.”

“I will always be indebted to him for the support he gave both publicly and privately for the NCAA process,” Janz said. “It was a very, very in-depth four-year process and he was always supportive of everything we did; very important especially at the beginning, for me, for him to do that…there could’ve been – or were some – that doubted our ability to do it and that support was invaluable.”

Janz said he and Hays have community outreach and fundraising plans through the remaining academic year but have no specific date on when Hays’s employment at Oklahoma Christian will officially end.