CLINTON, Tenn. (WVLT) – It’s been six years since Tyler Byrd last stepped on the field as a Tennessee Volunteer.
Life now, looks different.
“If I were to go back and ask myself, I’d be like ’there ain’t no way.‘”
But there is a way. The VFL is in his first year as a position coach for the Dragon football team and a special education teacher at Clinton High School.
“I actually had a teacher that had a down syndrome son, so I took an interest,” says Byrd.
That interest has now turned into a career after football, where the only highly-touted recruit is now helping his students find the admiration they deserve.
“They’re very intelligent. They still communicate very well, and you’ve just got to take the time to get to know them.”
While Clinton High gets to know Byrd’s students, he knows them as well as anyone.
Every last one of them make the whole thing go ‘round,” Byrd says of his students. “Days where we don’t have them it’s…incomplete!”
Each day is crucial.
After school, Byrd prepares his players for life after graduation.
During school, he’s preparing his students for the same.
“We have kids like this everywhere, and I feel like we should always be trying to include them,” Byrd said. “When they’re able to communicate and we include them everywhere, you won’t even know the difference.”
20 miles from where Tyler Byrd scored touchdowns in the checkerboards inside Neyland Stadium, he’s making his biggest impact on East Tennessee.
Byrd plans on earning his Master’s degree in special education.
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