Prospect Spotlight: Sheadon Byrd (2019 Gonzaga Prep HS)
After losing in the semis of the Les Schwab Invitational in a game they could have won, Gonzaga Prep bounced back in the third place game. Sheadon Byrd made sure of it. The gritty 6-foot-2, 180-pound guard is on a…
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Continue ReadingAfter losing in the semis of the Les Schwab Invitational in a game they could have won, Gonzaga Prep bounced back in the third place game. Sheadon Byrd made sure of it. The gritty 6-foot-2, 180-pound guard is on a mission his senior season, hoping to capture the attention of college coaches but more importantly, helping the Bullpups to a second state title.
“Everyone was down because we thought we should have been playing for (the LSI championship),” Byrd said. “But it showed how mentally tough we are to come out here and play hard here today. But it was awesome. We’re from Spokane and we came to this tournament and people didn’t know much about us and don’t expect much out of us, so it was great to come out here and show that we could compete at the highest level.”
Byrd certainly showed that he was capable of competing with anybody. In the four games of the LSI, he averaged 12.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 2.0 assists, showing a real grittiness on the floor on both ends. Offensively, he helped run Gonzaga Prep’s motion and got plenty of his buckets cutting to the basket and scoring over bigger players, and defensively he locked down on whoever he was assigned to. Byrd showed a great feel for the game and whenever there was a 50/50 ball – you could bet that he was in the mix.
Byrd is happy to be out on the floor as he missed all of last season and the spring/summer due to a torn ACL. He is hoping to play at the college level and noted so far that he’s gotten a little bit of interest from Carroll College and some Division III programs such as Puget Sound, but he’s keeping things wide open.
“It’s hard because I was out last year so people haven’t seen much of me,” Byrd said. “I’ve been easing back into the season slowly as we’re trying to get back-to-back state championships, so we’ll see how the season turns out.”
How he hopes the season turns out will be that second 4A state title for the Bullpups. “We feel like we can compete at the highest level,” Byrd said. “We have Anton (Watson) and he makes the game easy for everybody and it’s easy to play with him. I feel like as long as we have him on the team we can compete with anybody. Our confidence will be high when we can just play our game.”