Thank you to coach Byrd

Thanks Coach Byrd, I think it is safe to say I speak for numerous Whitefish families in thanking you for your many years of service to our soccer program.

Your local high school win (72 percent) loss (19 percent) record and championship runs remain an impressive statement of success, but I feel there are some personal qualities in your coaching that deserve equal recognition.

You literally showed a generation of local young men how to seek something in team play greater than themselves and how to ask the most of themselves individually in doing so. They responded to you out of respect for your character and skills.

Obviously your many teams took pride in their wins but you also helped them understand the dignity in the loss of a game well played and how to learn from it. Many, many parents are glad you crossed the life path of their sons.

To paraphrase one of your many end of season player plaques, “the ball is now at your feet” and we in Whitefish think we know what you are going to do with it — good luck in Columbia Falls. I’m sure you have left behind a program that looks forward to playing across the field from you.

I also suspect you may be the first Columbia Falls coach inducted to the Bulldog Hall of Fame!

— Eric Hosek, Whitefish