SHREVEPORT, La. — C.E. Byrd High School in Shreveport, La., is hunting for a new head football coach after the school moved on from Stacy Ballew, Principal Jana Panos announced Thursday.
The change comes days after the Yellow Jackets wrapped up a 1-9 campaign, one of the roughest in the history of the program. The final game was a 48-21 defeat to longtime rival Captain Shreve.
Ballew led Byrd for six seasons and finished with a record of 33-34. He stepped into the job after serving as an assistant under Mike Suggs, the longtime coach he replaced, and his ties to the school run deep. He is a Byrd graduate who spent more than 20 years there as a player, an assistant and finally the head coach.
Panos, who became principal this fall, said in a statement that the move was about where the program is headed and not about the effort or character of the coach. She thanked him for his years with the school and its athletes.
The principal said Byrd will post the opening soon and conduct a broad search. School leaders want a coach who can build on the football history at Byrd while setting a new direction for the Yellow Jackets.
For Byrd, the decision closes a chapter led by one of its own, a coach who came up through the program as a student and stayed on the sideline for most of his adult life. The school said more details on the search and the timeline will come as they are available. The hire will be closely watched across Caddo Parish, where the rivalry with Captain Shreve remains one of the biggest games on the local calendar every fall.
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