In each of his four seasons with the Lebanon Valley men's basketball team, J.D. Byers '05 guided the Dutchmen to postseason success. With 1,898 career points, the 5-10 point guard is still fondly remembered by LVC fans for his on-court leadership and lights-out perimeter shooting.
Byers' collegiate accolades included selection to the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) All-America first team, two selections to the NABC All-Region teams, the Jostens Trophy, and back-to-back Commonwealth Conference Player of the Year awards as a junior and senior. His jersey, #23, is one of five men's basketball retired numbers.
Academically, Byers was one of the nation's best student-athletes, earning CoSIDA Academic All-America honors as a junior and senior and the ESPN The Magazine/CoSIDA Academic All-America of the Year as a senior. He was also an Academic All-America in golf.
Byers became a college coach after graduation. He enters his second season as an assistant coach at Radford University in 2012-13.
GoDutchmen.com recently caught up with Byers to discuss his coaching philosophies, memories from LVC, and what he's been up to since graduating
summa cum laude with a degree in accounting and business administration in 2005.
Q: Where have you been since graduating from LVC in 2005?
A: I'm in the college coaching world. This is my fifth stop in seven years. It's been quite a bit of moving and adjusting, but that's just how the business works. Currently, I'm at Radford University in Virginia as an assistant coach.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your other stops.
A: I started at FDU-Madison (now FDU-Florham) as a graduate assistant. Then I came back to Lebanon Valley for one year as an assistant. Then I went to Randolph-Macon, which is an NCAA Division III team in Virginia. Then I was at St. Francis (Pa.) two years ago. Now I'm heading into my second season at Radford.
Q: When did you decide that you wanted to go into coaching? Is that a decision you made as a player?
A: I had an idea. My father was a high school coach, and he coached me when I was in school. I had an idea that it might be something that I'd want to do. I didn't really make the decision until about halfway through my senior year at Lebanon Valley.
Q: What sort of role did head coach Brad McAlester play in helping you get your name out as a coach after college?
A: Well, he definitely helped get me to FDU. After graduation, he went along with me to both interviews that I had. He was instrumental there, and then he brought me back to Leb Val the next year.
At the time, Coach [Mike] Rhodes, who played at Lebanon Valley, was the head coach at Randolph-Macon. Coach McAlester was able to help get me noticed and helped me land that position. He's definitely been instrumental in all my steps along the way.
Q: Tell us a little bit about your coaching philosophy.
A: I think my philosophy, in terms of coaching, is just to be honest with the guys. Being up front and sometimes brutally honest. The most important thing that we can do as coaches is to show the players that we care. We have to show that we genuinely care about them outside of the two-and-a-half to three hours each day that we have them on the basketball floor. Once you do that, kids want to be pushed. They want to be challenged. When they know that you have their best interest in mind and that you really care about them, you can really push them.
In terms of recruiting, we have to be relentless. That's the only way.
Q: What are some of the ways in which your time at Lebanon Valley helped shape the coach that you are today?
A: Coach McAlester ran his program, within the rules, as close to a Division I program as he could. It really opened my eyes up in terms of the sort of work that it takes to be a successful player. Coming back as a coach, I saw a lot of the work put in on his end in order to be successful. I was really given a special opportunity having been able to see that program from both sides.
