ROANOKE, Va. – The Knights football fortunes turned quickly under coach Nick Leftwich, but the former Salem quarterback is making the jump to William Fleming after two seasons. In steps another local product ready to continue the work. Staunton River defensive coordinator Hunter Shepherd — is another former star who’s seen his share of time on “1st and 10″ a decade ago. He’ll take the reins of the Knights moving forward. Shepherd played under coach Jeff Highfill at William Byrd, then at Averett before returning to coach at both Byrd and most recently as the defensive coordinator at Staunton River. There’s no question he’s bringing plenty of the Highfill philosophy with him to his new job as leader of the Knights.
“From what I’ve seen, where they’ve been in the I-formation the past two years, that’s kind of what I’d like to do. That’s what we did a Byrd. My entire identity of football, whether office or defense is ‘we’re gonna win the line of scrimmage.’ If we can walk off that field, the most physical team more often than not, the wins will follow. Physicality is the is the equalizer — it makes people equal. You can have athletes that run 4.3 forty’s and run all over the place. But if they are not physical, the game of football slows down. If we have a physical football team and we beat you up from start to end, It seems to slow down and at the game we’re in the game and we make those moments count. We’re ready to be physical from top to bottom from start to finish and it will end the game the way we want it to be,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd played two seasons at Averett University before injuries ended his career.