C.E. Byrd (Shreveport) parts way with alumni Head Coach Stacey Ballew

Yellow Jackets part ways with Stacey Ballew

Who is in the running to take over the pride of Shreveport, the Purple and Gold, the 101 year history of the C.E. Byrd Jellow Jackets football team?

A little background. Byrd has a history and tradition of running the Wing T offense. In the mid 90's Ballew was the center for the Leon Murray and Arnez Battle QB'ed yellow jacket teams coached by Allen Carter.

Upon Carters move to the district athletic admin, Offensive Coordinator Mike Suggs was promoted to the lead the Jackets and Ballew was hired on.

After Sugg's successful run of more Wìng T he retired and Ballew was chosen as the replacement.

Ballew started his six year run hot going 9-4 his first year and the State Quaterfinals his 2nd year. Ballew kept the tradition of the Wìng T being run by Shreveport's best public high school. Coach Ballew's run cooled off and he went 2-8 and 1-9 his last two seasons.

So C.E. Byrd is now parting ways with it's alumni head coach as it eyes the next leader of the tradition rich program.

The school on Line Ave now has big choices to make. Who is in the lead to be the next coach? Will the tradition of the Wìng T finally come to an end? Will the offense modernize?

Fyi, Byrd has a magnet program so they have always been able to draw and enroll players from all over Caddo Parish unlike your traditional high-school with boundaries.

However many observers of North Louisiana football would agree that running the Wìng T has cost the highschool talented players over the years as they have chosen to play elsewhere in Shreveport.

But they would also agree the C.E. Byrd Wìng T won a ton of games along the way putting together big performance's especially in the rushing record books.

Big changes may be coming to the 101 year old program. Some would say its been time for a while. Others might conclude traditional offenses can still work when they put smaller less athletic players in positions to succeed.

The C.E. Byrd fans and alumni likely feel like it's time to hire a coach that can bring in a modernized Spread offense to lead the school into the future.