Born to be behind the mic

Reece Hayes was 7 years old when he started broadcasting play-by-play into his mother’s cell phone as the family watched a Creston home soccer match.

Hayes, now 19 and a freshman at Southwestern Community College, has turned that early broadcasting venture into a budding career behind the microphone. He has called several football and basketball games for KSIB Radio in Creston while being a full-time student. And, recently he’s added some broadcasting duty at Southwestern Community College athletic events for the college’s online streaming service.

Eventually, he would like to follow in the footsteps of Orient-Macksburg graduate Wiley Ray, who got his broadcasting career started at KSIB as a student at SWCC. Ray is finishing his final semester at Northwest Missouri State as a broadcast productions major. He has performed several roles for Bearcat Media there, including operations director and host of a weekend sports kickoff radio show. Iowa State graduate Cole Strider of Creston also spent his college years broadcasting for KSIB, and worked as digital media intern for the the Iowa Cubs.

Return to roots

Reece, the son of Kristopher “Kritter” Hayes and Regina Haage of Keokuk, graduated last spring from Central Lee High School in Donnellson. Kristopher Hayes was a teacher and coach in Creston from 2011 to 2014, before the family moved to Keokuk. Reece attended Creston schools in early elementary grades and has returned as a SWCC student. He resides with his grandfather, David Hayes.

Reece participated in football and soccer for four years at Central Lee and basketball for three years. His father is the former varsity boys basketball coach at Central Lee, now a social studies teacher and middle school coach there. However, he has been hired as grades 7-12 principal for Lenox Community Schools for the 2026-27 school year. Current high school principal Alyssa Cline will become elementary principal, following the retirement of Bill Huntington.

With Kristopher and wife Kristie moving to the area this summer, the father-son broadcasting team could be reunited. Reece and his father have broadcast some games together for RadioKeokuk in southeast Iowa. Reece gained his first opportunity calling baseball games the summer after his junior year at Central Lee.

“When I was playing basketball my sophomore year the guy broadcasting the game, Steve Cirinna, was talking to my mom after the game and she told him I was interested in broadcasting,” Reece related. “He told her the general manager of the Keokuk station would be interested in having me. That summer I wasn’t playing baseball and I started broadcasting softball and baseball games.”

Reece said that impromptu soccer call from the Panther Stadium bleachers a dozen years ago was a sign that he was meant to be a broadcaster. Growing up, he’d focus on the work of the broadcasters almost as much as the action on the field while watching sports on television.

“I was always interested in the NFL announcers and how they broadcast the games,” Reece said. “It seemed like such a fun thing to do. I was paying attention to what they were saying. Some of the broadcasters I liked hearing in all the sports were Joe Buck, Gus Johnson, Jim Nantz and Joe Davis (Fox and Los Angeles Dodgers).”

Kristopher Hayes said his son gained experience doing summer sports and then a season of basketball games when he didn’t play as a high school senior.

“He was all over southeast Iowa doing games and we supported him,” Kristopher said. “He has always felt a connection to Creston. My dad moved back to Creston two years ago so he decided to go to SWCC and he’s living with his grandfather. Last spring he sent a couple of his recordings of his broadcasts to KSIB and when he visited SWCC he talked to them about doing something.”

Good timing

As it turned out, Reece’s role became much bigger than first imagined.

Chad Rieck, KSIB co-owner and general manager, said the timing of Reece’s interest was perfect, as news and sports director Stuart Johnson resigned just before the start of the football season. Johnson returned to his former position at KAAN in Bethany, Missouri.

Suddenly, Reece Hayes was a primary high school sports broadcaster, along with some part-time duty by Jeff Veitz.

“I want to help anyone interested in broadcasting,” Rieck said. “Our original plan was for him to do the audio for Panther TV (live stream) at the Creston home games. Then when Stuart was leaving, we were in a bind. That put him at the front of the line.”

Reece accompanied Ray in covering the opening week game of Mount Ayr vs. Nodaway Valley. Ray has continued to help KSIB on occasion after moving to Maryville. Since he had played four years of football at Central Lee, Reece had never broadcast the sport.

“I went with Reece to the second game at Riverside,” Rieck said. “On the trip we talked a lot about broadcasting and things to keep in mind. I did play-by-play the first half and he did color commentary. At halftime we talked and he was ready to step in for the play-by-play. I could see that he had the confidence that he could do it, and I had confidence that he could do it. From that moment he was on his own. As with any young person, there were some growing pains. But he continued to improve and as we got into basketball season that was great as well.”

Reece was reminded to not have more than three to five seconds of dead air, so listeners wouldn’t think they’d lost the signal, and to play the appropriate number of advertisements by sponsors during halftime. He learned to jump in before the start of the second half and give a recap of the first half, with analysis of what the teams might be looking to do after the break.

“The action, especially in basketball, is fast and you have to figure out you can’t explain everything you are seeing,” Rieck said. “You literally have to follow the ball. I taught him how to do a drive chart in football so he could recap drives.”

Quick memorization

Reece moved to an area of the state he wasn’t familiar with, so he went into every game not knowing the players on either team. Preparation for games includes a briefing on the names and numbers of the main players for both teams, which is found on Bound, the high school sports website of data tracking.

“I started doing some games off and on five years ago,” Veitz said. “It’s tough when you don’t know the kids, when you’re looking back and forth at the game and the rosters. It’s easier to keep the flow of the game going when you’ve learned their names. I worked with Reece at a couple of basketball games. During pregame, I told him I always check on the pronunciations. If I have a question I might go up to a coach and check to make sure I have it right.”

Hayes said he’s learned how to study the teams in advance and have a good idea of who he’ll be watching.

“Once I got in the groove I kind of recognized the players more, especially after doing some Creston basketball games,” Reece said. “I think I got better at displaying the emotion of a good game to reflect how exciting it becomes. I try to paint a good picture for the listeners.”

Father-son duo

Since Reece has moved to Creston, his father has taken over some of the broadcasting duties for RadioKeokuk. During the winter academic break, the father-son duo worked together.

“When he came back home for Christmas break we were able to do some games together,” Kristopher said. “I told him, you do the play-by-play and I’ll do the commentary. It was fun. I’ll be going back and forth to Keokuk to watch his brother (Carver) play his senior year at Central Lee. But I’d be open to doing some games with Reece when it would work out.”

Rieck said Reece is well on his way to a career behind the microphone.

“I asked him who he was a fan of, like Iowa or Iowa State?” Rieck said. “He said he was a fan of the Iowa Hawkeyes. So, I told him to listen closely to (Hawkeye Radio Network’s) Gary Dolphin. Listen to how he transitions into a break and out of a break, how long they play commercials and how he describes the action. How he works with his partner on-air. This is what Reece wants to do. Now he’s also giving us some postgame interview recordings. We still have Damon Helgevold contracted to do our daily sports reports, and Reece sends him the raw audio that he can cut up and include in that. It’s been great.”

Like Ray, Reece hopes to forge a path to a broadcasting career at Northwest Missouri State after graduating from Southwestern. He’s heeding the call he felt as that 7-year-old soccer commentator on mom’s phone.

“Having this job at KSIB, and working at the SWCC games now, has reinforced that this is what I want to do,” Reece said. “It’s nice to get so much broadcasting experience already.”