Augustana College Athletics

The first of three sisters who left their mark on the Augustana softball program in the early 2000’s, Hayley Hallstrom enters the Tribe of Vikings Hall of Fame tonight, becoming just the second primarily softball athlete inducted. From 2000-2003 the left-hander helped lead Coach Kris Kistler’s Vikings to a 106-64-2 record, garnering all-conference and all-region recognition all four years and earning College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin Player of the Year honors as a senior.
 
When Hallstrom graduated in 2003, she was the school record holder for career doubles (31), RBI (81) and total bases (231), as well as pitching strikeouts (436). She also held single-season marks for at-bats (142) and strikeouts (156). Her 20 strikeouts versus Benedictine in 2002 remain a single-game record at Augustana. She still ranks in the school’s career top ten in no less than four batting and five pitching categories and owns at least 10 single-season top-ten marks.
 
Hallstrom enrolled in the fall of 1999 after an All-Western Big 6 and all-metro senior season at Moline High School in Moline, Illinois. After seeing limited duty with Coach Lisa Robinson’s basketball team in the winter, she took the field as a freshman for first-year Coach Kris Kistler in the spring of 2000. All Hallstrom did was hit .461 (still the fifth-highest single-season average in school history) with three homers and 24 RBI and go 17-6 with a 1.99 ERA and a school-record 149 strikeouts in the circle. She was selected as co-MVP for the Vikings, who logged a school-record 30 wins against 15 losses.
 
During her sophomore season, Hallstrom had team MVP honors all to herself. She went 13-12 with a 1.65 ERA and broke her own school record for strikeouts with 156. She batted .317 and along with her sister Cassandra, was named all-region. Hayley also earned All-CCIW recognition for the second year in a row.
 
A third sister, Heidi, joined the Vikings for the 2002 season and the Hallstrom trio was key in Augustana posting a 27-15 mark. Hayley hit .322 with three homers. Coming out of the bullpen more than during her first two years, she went 2-5 with a 2.64 ERA and a pair of saves. In an April 13 start, she fanned a school-record 20 Benedictine batters, but three unearned runs in the eighth inning saddled her with a tough-luck loss. Although she wasn’t team MVP for the only time in her career, she was a first team all-region selection and was named to the All-CCIW second team.
 
During her senior season, Hallstrom was again Viking MVP and first team all-region. In addition, she succeeded her sister Cassandra as the CCIW’s Player of the Year. Hayley hit .394 with a team-high 10 sacrifices and went 9-5 with a 2.38 ERA in the circle—all as a starter.
 
For her career, Hallstrom hit .370 with eight home runs and a then-school record (and still 10th all-time) 81 RBI. With a pitching record of 41-28, she ranks fifth all-time at Augustana in wins, while her 436 strikeouts are second and her 2.03 ERA is 10th.
 
A marketing and management information systems major, Hallstrom spent a year and a half as a banker with JP Morgan Chase after graduation, as well as four years as a private pitching coach. For the last 11 years, she has been a manager with the Parts Division of Deere & Company.
 
While at Augustana, Hayley met future husband David Voorhees, a four-time CCIW champion in the decathlon and javelin as a member of Coach Paul Olsen’s track & field program. The couple has been married for 11 years and has four children—Owen, Tate, Jase and Elin. Hayley says she handles “mom duty” while David coaches the boys in soccer, baseball and basketball.
 
Although meeting David tops her list of Augustana memories, Hallstrom also singled out the friends she made, both in and out of softball, Coach Kistler and her staff and her “wonderful professors and great memories in class—except any math class!” She added, “The list could go on really, but Augie set the course for my life and I couldn’t be more thankful for that.”
 
Hallstrom reserved a final acknowledgement for her mother. “Also, big thanks to Sue Hallstrom, probably the hardest working mom out there! Busting it every day so I could go to Augie and not have the burden of debt when I graduated. She’s pretty awesome!”