GAINESVILLE | Kevarrius Hayes was as tall as the average American male when he was in the latter years of elementary school.

But he still had a little boys’ heart and it broke every time he had to say good-bye to his mother, Army Capt. Verrice Hayes, when she left for one of three deployments she made to the Middle East.

"The first time was really tough," said the University of Florida sophomore center and Suwannee High School graduate. "I found myself very emotional some days because I understood anything can go wrong over there. I was over-thinking it and worried a lot."

Verrice Hayes, now a 17-year veteran of the Army and the commanding officer of the 993rd Transportation Co., based in Palatka and Lakeland, said the feeling was mutual.

"The first time was hard on both of us," she said. "It was difficult being away. You don’t get to talk on a regular basis, you miss out on sharing things. The second time was a little easier."

And by her third deployment, to Kuwait, when Hayes was in high school? Well, by that time, Skype had been invented and they had a more frequent line of communication. Indeed, Verrice Hayes was able to watch her son’s basketball signing day ceremony at Suwannee on Skype.

Back in the U.S. for good and living in Gainesville, Verrice Hayes isn’t missing out on much as she’s watched her son establish himself as one of the key players for the 15th-ranked Gators (20-5, 10-2), who play at Auburn on Tuesday at 7 p.m.

Kevarrius Hayes, 6-foot-9, plays both power forward and center for UF and is the first low-post player off the bench. He enters the Auburn game averaging 6.1 points, 3.8 rebounds and a team-high 1.5 blocked shots per game and a .624 shooting percentage.

Hayes has blossomed from his freshman season, when played hard but was still working on developing low-post skills. Now, he has a deft baby hook to go with his dunks and lay-ups around the basket and he’s been as reliable as any player in playing mistake-free basketball, going six games in a row at one stretch without a turnover.

An area he’s improved on the most is at the free-throw line. Hayes made only .475 of his foul shots last season, but has boosted that more than 200 percentage points to .681, and is .782 in his last nine games.

Hayes impressed a nationwide TV audience — especially commentators Brent Musberger and Dick Vitale — when he had 20 points on 7 of 11 shooting, nine rebounds, three blocked shots and two assists in Florida’s 84-52 victory on Jan. 28 at Oklahoma. He started seven games when John Egbunu was hampered by a hamstring injury and averaged 6.8 points, 4.7 rebounds and shot .708 from the floor.

Florida coach Mike White loves to talk about Hayes’ "energy."

"You know what you’re going to get every day," he said. "He’s not an energy taker. He’s an energy giver. When he walks in the gym, it rubs off on the other guys."

Rare homegrown player

The list of outstanding basketball players from Live Oak is a short one. In a town long dominated by its high school football success, basketball has often been merely a bridge from the fall to spring football.

There’s Hayes. There is Rider senior guard Jimmie Taylor. And there’s Jamari Wheeler, who transferred from Suwannee to play at The Rock in Gainesville, and has signed with Duquesne.

It’s a list Suwannee coach and former Gators player Jeremy Ulmer is trying to boost, and he said continued success by Hayes will obviously help.

"I’m not sure why there haven’t been more good players from Live Oak but it’s something we’re working on," said Ulmer, in his sixth season with the Bulldogs. "Kevarrius sure helps put us on the map."

The relationship between Hayes and Ulmer is an important component in Hayes’ development. Ulmer’s son Blake was the point guard for the Bulldogs when Hayes played there, and the two have been friends since they met at Suwannee Middle School try-outs. They discovered a mutual interest in basketball and video games and Hayes soon became a fixture at the Ulmer household.

When Verrice Hayes deployed for the first two times, her son stayed with her parents in White Springs. When she left for the third deployment, she gave her blessing for Kevarrius to stay with the Ulmers.

"There wasn’t much of a transition," Ulmer said. "He was at our house all the time anyway. He fit right in. His Mom is a great lady and raised him to be very respectful of people. My wife made sure he kept his grades up and everything worked out great."

Basketball didn’t come naturally to Kevarrius. His mother said when he played in the sixth grade in Western Pennsylvania, where she was stationed for a time, it was sometimes comical.

"He was always the tallest but not the most coordinated," said Verrice Hayes, who was a standout basketball player at Hamilton County High School in Jasper. "Sometimes he had no idea what he was doing. He was just out there."

But when she returned from her second deployment, after Kevarrius began playing at Suwanne Middle, he had a growth spurt and had become more polished.

"I came back and saw that he could actually play," she said.

In addition to playing for Ulmer, Hayes was also invited to play for Team Nike in AAU ball, and he began to get attention from colleges.

But since he was in elementary school, there was really only one choice for him: Hayes wanted to be a Gator.

He signed in the fall of 2014 with Billy Donovan, a class that also included KeVaughn Allen and Justin Leon.

Shaken by Donovan’s departure

When Billy Donovan called Hayes in April of 2015 to tell him he was taking the job with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the NBA, Hayes both appreciated the gesture but didn’t understand the decision.

"I was really confused," Hayes said. "I didn’t understand how everything worked … I did not know how he could recruit and just leave the class. I was really shocked. I didn’t see it coming."

But the more he listened, the more Donovan helped him understand why the decision was best for Donovan and his family. Donovan had one request of Hayes and the other recruits in that signing class: give the new guy a chance.

Hayes did that a few weeks later after White was hired from Louisiana Tech. He and Ulmer went to Gainesville for a face-to-face meeting with White, and Hayes became the first player in the class to tell White he was staying.

"Coach White re-assured me he was going to try to help us be the best we could be, and it felt like he was all about the Gators," Hayes said. "That’s what I liked."

White, who calls coaching Hayes "a breath of fresh air," said he will never forget it.

"It was really impressive how loyal he was to Donovan’s vision for him, and how he thought my vision was somewhat similar," White said. "He showed a bunch of loyalty … he took a leap of faith, quickly."

A mother and a solider

If anyone wonders why Kevarrius Hayes has one of the best work ethics on the Gators, they need only get to know Verrice Hayes’ story.

A single mother as a high school senior, she felt her best option was to enlist in the Army. While she was an enlisted solider, Verrice Hayes got her under-graduate college degree at Edward Waters, then a master’s degree from the University of Phoenix.

That cleared the way for her to enter the officers’ ranks and eventually assume command of the 933rd, which specializes in transporting cargo and bulk items around the world — all the while trying to raise a son.

Verrice Hayes said her family "always had my back," and said her son never gave her cause to worry.

"We’ve always been really close and we did our best to keep the lines of communication open when I was gone," she said. "We would talk a lot, about where we were going, how things were going to be, and what both of our dreams were. He did his part by never getting into trouble, never following the wrong crowd."

Kevarrius Hayes said his mother has been his primary role model his entire life, and he knows the sacrifices she’s made to serve her country.

"Seeing how hard she’s worked, doing what she has to do, I learned that nothing comes easy and you have to work for everything," he said. "I’ve always been very proud of her. I know it wasn’t easy."

White said Verrice Hayes’ influence is easy to see in her son.

"The consistency, the work ethic, the professional manner in which he goes about his business," White said in listing the attributes that he said have been passed on from mother to son.

Kevarrius Hayes said that White and the other Florida coaches have done their part in molding him.

"I’ve learned a lot more about maturity," he said. "When I got here, I was all over the place. I didn’t have a sense of responsibility outside of the school work, didn’t know how to manage my time wisely. Getting here helped me make the harer decisions, when to give up free time for the stuff that’s more important than goofing off."

The best part about being at Florida for Hayes is that it’s coincided with his mother’s extended tour of duty in the U.S. — which means she’s a fixture at Gator home games.

A frequent though runs through her mind while watching her son dunk and swat shots.

"When I think back on how he’s gone from a boy to the man he is, I think, ‘wow’ … it’s been rewarding to see how well he’s doing," she said.