The William Byrd football team had a great time to have their bye last week.
While many teams were moving games off Friday to Thursday, Saturday and even
Monday the Terriers chilled out and looked forward to this Friday’s game against Cave
Spring.
“During the open week we were able to get a lot of quality fundamental and team
reps in,” said Byrd coach Brad Lutz. “We’re playing well but we are still making too
many mistakes on Fridays, so we used last week as an opportunity to focus on those
mistakes. With that said, we were able to get an early start on film study and game prep
for our next opponent.”
The Byrd game with Cave Spring was originally scheduled for Thursday. The
Knights share Roanoke County’s Bogle Field with Hidden Valley, and the Titans were
scheduled to host Salem on Friday. However, when Cave Spring’s game with Blacksburg
was postponed until Monday the two south county teams switched dates this week to give
Cave Spring three days between games.
The Knights are coached by Hunter Shepherd, who is very familiar to Vinton
football fans. Hunter played for coach Jeff Highfill at Byrd and his dad, Robert Shepherd,
is a long time sandlot coach in Vinton. Also, Hunter’s mother Tammy was a tireless
worker with the football booster club for many years, so when the Knights host Byrd it’s
a special game for the Shepherds.
This is Hunter’s second year as head coach of the Knights. Last year’s game was
in Vinton at Patterson Stadium and it was a close one, with Byrd winning 14-12.
“It’s always interesting going back to Byrd and playing,” said Hunter. “That’s
where I played high school ball and grew up playing on that field, so it’s always exciting
getting to play them. But as a coach and for my kids, we treat them like any other
opponent and go about our business as usual.”
This year, with the game at Bogle Field, it won’t be a homecoming for Hunter and
Robert, who is an assistant on the Cave Spring staff. Hunter has several other assistants
who played for, or coached with, JR Edwards, a former Byrd quarterback under Highfill
who is now head coach at Franklin County.
“JR is a very close comparison to Highfill as a coach and system, especially with
JR playing for Highfill himself,” said Hunter. “So, the guys on my staff know the way we
want to play football because they’ve been in that kind of system before.”
The Terriers come into Friday’s game at 4-0 and this is their last game before
opening their Blue Ridge District schedule next week against William Fleming. Cave
Spring comes in at 1-4, opening with a win over Western Albemarle followed by losses
to Northside, Glenvar, Christiansburg and Blacksburg on Monday.
“The season is a work in progress,” said Shepherd. “We’re a young team trying to
learn how to fight and finish.”
The Terriers have had an extra week to prepare while the Knights are playing on a
short week due to last week’s weather. That would tend to work in Byrd’s favor.
“Because the Blacksburg game was moved to Monday it has definitely changed
the schedule quite a bit, but we are making the best of it,” said Shepherd.
Lutz knows the Cave Spring boys will view this as a special game for their coach,
and he’s taking nothing for granted.
“Cave Spring has a very talented roster of skilled players and linemen,” he said.
