For a little over six years, Matthew Hayes worked for Nortis, a biotech firm in Woodinville, Washington. It isnโt a stretch to say the product the company makes โ microfluidic chips that mimic human organs for the purpose of biomedical research โ could change the world for the better.
Yet during that time, Hayes also worked as a quality-control coach in two college all-star games, as a summer intern for the Philadelphia Eagles and as director of operations for pro footballโs version of a startup โ the XFLโs Seattle Dragons.
โItโs one thing to make money. Itโs another thing to be happy,โ said former Bellevue (Washington) High School coach Butch Goncharoff, for whom Hayes worked as a volunteer coach for five years. โIf you can do both ...โ
At 39 years old, Hayes has arrived at a place where he can enjoy the best of both worlds. His parallel career tracks have converged at the University of Arizona. He is the associate athletic director of football operations for the Wildcats โ the overseer of the operations side of the program first-year coach Jedd Fisch has reconfigured over the past two-plus months.
โHeโs kind of my right-hand guy,โ Fisch said.
Hayesโ story is similar to Fischโs in some ways. Both have worked their way up from the bottom, fueled by an unbridled passion for football.
Itโs different from Fischโs โ and just about anyone involved in the sport โ in most respects. Those who know him and have worked with him believe those experiences will set up Hayes for success at Arizona and whatever comes next.
โHeโs an endless worker,โ said former NFL quarterback and coach Jim Zorn, who befriended, mentored and ultimately hired Hayes with the Dragons. โHe follows through. Heโs the kind of guy you really want in your football program.โ
โGrowth mindsetโ
Hayes grew up in the Boston area in a working middle-class family. He was a classmate at Xaverian Brothers High School of Nathanael Hasselbeck, the youngest of three football-playing brothers. The older two, Matt and Tim, would become NFL quarterbacks.
Hayes played receiver at Xaverian and at nearby Bridgewater State, an NCAA Division III school. Unlike the older Hasselbeck boys, Hayes knew playing football wasnโt his future. He was a backup in college, catching four passes for 83 yards and two touchdowns in 2003 and โ04.
The Hasselbeck brothers attended Boston College. Nathanael subsequently moved from Boston to Seattle, where Matt was playing for the Seahawks. Nathanael invited Hayes to visit him under the guise of helping him make friends and comparing rรฉsumรฉ notes.
Little did Hayes know that Nathanael had been networking on his behalf and hoped heโd join him in Seattle.
Hayes figured it would be a โcool experienceโ and โsomething different,โ so he decided to give Seattle a shot. An insatiable sense of curiosity โ which Hayes calls his โgrowth mindsetโ โ has guided many of the key decisions he has made in his life.
Hayes took a job in financial operations with Parmenter Homes, which builds custom homes in Washington, and helped the company navigate the financial crisis of 2007-08.
In the meantime, Hayes became curious about daily-deal websites, a relatively new concept, so he decided to launch one from scratch. He also helped a friend, former NFL offensive lineman Mike Wahle, start a company. Oh, and in 2008, Hayes began volunteering at Bellevue High School.
This would become a pattern for Hayes โ taking on multiple tasks, pushing himself into new areas and learning along the way.
โThe more tools you can collect, experiences, the more well-rounded you are,โ Hayes said. โIt gives you perspective. It gives you a different way to approach things. It puts you in a mindset for growing.โ
Hayes chose to volunteer at Bellevue because Goncharoff ran a version of the wing-T offense.
โHe was fascinated by it,โ Goncharoff said. โHe was always trying to learn different versions.โ
Goncharoff attended clinics run by then-Oregon coach Chip Kelly to try to expand the offense. Goncharoff would take Hayes along.
โMatt just ate it alive. He loved it,โ Goncharoff said. โThen heโd want to talk about it for the five-hour drive home.โ
โA crazy grinderโ
Around 2012, Hayes realized that he wanted to make football his career, whether in operations, personnel or coaching. He was too far removed from college to become a graduate assistant. Matt Hasselbeck suggested that Hayes reach out to some of the contacts heโd made in the NFL. So began Hayesโ relationship with Zorn.
Hayes assisted Zorn in tutoring quarterbacks. Zorn helped Hayes learn a new language.
โHe took me under his wing and said, โIโm gonna start teaching you NFL football. Weโre gonna go to another level,โโ Hayes said. โHe taught me all about quarterback play and drills and how to break down film.โ
Zorn had been Hasselbeckโs QB coach in Seattle from 2001-07 and worked in the NFL through 2012. He coached the West team in the 2015 East-West Shrine Bowl and was able to get Hayes on the staff. Hayes worked under Ken Flajole, a longtime defensive assistant in the NFL.
Flajole then became the linebackers coach for the Eagles. He brought Hayes back east as a training-camp intern in 2017, โ18 and โ19. Hayes was working for Nortis full time at that point, but footballโs pull remained irresistible.
โMatthewโs level of involvement with the company was about 80 hours a week. This guy is a crazy grinder,โ said Ryan LaRock, one of Hayesโ former colleagues at Nortis. โHow in the heck do you ... bounce across to the other side of the country, go through training camp and still find time to manage the entire operation at Nortis? He did it without even missing a beat.โ
LaRock said he sometimes would connect with Hayes remotely and heโd have โfour different screens up.โ Or Hayes would be eating dinner at midnight.
โBut he was able to manage it and juggle all that stuff,โ LaRock said.
Then-Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz was so impressed with Hayesโ work ethic that he asked the intern to speak to the players. Schwartz then took it a step further: He let Hayes call a defensive series in the Eaglesโ 2019 exhibition opener against the Titans. Hayes didnโt take the opportunity lightly.
โYou might have thought he was calling a two-minute drive in the Super Bowl,โ Flajole said. โHe took it as serious as you could. He probably didnโt get a lot of sleep the night before.โ
Then again, when did he ever?
Dragons, Wildcats
The year before, 2018, Hayes decided to pursue an MBA at the University of Washington.
โWhy not, right?โ Hayes said.
He was still working at Nortis, still interning with the Eagles and still making it all work.
Then, in 2019, a new opportunity arose. The XFL, which had rebooted in โ18, launched a franchise in Seattle. Zorn became the head coach. He hired Hayes as the Dragonsโ director of football operations.
โI needed somebody strong in that area,โ Zorn said. โHe fit that bill over and above.โ
But it took some convincing. There are only so many hours in a day, even for a master multitasker like Hayes.
โI actually said no to him three times,โ Hayes said.
He eventually said yes, and the job was everything he expected it to be โ and more.
โEvery day there was something new, something that we had to field,โ Zorn said. โThat was kind of fun. And hard.โ
The degree of difficulty rose when offensive coordinator Mike Riley had to step away from the team on the eve of the season because of a family matter. The Dragons also lost an offensive quality-control coach around that time.
Zorn could take over the play-calling duties, but he needed someone else he could trust to help out on offense. He tapped Hayes.
โIt added more to his plate,โ said Goncharoff, who coached the Dragonsโ running backs. โIt threw him into the fire. Heโs not scared of the heat.โ
Hayes somehow figured out a way to juggle yet another job while continuing to work at Nortis and finishing his MBA. The XFL folded during its inaugural season last March. In September, Hayes got married. Zorn officiated and hosted the ceremony in his backyard.
A few months later, Fisch took over at Arizona and went about restructuring the football operation. It was the job Hayes had been working toward for years.
โI always used to kid him: โYour SAT score is a lot higher than mine. What the heck do you want to coach football for?โ Flajole joked. โYouโve got a stable job. Youโre making a pretty good income. Why do you want to do this?โ
โLike a lot of guys, itโs because thatโs what his passion was. He loved the game. He liked being around the players. He loved the challenge.
โHe continued to pursue it. Eventually, it worked out to where now he can make a living being involved in the sport. Iโm happy for him.โ
