Kevin Llewallyn
“If you don’t understand how a woman could both love her sister dearly and want to wring her neck at the same time, then you were probably an only child.”
-Linda Sunshine, Author
East Hamilton sisters Madison and McKenna Hayes have left an indelible mark on the Chattanooga prep sports community over the past few years in both basketball and volleyball.
The awards and recognition they’ve received, and the amount of attention they’ve gotten, are both well-documented and much-deserved.
Madison, a senior who will play basketball for Mississippi State next fall, is the reigning Tennessee Class 3A Miss Basketball and a favorite to win it again. She also won a gold medal playing for Team USA in the 2019 FIBA 3-on-3 U18 World Cup in Mongolia last summer, and was recently named a 2020 McDonald’s All-American.
Sophomore McKenna has already cemented herself as a star in both sports as well. While her trophy case might not be as full as her older sister’s yet, she has already received interest from Division I college basketball and volleyball programs.
But while the sisters have established themselves as two of the premier athletes in the area, one thing that has often been overshadowed is who they are as individuals and their relationship as sisters.
“It’s a huge compliment for people to say that we’re great basketball players, but I don’t want to just be known as a great basketball player,” said Madison. “I want people to get to know me, to know me and McKenna as people. I would rather them say that we have great personalities and character, and that we’re leaders on and off the floor. We love doing things for our community, and I want people to remember us for that.”
As I sat with Madison and McKenna in a coach’s office just steps away from the court they proudly call home, it became abundantly clear that the link these two phenoms had off the court was a typical sibling relationship filled with love and respect, as well as moments of contention and rivalry.
The pair started playing sports at a young age, but only truly got serious about basketball in middle school. Madison – who was a standout softball player prior to high school – decided to focus on basketball after the eighth grade. The first time the duo ever played together on the hardwood for the same team wasn’t until Madison’s tenth grade season when McKenna was moved up to the varsity team as an eighth grader.
“When we were young, whatever (Madison) did I was right behind her,” McKenna said. “I would always go to watch Madison play sports, so I started to get interested in sports, too. But it wasn’t until I got bumped up in the eighth grade that we finally got to play together. I’m so thankful that I was moved up to give us that extra year together.”
“Our parents never really forced us to play certain sports when we were young,” said Madison. “They just let us get involved in activities in the rec league, and they encouraged us to try everything. Whenever we wanted to play, we would play.”
Even though they didn’t play together on an organized team until the past few years, that doesn’t mean that the two haven’t been competitive with each other throughout their lives. The girls’ father, Adrian Hayes, recounted one of those moments that stood out in his mind.
“Madison was 12 years old and McKenna was 10, and I had just bought a Wii and brought it home for them to play,” said Hayes, who also played collegiate basketball. “It hadn’t been more than 15 minutes from when I got it set up upstairs that I heard McKenna getting upset with Madison. McKenna was losing, and Madison is the kind that won’t show any mercy when she knows she has you beaten. I got tired of the arguing, and told McKenna to go downstairs and let Madison play for a little bit, then they would switch places.”
“Not five minutes later, I heard Madison just bawling upstairs. I yelled at McKenna that I had told her to leave her sister alone. She called back from another room downstairs that she hadn’t even gone upstairs. When I went to check on Madison, she was puffy-eyed crying. I asked her what was wrong, and she replied through her tears, ‘I didn’t beat my high score.’ She was sobbing just because she hadn’t beaten her high score after a few minutes. That’s how competitive Madison is.”
While both sisters quickly said Madison was the more competitive one, it became clear to me in our conversation that McKenna was not far behind. After laughing about their early-morning jam sessions in the car on the way to school, the two disagreed rather quickly when I asked who was the better singer.
“Me,” McKenna jumped in immediately.
“I don’t know,” Madison fired back defensively. “Some songs you can hit it, but I hit my songs too, so it’s kinda like 50/50.”
“I feel like every song, I put my heart into it like it’s a karaoke session,” McKenna said, to which Madison gave her an irritated side-eye look that only a sister can give.
I got the same playful interaction when I asked which one dressed better. After a couple of minutes of the two arguing, they landed on the distinction that their styles were too different to compare, with Madison dressing more casually, and McKenna – who admitted to being more into social media – dressing up more often.
The two also had their own story to share.
“When we were younger, we were by ourselves at the gym and we were just playing around,” recounted McKenna. “I ended up taking her ball, and she got so mad and tripped me and I fell facedown on the floor. She ended up going to get another ball, banged it against my head and my teeth fell out. They had to do Invisalign on my teeth because she banged them out and they were never gonna grow back. It didn’t really hurt, but I cried because I couldn’t find my teeth for the tooth fairy.”
According to McKenna, her sister never apologized. Instead Madison pleaded with her not to tell anyone so she wouldn’t get in trouble.
But as the topic of conversation got more serious, I could tell that the relationship was built on love, something that the pair’s mom, Greta Hayes, said has been emphasized throughout their family’s lives.
“Family has always come first in our house,” said mom, who played basketball in college as well. “We have always done everything together as a family. When we need to go to the store, we’ve always packed up and gone together. We eat meals together, hang out together. Obviously as the girls have gotten older they go off and do their own things sometimes, but we have always put an emphasis on being a strong family.”
McKenna didn’t hesitate to say that her sister had been one of the biggest influences in her life, both on and off the court.
“She’s my role model; I look up to her,” she said. “I’ve always just wanted to be wherever she was. She’s been such a positive influence on me, and has shown me how to always do the right thing. Obviously we spend a lot of time together on the court, but we also work together with the parks and recreation refereeing games for younger kids.”
“We have our times where we don’t get along, I’m not gonna lie,” Madison added. “But at the end of the day we’re sisters, and we love each other.”
But while McKenna has looked up to Madison throughout their lives, she admitted that she has worked hard to create her own identity and not simply be known as “Madison Hayes’ little sister.”
“It does bother me sometimes because it’s almost like everyone wants me to be just like her,” McKenna said. “I love being her little sister, we’re blood, but when she goes off to college I look forward to just getting to be McKenna.”
“You just want your own name,” an understanding Madison chimed in, directing the comment at her sister sympathetically.
McKenna admitted that she’s not ready for Madison to go off to college, but she knows she’s in good hands.
“I have my moments where I sit back and think about it,” said McKenna. “I don’t want her to leave, but I know she’s going somewhere that’s good for her. I didn’t get to go on an official visit with her, but my parents sent me videos of her dancing with the team, and it made me feel more comfortable seeing how much she loved it.”
The torch will not only pass from Madison to McKenna to lead the Lady Hurricanes, but also at home as the big sister and role model. The Hayes family is just over a month away from adopting the four younger foster kids – two boys and two girls – that have lived with them for several years.
“We’re really good about letting people in,” Madison said about her younger brothers and sisters. “When they were in need of a home, we took them in like they were our siblings already. It was an opportunity for them to grow, and I would want someone to do the same for me if I were in the same spot.”
“We’re very involved, giving them baths and doing things with them,” McKenna added. “Our parents involved us in the family decisions and really wanted to hear our thoughts on everything.”
In a world where young people are often chastised for chasing “Likes” or “Views” on social media, and everyone wanting to achieve fame by going viral, Madison and McKenna Hayes have remained grounded even in the midst of tremendous success and fame.
The awards and accolades will surely continue to pile up over the years, but more important is the impact that each of these young women will have on those they touch because of the solid foundation they’ve built off the court as a family.
(E-mail Kevin Llewallyn at kevin.llewallyn@gmail.com)
Sisters, Madison (14) and McKenna (21) Hayes stand side-by-side in athletics and life.