Printer-Friendly
Email this Story
Post a Comment (0)
Andrew Byrd: Blocking, catching, slugging were 250-pound Byrdman's traits
When a ball is thrown to Andrew Byrd, there’s a decent chance it will hit him square in the chest and fall to the ground.
As odd as that sounds for a football player who had 21 receptions last season, it's one reason Byrd has been named the 2009 Fauquier Times-Democrat Boys Athlete of the Year from Fauquier High.
Taking throws off the chest wasn’t Byrd’s strategy on the football field, of course, the senior is actually known for surprisingly soft hands in that realm. A 6-foot-2, 250-pound defensive lineman, he was an offensive weapon as a receiver out of the backfield for the Fauquier Falcons last fall.
Rather, Byrd used his chest as a secondary baseball mitt, of sorts. While playing first base for the Falcons in the spring, when a ball thrown across the diamond was off line and in the dirt, Byrd wasn’t afraid to stick his chest out and block it from bounding away.
He did the same on balls hit in his direction, if need be. Errors can be fatal in baseball, after all, so Byrd preferred temporary bruises and welts.
“Pain can go away and errors can’t. If I knew I couldn’t scoop a throw over or pick it, I’d put my body in front of it,” Byrd said. “And I don’t field the ball like everybody else does. I always put my body in front of the ball.”
Despite leading Fauquier with 137 putouts last season, Byrd also had one of the team’s top fielding percentages at .959 and he only committed six errors. He prevented countless other errors, too.
“We’re such a better team with him at first base. We had some young guys on the left side of the infield and he just gave them a bigger target,” Fauquier baseball coach Paul Koch said. “He’s really got a knack, probably it’s part of the football mentality, that he’ll stick his nose out there. He’ll stick his chest right on the baseball.”
Blocking was also one of Byrd's best skills on the football field. Over his career, Byrd played guard, tight end, wide receiver and running back on offense, and he helped pave the way for teammates from each position.
“He’s just really good at a lot of things, but blocking he just picked up on it quickly," FHS football coach Mark Scott said. "Blocking as a receiver is different than blocking as a lineman. He was able to block in space."
While blocking helped Byrd excel in both baseball and football it wasn’t the only transferable skill. A baseball player since age five, Byrd credited the hand-eye coordination required to catch and hit a ball for helping him become a weapon as a receiver on the Fauquier football team (7-3).
Although his primary role on offense was as a blocker, Byrd still finished third on the team with 21 receptions and accumulated 183 yards. He especially excelled at season's end with nine receptions and 111 yards over a two-game stretch.
“That’s one of my biggest skills," Byrd said of catching the ball. "Instead of just running the ball and having to get through a bunch of linemen, they could throw me the ball down the field and it’d just be me against defensive backs and linebackers."
Byrd also finished the season with 113 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries as a running back. Those two touchdowns helped Fauquier kick off the season with a 52-6 victory over Kettle Run. The two defensive touchdowns Byrd scored as a senior were much more valuable, though.
A linebacker and punter at times throughout his career, Byrd played defensive end last season and scored touchdowns from that position in consecutive weeks. After opening the season with those two offensive touchdowns against Kettle Run, Byrd intercepted a pass the next week in a 35-33 victory over Stafford, returning it 13 yards for a touchdown.
“He bobbled it for about 15 yards and finally caught it and walked it into the end zone,” Scott said. “That spurred us on to win. It was just a great play.”
Byrd intercepted that pass on the first play of the second half with Fauquier trailing 26-14. Sparked by Byrd’s touchdown, the Falcons outscored Stafford 21-7 in that third quarter and held on to win.
“Because I’m a bigger guy, you just wouldn’t expect it,” Byrd said. “It turned that game around. After that interception, everybody loosened up and we started playing our football. It showed we were a good team and we could beat good teams.”
The second defensive touchdown Byrd scored as a senior came in Fauquier's third game, a 42-14 win over Mountain View...See the Wednesday print edition of the Fauquier Times-Democrat for the complete story.
You must be logged in to post a comment.