By Ben Murphy
Beacon Correspondent
Recent Munising graduate Hayden Bayer was a definite standout for the Mustang volleyball team in her career. The talented outside hitter fortunately gets to continue making plays on the court at the next level, as she is set to join the program at Bay College, where she will study accounting.
“It means a lot, honestly. I’ve put a lot of hard work into my offseason with playing club and going into camps and doing travel ball,” Bayer said. “Hard work pays off, and this proves it. It means my hard work was noticed.”
While she was a rather polished player by the time her senior year rolled around, it wasn’t always that way for Bayer. In fact, early on in her volleyball career, things didn’t come easily at all.
“My sister had played in high school, and I thought it was cool to watch,” she said. “I started in middle school, but I was not very good at it at the start; it was difficult for me to learn. I started to put more effort into it and more work and dedication and it became easier, but there’s always something to fix. That’s how every sport is: There’s always something you can fix, and there’s always someone who is going to be better than me.”
That hard work and steady improvement paid off in a big way, as shortly after her senior season, she officially signed to join Bay College in Escanaba.
“It was cool. A lot of my classmates came down and supported me and my teammates and my coaches and parents. They were all there to support me, which felt really good,” Bayer said of her signing day. “It felt really good to have those people there to support me. They were there with me through everything, and just them being there with me helped keep me going. It was an awesome moment.”
Her signing day was a bit of an affirmation for herself too. Bayer admits she wasn’t always entirely sure she wanted to continue her volleyball career.
“The moment I was asked to play, I was unsure if I would or not,” she said. “But, you aren’t going to get this opportunity all the time. It’s not every day where someone is going to get a chance to play volleyball in college. It’s not a common thing and as I thought more about it, I thought I would go. Why wouldn’t I? That’s more volleyball for me.”
As for Bay College, Bayer said it felt like the right fit, and she likes the smaller campus size. After her career is done at Bay, she hopes to move on to play at a four-year school. But she’s also making sure to not get too far ahead of herself.
“I just know I can’t take anything for granted,” she said. “I have a chance to go play college volleyball, and I don’t think I’m ever going to let that go.”