Cindy Folken, Jon W.

Wednesday, March 28, 2001

Cindy Folken, Jon W. Erichson and Joel Schieck are recipients of 2001 Everett E. Hays Austin Youth Basketball awards.

The trio was honored at the annual AYB banquet held Sunday night at Holiday Inn of Austin.

Tom Bowers, president of the AYB board of directors, praised the trio for their contributions.

Folken is one of the AYB’s original board members and has served as vice president and secretary. According to Bowers, "Cindy has been a long-time advocate for equal playing time for all youths."

Erichson, now an advisor to the AYB board, was president for the 1999-2000 season. In addition, Erichson has coached both boys and girls teams.

Schieck also served as an AYB board president in 1998-99 and since 1993, he has been a coach. All three sons of Joel and Pearl Schieck were coached by their father in AYB seasons.

The award is in honor of the man, who created the AYB. Hays was a special guest at Sunday night’s banquet.

He began his coaching career in youth basketball in 1970, when he took on the Shaw Gym Travelers.

Hays not only coached teams, but also refereed games, scheduled tournaments, raised money and otherwise shepherded the organization all by himself.

Hayes was, perhaps, best-known as the coach of the eighth grade boys teams and as the boys became young men and played for Austin High and Pacelli High teams, they would frequently credit Hayes with instilling in them both fundamentals and an appreciation for teamwork, during their youth basketball careers.

He continued his affiliation until the 1995 season, when Hays stepped aside to make way for the reorganized AYB.

As Hays watched Sunday night, the "new" streamlined AYB honored its own.

According to Bowers, the 2000-2001 season saw 53 girls participate in grades fifth through eighth on five teams and 67 boys on six teams.

A 15-member board of directors now oversees the AYB season.

Bowers said the AYB enjoyed a successful season and realized profits (before expenses) in its tournaments.

He credited Hormel Foundation, Austin Elks Club and Austin Jaycees with being significant financial supporters of AYB.

Bowers singled out volunteers for special praise. "Volunteers are the foundation of any successful non-profit organization, when 5 to 10 percent of the people involved do 80 percent of the work," he said.

Two former AYB players, Stacy Fisher and Andy Erichson, were guest speakers. Both are stellar high school athletes and recalled their AYB experiences.

Then it was time for the coaches of the 11 teams to honor their players. Each AYB cager received a medal and the eighth graders each received an AYB "graduation" present: Spalding basketballs for their final year of youth basketball participation.

Bowers expressed his appreciation to the volunteer coaches and their assistants and the evening’s events concluded with a raffle.

Among the raffle prizes were 16 original sketches by Hays, also a well-known sketch artist.