CLARKSBURG, W.Va. — Robert C. Byrd entered the 2025 Class AAA playoffs as the No. 14 seed after posting a 5-5 record. They were drawn against conference rival Fairmont Senior, a team that defeated Byrd by 26 points in Week 2. The Flying Eagles flipped the script in their postseason opener with a 36-28 win at East-West Stadium, giving RCB their first playoff win in four years and their first victory over the Polar Bears since 2014.
“We played them early in the season and even then, I thought we had a good chance. We just really didn’t execute,” said Robert C. Byrd head coach Austin Scott. “I feel like that gave the guys some comfortability to know exactly what is at stake and know what it takes to beat a pretty good team.”
As Austin Scott enters his fourth season leading his alma mater, the Flying Eagles have increased their win total in each of the last three years.
“We’ve had a freshman team last year and we have one this year. Anybody that knows, that is a big deal to have that many kids wanting to play football. Especially here in Clarksburg, everywhere the population is probably going down. But if you see your numbers going up in football, that makes a football coach happy.”
“We had a lot of numbers this year when it comes to the weight room,” said Robert C. Byrd senior FB/LB Deegan Barnett. “We’ve had a lot more attendance than we had since my freshman year. Coming up freshman to sophomore year, we were only having five-to-ten guys in the weight room the whole time. I think this year, we had close to forty almost every single day we had lifting.”
“That’s the biggest thing, we have to work together,” said Robert C. Byrd senior WR/DB Junior Smith. “We’ll make sure we get our key players here and work together and just build our team chemistry from here and all the way to August.”
Scott welcomes back a returning starter at quarterback. Former Liberty signal caller Isaiah Heflin has gone through his first full offseason in the program. He accounted for 22 total touchdowns as a junior.
“Our offense has kind of expanded already from him being here in the summer,” Scott said. “Him just being comfortable with what we are doing, he has a great command for what we want to do on offense. He is just putting it together and bringing everybody together with him.”
Heflin’s top target on the outside is Junior Smith and Smith could line up at various spots all over the field.
“He is going to be probably everywhere,” Scott said. “There were times last year we stuck him at QB just to get the ball in his hands more. He will definitely be primarily a receiver. But I am sure you will see him at running back and probably quarterback.”
“Junior is a very big piece to this team,” Barnett said. “Every single year, he has been a star player on both sides of the ball. In his sophomore year, he scored, I think, six touchdowns against Keyser.”
As young players continue to develop in the program, Scott is hopeful that some of his veteran players can take on greater roles on both sides of the ball.
“Young guys, especially up front, are stepping up and knowing exactly what it takes. Some of those guys are going to have to go both ways. That’s kind of what I told them today, ‘Some of you guys have probably never went both ways, playing offense and defense a lot of snaps’. That could be any position, really,” Scott said.
“I think we took a good step last year in the right direction of where we used to be and where we want to be, and that’s just competing late in November and December. That’s the expectation now. So we just have to keep leveling up and maybe get a better seed. That will probably help.”