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Familiar Name Emerges At Pasco's Spring Workouts

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By CRISTINA LEDRA

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 3, 2008

DADE CITY - A Pasco High football player with a familiar name and familiar talent is about to emerge, if the spring was any indication of what can be expected from soon-to-be sophomore Jamie Byrd.

Byrd is the son of Jamie Byrd Sr., who was a standout in Pasco's backfield and secondary for the 1992 state championship team and it turns out the younger Byrd was blessed with great genes and an in-house football coach.

"If he sees me doing something wrong, he'll tell me I'm doing something wrong, so I try to get my game right so that he can say 'Son, you had a good game'," Byrd, Jr. said of his dad.

There was plenty of reason to applaud Byrd's performance Friday at Pasco's Red and Black game. While Pasco coach Tom McHugh watched the offense, Byrd called all of his own plays, a responsibility McHugh awarded him a week ago.

"He let me be a leader and I'm just a freshman, so I'm not used to that," Byrd said. "I'm just coming up on varsity and he just handed it to me like that. It felt good. I'm a freshman; I'm not even supposed to be on the field.

"And it wasn't pressure. I step up in big times and it makes me want to work even harder when something big is on the line. He made me a big priority and I stepped up and I did that. I led the team to win the Red and Black game."

Byrd started playing football at age 8 and was a good player by the time he got to Pasco High, under the teachings of his dad and godfather Mike Penix, a Pasco alum and former assistant coach.

Byrd, at 5-foot-10 and 165 pounds, came up to the varsity late last season and started adjusting to the speed and size.

In addition to Byrd, McHugh saw another standouts that showed promise.

"I saw that we have a couple of good inside linebackers Byrd and Timmy Saylor and I saw that we have a couple of guys that can really run and receiver Chase Dunn has phenomenal hands," McHugh said. "And I kind of already knew that, but when he got the chance to play against our defensive corners, he did a really nice job and we have a good, young quarterback in Gus McGlaughlin."

Keyword: Pasco, for a photo gallery of the game from staff photographer Fred Bellet.

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