Llano Junior High Athletics Coordinator Dwayne Friday and wife Bridget, a teacher at Llano High School, throw up the Yellow Jackets’ ‘sting’ outside their Llano home. Dwayne was voted Favorite Coach in the 2024 Locals Love Us contest. Staff photo by Dakota Morrissiey
Llano Junior High Athletics Coordinator Dwayne Friday took the job in May 2023, bringing 20 years of experience in the U.S. Navy and seven years of coaching for football powerhouse Liberty Hill with him. In his short time with Llano, he has made a big impact on his players, students, and community.
Friday was voted Favorite Coach in the 2024 Locals Love Us contest by The Picayune Magazine readers and KBEY 103.9 FM Radio Picayune listeners.
“Thank you for recognizing me,” Friday told his supporters after receiving word of the award. “I do this for the kids. I’m going to continue to go to work and make sure that our kids are as successful as they can be.”
As LJH athletics coordinator, Friday oversees boys’ sports and personally coaches the football, basketball, and track teams. He views his role as more than just a coach or a teacher.
“Coaching is fun, but my ultimate goal is to provide mentorship,” Friday said. “I love to mentor young people and help them reach the goals that they want to reach. We want these kids to be successful people.”
Friday is a U.S. Navy veteran who spent 15 years attached to a Marines infantry unit as a corpsman (combat medic). During his service, he went on five combat deployments and taught combat trauma medicine to newly minted doctors.
“I’m not trying to train combat fighters right now, but the kids want to be held to a standard, they want to be pushed, they want to reach greatness,” he said. “That’s what we try to do for them.”
Friday grew up in San Antonio and played outside linebacker for Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls, where he met his wife, Bridget. The couple has been together for 24 years.
“This has kind of been our dream for two decades, my wife and I, to have our own place and acreage,” Friday said. “The community has been very welcoming to the Friday family, and we have appreciated that very much.”
The Fridays plan to make Llano their long-term home and continue mentoring students for as long as they can.
