“Mayor Byrd” Begins 24th Season As Athletic Director At Cheraw High School

By Billy G. Baker

Publisher 

Cheraw — David Byrd will be starting his 24^tth season as the athletic director at Cheraw High School this school year, and he has been at the school as a teacher and head baseball coach for 29 seasons.

After thoughtful prayer last November, Coach Byrd decided to run for Mayor of the town of Cheraw, literally paying his filing fee five minutes before time expired to file. “I finally got an answer from our school district that they had no issues with me deciding to run for mayor on the final day of filing,” said Coach Byrd. “So, I hung up the phone, rushed home, changed into a pair of Kakis and got to the office to file for mayor five minutes ahead of the deadline.”

Coach Byrd won the election 2-to- one. The outgoing mayor was retiring after 35 years on the job and very few people had applied to run for mayor, but Byrd did face opposition. “I will be honest with you, going door-to-door, campaigning for support, it reminded me of what I do promoting our athletic teams at Cheraw High,” said Coach Byrd. “The more I got around the community, I actually started liking campaigning.”

Coach Byrd also said it helped that with the retirement of the out-going mayor, the town voted to have a city administrator led form of government, doing away with the strong mayor form of government that had bene in place. “While I am still involved in all major decisions in the town, I do not have to serve as a full-time mayor, and I stay in close communication with our city administrator,” said Coach Byrd.

Of all the direct phone calls “Mayor Byrd” has received from Cheraw citizens, since becoming Mayor, one call will always stick in his mind. “We have an ordinance that you can own up to four chickens, or four ducks, per house hold within the city limits and one caller asked if I could get the ordinance increased to 12 per house hold,” said Coach Byrd. “So far, we have not taken action on that request.” 

Coach Byrd said he stresses to his coaches several key points. “Any athletic director that says he does stress the importance of competing and preparing your teams for success, and wins, is not being honest, and at Cheraw we hope to be successful every time we compete,” said Coach Byrd. “I stress to our coaches the importance of networking, and having good relationships with the both the high school coaches they compete against, and also college coaches we hope take an interest in our athletes for potential scholarships.

“However, the bottom line is we want our student athletes to display good sportsmanship at all times and to represent themselves, their families, and Cheraw High in a first- class manner,” said Coach Byrd.

 Coach Byrd’s Cheraw  baseball team finished 20-8 this past season and lost in the District finals to Oceanside Collegiate, 7-6. During the 2024 season Coach Byrd won his 400^th career game and he will enter the 2025 season with a career record of 403-101, including state championships in 1999 and 2004.

“We are only losing two starters off a 20-win team this past season,” said Coach Byrd. “We have a lot of players who have been competing together since the 8^th grade. I would say that expectations  for us having a very good season this year is quite high. We should have an opportunity for a deep run in the play-offs.”

Andy Poole will return to his alma mater as head football coach, and he will be starting hit 9^th season with high expectations for his team that returns around 17 starters. Cheraw has the majority of their OL back.

Coach Poole has adopted a “Banners Or Bust” mantra for the upcoming season. The slogan is plastered throughout the locker room. Coach Poole recently told the HSSR, “We anticipate competing for a region title, and we expect a deep play-off run. Anything less, we will feel like we had a disappointing season.”

Damien Ashe returns for his 5^th season as head boy’s golf coach. Tyonne Harrington will pull double-duty as the head boy’s tennis coach, as well as becoming a first-year head coach of the boys’ basketball team.  

Andre Garvin will coach both the boy’s and girl’s cross-country teams. The adult head trainer will be Amanda Ozolins. The competition cheer team will be under the direction of third year coach Elicia Quick.  

The new head volleyball coach will be Barry Driggers a Cheraw graduate who played football and baseball for the Braves. Coach Driggers has a talented daughter who plays volleyball on a year-round basis.

One of the most successful coaches at Cheraw High is head softball coach Kevin Thurman who completed the 2024 season with a 347-234 career record including a past state title at Central High School. Thurman had a very young team in 2024.

The Cheraw wrestling team will once again be headed up by second year head coach Jeremy Mabry a Cheraw graduate who played football, baseball, and compete in wrestling in high school.