Byler named North Vermilion principal

LEROY — Doors have closed on Tommy Byler during the course of his 22-year career in education and coaching.
Often as is the case for those who persevere, Byler simply looked for other doors leading to different paths. He just found a big one.
Vermilion Parish Superintendent Jerome Puyau announced last week that Byler will take over as principal at North Vermilion High School, replacing Joan Romero, who will be the principal at the new North Vemilion Middle School. Byler is currently an assistant principal at NVHS, having been named to that post prior to this school year.
“There have been circumstances beyond my control that have led me here,” Byler said Friday morning. “God had a plan for me when I left Erath six years ago.”
Byler spent nearly a decade and a half at Erath High School. He worked as both a science teacher and an assistant football coach under his father, Jacob Byler. Tommy Byler also held several other titles in the athletic department, including athletic director and head softball coach. The elder Byler announced his retirement after the 2008 season. Tommy Byler applied for the head football coaching job.
“Things didn’t work out,” Byler said.
Byler moved on, accepting a job at Comeaux High School in Lafayette. He spent the ‘09/’10 school year there, a year that proved pivotal for Byler’s professional future. He completed work on and earned a master’s during that time.
“I had started my master’s two other times,” Byler said. “I put it on hold each time. As a coach it didn’t allow the time. When things happened in Erath I took it as a sign I needed to finish. The year I was at Comeaux I still coached, but being without the extra responsibilities allowed me to finish.
“It was a good opportunity.”
One that led to others. After his year at Comeax, former NVHS Principal Greg Theriot hired Byler as head football coach. Shortly after that NV Assistant Principal Ivy Landry left to take over at Abbeville High. Byler spent the second half of the ‘10/’11 school year working as an assistant principal.
“I kind of got a little on-the-job training,” Byler said. “I realized I enjoyed it.”
Theriot stepped down as North Vermilion principal last summer to take a job with the state. Assistant Principal Joan Romero stepped into that role, allowing Byler to take the assistant principal job full-time. Byler remained head football coach, reaching the playoffs for the fourth straight season.
“It was a situation that I wanted to try to coach and be the assistant principal,” Byler said. “I think it worked out.”
The wheels of change didn’t stop moving this school year. With the new middle school set to open in August, that would have been impossible.
“Mrs. Joan and I have talked for a long while,” Byler said. “All along she felt the middle school is where she wanted to end up.”
That opened the possibility of Byler moving all the way to the top at North Vermilion.
“I am going to jump in and compete at this as much as I did on Friday nights,” Byler said of the chance he has been given. “I look at this as a great challenge.”
That includes creating a new atmosphere at what will be essentially be a new school.
“North Vermilion, in essence, is going to have new make-up,” Byler said. “We’re looking at having around 600 students (9th through 12th grades). We’re right on the heels of Abbeville. The way we are viewed, with scores and things like that, is going to be different this fall because we are pulling out of junior high.”
Byler said he knows the foundation is a solid one upon which to build.
“I look at it like this,” Byler explained. “I took over a football program that had great success. We made some changes to keep that success.
“I look at it that same way here. This school has had some great success but we are changing.”
Byler will put his own stamp on the school.
“I think you have to,” Byler said. “If it has instructional leader behind my name, then I need to be able to provide my teachers and students with opportunities to be successful.
“I want to bring an excitement to that.”
Byler said he wants that excitement to radiate for future students coming into North Vermilion.
“We are going to start getting kids who don’t know anything about North Vermilion,” Byler said. “We need to start creating what it is we want them to see. Right now kids as freshmen have been here for two years. Now we are going to have to have an excitement about freshmen classes coming in.
“That’s our older classes who are going to have to create that atmosphere.”
Byler is now a principal in charge of making all those things happen. He will face challenges, but when he does he can fall back on the things he learned as a coach.
“You can look at it that way,” Byler said. “My teachers are now my assistant coaches and I have a new team. I have been able to impact 100-something kids in football and now my goal is to impact 600.”
It’s a chance Byler received by walking through the right door.
“The timing has not been right in the past,” Byler said. “The timing is now right and I hope it works out.”