Crawford’s Hayes Signs to Play at Arizona State

Mark Hayes, who had signed a national letter of intent to play football for San Diego State, has signed a new letter of intent to play at Arizona State, Sun Devils’ Coach John Cooper confirmed Wednesday.

Hayes, a 6-foot 7-inch defensive lineman from Crawford High School, made a verbal commitment to play for the Sun Devils before the first day high school players could sign letters of intent, Feb. 12, but then decided to sign a letter with the Aztecs on the signing date.

But Hayes’ mother would not sign the letter for her son to attend SDSU. Under NCAA rules, letters without a parent’s signature become invalid after 15 days. So the letter Hayes signed with ASU last week was not in violation of NCAA rules.

Hayes and his mother were unavailable for comment Wednesday night.

Chris Miller, who was the Crawford head coach last season and is now an assistant coach at SDSU, said Hayes’ mother may have swayed him to play for ASU.

“As far as I knew he was all set to go (to SDSU),” Miller said. “But I know his mother would not sign the letter for him to play there. She wanted him to go to ASU. I’m sure his mom had a big influence on him, just as any athlete’s would.

“I unplugged my phone on the night before the signing day because I was getting so many calls about him. As far as I knew then, he was all set to go to Arizona State. About 6 in the morning, Mark called and said he wanted to go to San Diego State. I asked him, ‘Are you sure that’s what you want?’ He said, ‘Yes, I want to play for SDSU.’ ”

Cooper said Hayes will fit in nicely at ASU.

“We did not have a good recruiting year,” Cooper said. “We don’t expect him to come right in the first year and play a lot. But we will lose a lot of defensive linemen after this year, so he ought to have a good chance to play a lot as a youngster.

“He had committed verbally to play for us, but I guess he had some second thoughts at the last minute and wanted to play for San Diego State. But we talked with him and worked everything out.”

Hayes was the Central League co-defensive player of the year and a member of The Times’ all-county team.