VINTON, Va. – William Byrd's football stadium is getting a brand-new turf field and a new track surface this summer. The practice fields are being redone as well. Because of the construction the Terriers are practicing at Vinyard Park for two weeks.
Terriers head coach Jeff Highfill is entering his 37th year at the school. A year ago his Terriers ran up a 10-2 season, with the team's lone two losses coming to the eventual state champion Salem Spartans. This season William Byrd returns 2,000-yard rusher Larry Basham and leading tackler Logan Taylor. But Byrd will be working hard to replace a slew of linemen on both sides of the ball. Five of Byrd's top seven offensive lineman graduated, and three of its top five defensive linemen departed as well.
"It's hard to compare to last year, because last year we had built and built and built. We won three games three years ago..then six, then we went 10, and we lost those seniors so it's awful hard. We can't ask some of those young guys to do exactly what we asked those seniors last year, but we have enough of the seniors back this year that were big last year to lead these kids," Highfill said.
"We definitely go hard on the younger guys that are filling in the new positions 'cause it's hard to replace the people that we had last year but we got to just make do," Taylor said.
"We've got some young guys but so far we look pretty good. Hoping that they can step up but we are excited for them and I'm glad they're going to get to play some good football," quarterback Sam Dantzler said.
The Terriers open the 2017 season on Aug. 25 when they host Cave Spring.