Wayde Byard

Wayde Byard has lived two lifetimes: one as an award-winning journalist, the other as a public relations professional for one of America's largest school systems. A graduate of the University of Missouri's famed School of Journalism, Wayde has served as a crime reporter, government reporter (there are those who would say crime and government are related), sports editor, and Associated Press College Basketball Pollster. It was on a rainy summer day that he first discovered Spottswood Poles in...See more

Wayde Byard has lived two lifetimes: one as an award-winning journalist, the other as a public relations professional for one of America's largest school systems. A graduate of the University of Missouri's famed School of Journalism, Wayde has served as a crime reporter, government reporter (there are those who would say crime and government are related), sports editor, and Associated Press College Basketball Pollster. It was on a rainy summer day that he first discovered Spottswood Poles in the basement archives of Winchester, Virginia's Handley Library. In the more than two decades since, Wayde has told Poles's story in a screenplay that has won state and national awards. Although he has interviewed more than fifty members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Wayde knows that Poles's story is still the one that resonates most deeply in his soul. When not writing, Wayde is known to thousands of easily impressed children (and their more easily impressed parents) as the guy who makes snow day calls. This has resulted in several undeserved public service awards that he cherishes nonetheless. See less