Hayden Kaut never wanted to be a basketball player.
As a child, she dreamed of standing on the sidelines as a cheerleader, but she started playing basketball as a first grader with the help of her mother, Eastern Washington University basketball Hall of Famer Kathleen Kaut, neé Nygaard.
Young Hayden Kaut admits she hated basketball at first. Once she began to recognize her blooming talents through select basketball, however, she found she could have fun with the sport after all.
Now, the Napavine High School standout and 2023 2B state champion Kaut is taking her talents to Missoula, announcing her verbal commitment to play collegiate basketball at the University of Montana on Sunday, July 6.
Montana was the first of three Division I programs to give the 6-foot-2 soon-to-be senior a scholarship offer, along with Eastern Washington and San José State. Kaut took her first trip to Missoula last September, when the Lady Griz coaching staff offered her. She returned to the Garden City last month, and within her first couple hours of her trip, she knew Montana would be her next home after graduating from Napavine in 2026.
“Compared to the other visits I went on, they were a lot more welcoming. The girls and the coaches were all super nice, and the facilities are really nice there,” Kaut said. “We were there for three days, and when we went back to the hotel after a few hours on the first day, I told my dad I’m committing.”
While Montana seemed like an easy decision for Kaut, the opportunity to play at her mother’s alma mater lingered in the back of her mind. After all, her mother left the EWU women’s basketball program in second place on the all-time scoring list and was the school’s first ever All-American finalist in 2004. Kathleen Kaut was inducted into the EWU Athletics Hall of Fame in 2015, but she passed away at 40 years old on Feb. 7, 2023, when Hayden was in the middle of the 2B District 4 Tournament in her freshman year. Hayden even competed in the district quarterfinals that evening. She later got the words, “Love You! - Mom” and a heart in her mother’s handwriting tattooed on her right wrist.
“I went to visit EWU because I wanted to see where she got to play and see how it was there,” Hayden Kaut said of her mother. “I really loved it there. The coaching staff was great. It was just that I didn’t want to be playing in like a shadow necessarily because obviously she has a bunch of records there and was in the Hall of Fame. I just didn’t really want to be playing in a shadow.”
Kaut described playing basketball as an “escape from reality” for her through grief and added that her mother is often on her mind when she competes, especially with significant accomplishments like hitting the championship-clinching shot in her hometown of Spokane and committing to Montana.
“I think she would be really proud. She used to always tell me that, no matter what happened, she would be proud of me,” Kaut said. “I think this would definitely make her very happy.”
Montana’s coaching staff has recruited her consistently since watching her compete in Chicago last July, even through a coaching change. Former head coach Brian Holsinger, who offered Kaut, resigned from his role in February and was replaced by Nate Harris, who assured Kaut that she would still have an offer and interest from the program despite the turnover.
“He’s very happy but he also doesn’t want to be your friend necessarily. A lot of coaches won’t tell you what they’re thinking because they don’t want you to hate them,” Kaut said. “But he’s very straightforward and will tell you what you need to work on.”
Before she heads to Montana, she has one more select season and one more high school season at Napavine to complete. Kaut is working on getting stronger in the weight room and her ball handling. She also understands it takes a special mentality and toughness to compete at the Division I level, having learned from her mother’s success at that level and from watching Montana’s practices while on a visit.
“They’re definitely very intense. My mom used to tell me that she would call her mom crying after every practice because it was so hard,” Kaut said. “But once you get used to it, it just becomes a normal thing for the next four years.”
Next summer, Kaut aims to graduate from Napavine with her associates degree from Centralia College before pursuing a degree in elementary education at Montana. She currently works at a daycare and has plenty of experience with children, including her own family.
“After my mom passed, my little brother was only 3. I’m the oldest of all of our like 20 cousins, so I’ve always been the babysitter of the family,” Kaut said. “I love kids.”
Kaut hopes to potentially pursue a nursing degree after basketball or in her last two years of college with the idea of becoming a travel nurse. She isn’t certain at this point how far basketball will take her, but she is enjoying the journey and making her family proud on the court.
“I haven’t really thought about that that much. I just really love playing. I had thought about after college being a travel nurse because I like to travel,” Kaut said.
