Winning Region Coach of the Year is not an easy feat; it’s even harder to do it in your first year as a head coach.
Enter Andre Byrd.

Coach Byrd took his team to the first round of the Class AAAAAA state playoffs, eventually falling to McEachern in three games. The Rams finished with an overall record of 15-11, which included going 9-3 in the region and obtaining the No. 1 seed.

The Covington News: How long have you been coaching where you are?

Andre Byrd: I’ve been at Newton for a total of six years. This is my first year head coaching.

CN: The team had one of their best seasons in school history. With that said, how would you rate your job this season?

Byrd: I would give myself, out of 1 and 10, a nine. We’re talking about a team that went 8-20 last year. They went 8-20 with the No. 3 seed in the playoffs. And it’s the same exact team. We had to do some attitude adjustments; we had to get some parents on board. The only reason I wouldn’t say a 10, is because there’s always room for improvement.

CN: You guys obviously dominated in region play, you went 9-3, but how do you get to that level in non-region play? (They went 6-8)

Byrd: In non-region play, you’re just trying to see what you have going into region play. Those games count on your record, but they don’t count when it matters. A lot of those games were played to see what type of products you had to win region games.

CN: You also won Coach of the Year. What do you attribute your success to?

Byrd: Being humble and learning from other coaches. Me sitting back for a while and watching other coaches, some were successful and some were not successful. Kind of take 50/50 from each. It helped me out this year when I finally got the chance to get my own squad. I contribute it to just being and humble and not knowing everything.

CN: Have you been JV coach the whole five years?

Byrd: I started on the ninth grade level in 2008. I did ninth grade for two years. I’ve been doing JV since 2010. I won on both levels. This team that just graduated is the team that came in with me and that made it all fun, too.

CN: What are your plans for the off-season?

Byrd: My plan for the off-season is to go watch my fraternity house play travel ball and kind of relax, spend time with my family and think about how we can improve next year.

CN: I know the team had trouble with the curveball. How do you plan on making them better at it?

Byrd: I’m going to study because obviously what I’m telling them isn’t registering (he laughed). And kind of call around and see what other coaches approach is. I’ll call some of my old coaches that I played for, because their teams did very well, and see what they’re telling their kids to do with the curveball.