Lane new head coach at H.W. Byers
Mario Lane wants to build a buzz about football in the halls of the H.W. Byers High School building.
“I know our numbers are low, and we have to get kids out there to play football,” said the veteran head coach recently hired to lead the Lions. “We have to share athletes in all sports. Success in one sport needs to trickle down to the next.”
Lane is busy pulling in players for summer workouts. It is a crucial time for having success when a new season arrives in August.
“I'm here every day, getting names and making calls and trying to build some relationships in the community,” he said.
Lane, 49, is native of Rolling Fork in the Mississippi Delta. He has degrees from Jackson State University, Mississippi Valley State University and Delta State University.
His coaching career started in his hometown at South Delta. He then moved to Forest Hill, where he was promoted from assistant to head coach. He later worked at DeSoto Central as defensive coordinator before returning to Forest Hill as head coach. Head-coaching jobs followed at Ruleville Central and Coahoma County. When the COVID pandemic hit, he took a year off and then moved to North Mississippi for an assistant coaching position at Independence. Prior to taking the job at Byers, he was the running backs coach and offensive coordinator at Class 6A Horn Lake.
Lane will also be the athletic director at Class 1A Byers.
“I really wanted to do some administrative things, which attracted me,” he said. “Plus, I wanted to be a head coach one more time, and as I get older, I had a good feeling about this smaller setting.”
The Lions went 2-8 in 2023 and then had a 5-5 regular season in 2024 before falling in the first round of the state playoffs on the road.
“We have to get the athletes involved in football in the seventh and eighth grades and then transition them to high school,” Lane said. “We have to promote football, and like I said earlier, get our athletes participating in all sports.”
He said he is “always up to challenges,” like he faced at Forest Hill and Ruleville. He said Forest Hill was going through the longest losing streak in Mississippi when he arrived and in the third year, he had the football team in the state's Super 10. At Ruleville, he took the head job late, in early July, and the squad struggled early before going on to win the school's first playoff game in 20 years.
The H.W. Byers Lions will compete in Region 2-1A with Ashland, Potts Camp and Falkner.
“Byers showed progress last year, and we certainly don't want to regress,” Lane said. “We want to work hard to finish in the top two of our district and host a playoff game. That would be a building block for us.”
He said fans can expect the Lions to run a spread offense and throw the ball around, plus utilize an effective running game, too. Multiple fronts will be featured on defense.
“We will be simple on defense, and be fast to the football,” Lane said. “We will be more complex on offense and try to keep the other team's defense off balance.”