After 36 years, Mr. Hayden’s legacy as a gym teacher is finally coming to an end.

After graduating high school here at Pentucket in 1973, Steve Hayden began working here as a gym teacher in 1979. Hayden then started coaching the football team in 1983 and began a new era of here at Pentucket.

As a gym teacher, Hayden competed with his students in every class and tried to get everyone involved with the games they played. Hayden’s obvious favorite game was pickle ball as he destroyed every student in all gym classes. That’s why he won the “Pickle Ball Player of the Year” award from the former 2014 football captains.

As ironic as it seems, everyone around the Cape Ann League knows Hayden as nothing but respectful and full of good sportsmanship. However, anyone who has ever taken his gym class knows that Mr. Hayden is the king of trash talk (especially when playing pickle ball).

Mr. Lovett, a Pentucket science teacher, has known Mr. Hayden for twenty years, describes his funniest memory of Hayden as when he wore a mask on Halloween and scared the kids when they walked into the locker room. He then said, “It’s sad to see such a valuable asset here at Pentucket leave, but it’s well deserved, and he has worked a ton of hours for it.”

Mrs. Kelly, who works closely with Mr. Hayden, has known him since he was her gym teacher in high school. She thinks that when Mr. Hayden retires he will “do a lot of stuff around his house, fixing stuff and doing housework. He’s going to read a lot too.”

Mrs. Kelly describes her funniest memory of Mr. Hayden of when he pulled a practical joke on another teacher. “There was another teacher who was on a diet where he could only eat tuna fish, and Mr. Hayden put a tuna fish label on a can of cat food and switched it with the other teacher’s tuna fish. Then the other teacher actually took a bite of the cat food!”

Mr. Hayden has been through all the ups and downs here at Pentucket. He will be incredibly missed next year by the staff and students. Hayden vowed that he will continue to coach the football team next year and continue the legacy.