Hayasaki served as the head coach for the University of Illinois men’s gymnastics team for 33 seasons, capturing the National Collegiate Athletic Association team title in 1989. His teams won the Big Ten title six times (1981, 1983, 1988-89, 2004, 2009).
He has served as the personal coach for three Olympians (Dominick Minicucci,1988, Charles Lakes, 1988; and Justin Spring, 2008). He was honored as the NCAA Coach of the Year in 1989 and the Big Ten Coach of the Year four times (1988-89, 2004, 2009).
During his more than three decades at Illinois, he coached 14 individual NCAA champions, 45 Big Ten champions, and 89 All-Americans. As a gymnast at the University of Washington, he won back-to-back NCAA all-around titles (1970-71) and the high bar crown in 1970. He was the Amateur Athletic Union all-around champion in 1967 and the U.S. champion in 1968, when he also won individual titles for the still rings, parallel bars, and horizontal bar.
Hayasaki graduated from Washington with a Bachelor of Arts and from Illinois with a Master of Science in teaching. He is a member of the University of Washington Hall of Fame. Today, he resides in Champaign, Ill., with his wife, Lisa, and their four children, and is the owner and director of Hayasaki Gymnastics Center..
