Haye appointed as city recreation head

MOUNT CLEMENS — To the cheers of nearly all in attendance, the Mount Clemens City Commission appointed Karl Haye to serve as the city’s new recreation director at its April 7 meeting.

Known as “Coach Haye” to many, Haye’s appointment to the board was unanimous and met with great fanfare from meeting attendees. A part-time employee of Mount Clemens Parks & Recreation since 2024, Haye’s work at the Cairns Community Center and community recreation goes back to before the city took possession of the facility in 2022.

“I’ve been helping to serve the community since we moved here in 2018,” Haye said. “I really jumped into it around COVID as part of a group called Project Play … One of the programs we had was called SportPort, which was going to be a lending library for kids to help with access. Instead of your parents going and buying you all of this equipment, you could try different sports by basically the same way you go check out a book from the library. You can check out sports equipment and use it.”

Haye’s prior work includes running recreation programs at the Cairns Center and coaching middle school basketball in the Mount Clemens Community Schools district, but the work has been as much about mentoring and feeding kids and as it was teaching them to shoot from the foul line. Haye attributes the multifaceted nature of his prior recreation roles as a key for developing the skills necessary to communicate the value of community recreation as the department’s new director.   

“Because I wore several different hats and worked in several different areas, it actually enabled me to pretty much be in every sector of our city,” Haye said. “Which was a blessing because one thing I learned in a city that’s this old is that different people have different perceptions. I like to talk to people, I like to listen, so I got a chance to see where different people’s perceptions were and, at times, get to question them on those perceptions and ask if they were sure about what they thought was still going on in Mount Clemens … Not that it’s easy to throw programming together, but it’s a lot harder to get people a part of it and communicate those messages as opposed to actually making the program.”

Haye’s work around Mount Clemens has built up a level of support among residents, leading to one of the most passionate evenings at 1 Crocker Boulevard since the discussions over water system independence. No less than five rounds of applause were held as residents and commissioners alike sang Haye’s praises up to the point his appointment was made official.

“I think that Coach Haye will make a wonderful recreation director,” Commissioner Spencer Calhoun said. “He’s personally had an impact on me when I moved here. I spent a lot of time at the Cairns Community Center. Coach Haye was one of the faces that was always there … He’s a great person all-around to talk to.”

Mayor Laura Kropp told the commission Haye was one of the first people the city sought out for input when trying to reestablish a city recreation program. Commissioner Theresa McGarity said her vote to approve him came from the positive experience her granddaughter had with Haye’s coaching and generally with his work at the Cairns Community Center.

“You never know what kids are going through, and he received all children, seniors, middle-aged; it did not matter,” McGarity said. “He received them well and treated them like they were his children. I go into Cairns Community Center enough and I see it. I see people coming in. If they’re hungry, they’ll come to him (and) he’ll give them resources. If there’s something there, he will feed them. Everyone there is treated like family.”

Looking forward to his time as the recreation director, Haye plans on having a focus on social-emotional learning as part of youth recreation. Senior activities are an important aspect of the city’s existing recreation programing, and Haye plans on creating more activities that get seniors out of the home.

“Although it doesn’t get talked about, we do have a problem with senior depression, and I think a lot of that can be remedied if they have places to go and they can make new friends and they can hang out and see things,” Haye said.

One addition Haye is particularly excited to work on is increasing the number of family-oriented multigenerational activities offered by the city.

“I would really like to implement some family programming where kids are in the gym but maybe they’re not just only playing with other kids,” Haye said. “They’re playing with their parents or kids versus parents. Something where mom and dad don’t just come in and sit on the bleachers while their kids are playing, but instead they’re involved in the activity as well. Just to kind of create that family atmosphere and memories, more than anything else.”

The recreation director’s annual salary is $60,000.