When P.S. Jones football coach Elizabeth Dyer speaks, players listen. She commands respect from her Demon team and colleagues on the field.

Just like she’s challenging the Demons to constantly improve, Dyer is challenging the stereotypes that come with working in a male-dominated profession. She rarely ever runs into other women on the sidelines, even at the middle-school level.

PHOTOS: Ayden-Grifton at P.S. Jones football, 8th-grade recognition

Dyer is more than just surviving as a coach. She and the Demons are thriving. They improved to 4-1 with a 28-6 win over Ayden-Grifton on Thursday.

“They treat me just like they would treat any other male coach,” she said of her players. “I think the only thing is switching to ‘yes, ma’am’ from ‘yes, sir’ is tripping them up a little bit. I call them on that and they get more embarrassed than I do.

“With the discipline and the respect that I show them, and I hold them to a certain standard, they don’t see me as a female or a male coach. They see me as coach.”

Football and Dyer go far back. She grew up loving the sport. She climbed through the youth ranks, enjoying her time playing in the defensive front as a lineman — or, rather, linewoman — and linebacker.

Dyer is a natural athlete. She played basketball in the winter and softball in springtime during middle school and high school. She even played club rugby while a student at East Carolina.

Upon reaching middle-school age, though, Dyer put away her pads and focused on volleyball. It was yet another favorite of hers. She loved it, but also felt out of place on the football field.

“Being a girl, there’s the whole stigma about it,” she said. “Going up through middle school and high school, I really liked volleyball. I took the volleyball route, and that was during the fall.”

It might have been something Dyer pursued nowadays. Not then, though.

That athletic background helps Dyer as a coach. She said she was always a leader on her teams.

“I was always captain and always very vocal,” she said. “I guess you can kind of say bossy. I always wanted to direct people around and always wanted the ball. I was always going after it on every play, every down.”

Dyer has head-coaching experience. She led the Southside volleyball team and was also an assistant coach at Manteo. She also coached cheerleading.

“That was interesting. I’m the furthest thing from a cheerleader,” she laughed.

Schematically, Dyer learned some from her playing days, but has picked up most of her knowledge simply from watching and studying. Ed Anderson has been an influence on her coaching, too.

“He really helped me a lot last year,” Dyer said. “I learned a lot from him, defensive wise. Just mainly, growing up loving to watch football and going to ECU games. … Just watching all the different schemes and everything. I think I learned more watching than playing.”

Dyer, for the most part, handles the defensive side of the game. Assistant coach John Scott Cutler directs the offense. Dyer runs a 3-5 scheme, which is rare to find in the middle-school ranks.

There isn’t really an end goal in mind. Dyer, only in her first year as the official head coach, is happy with what she’s doing at P.S. Jones. She takes pride in the success the Demons are enjoying thus far. There’s also the fact that she’s helping improve the Washington football program.

“We win together and we lose together,” Dyer said. “We’ve only lost one. I love how they pick each other up. I love how I’ve made some into some leaders that weren’t. I had some that were on the verge of quitting last year because they didn’t think they could tough it out. Now they’re some of my best players.

“I just love the mental toughness that I’m building within them.”

That may prove to be the greatest lesson Dyer teaches the young Demons. They will know the fundamentals. But, when they trade in their P.S. Jones uniform for a Pam Pack jersey, that mental fortitude can and will take them a long way.

After all, that same mindset has taken Dyer this far and will continue to drive her forward.

Demons dominate Ayden-Grifton

P.S. Jones improved to 4-1 with Thursday’s 28-6 shellacking of Ayden-Grifton. The Demons got two touchdowns on two offensive plays — the last play of the first half and the first play of the second half — to take control of the game.

P.S. Jones marched methodically after getting the ball with just north of three minutes left until halftime. Terry Moore shouldered most of the load on the drive as he rumbled into the red zone. He then punched in his first touchdown from four yards out.

Josh White came up with a sack at the end of the half to keep stymie any of the Chargers’ hopes for a late strike.

Moore and the Demons wasted no time to start the third quarter. He ripped off a 52-yard touchdown on the first play, pushing their advantage to 22-0.

“To get the ball, score, then get it back for the second half was crucial for us,” Dyer said.

Cutler added, “We kept it kind of basic today. We just ran blast plays. With the running back we’ve got, we give him the ball and let him do his thing. That’s pretty much how our offense works.”

The Demon defense spent the entire first quarter on the field. It never got worn down, though. A block in the back called against the Chargers set them back as soon as they entered the red zone. Shavar Clark then slithered his way into the Ayden-Grifton backfield for a sack that brought up a third-and-21 to derail the drive.

“They were out there the whole first quarter. We came out really sluggish,” Dyer said. “We were kind of soft. … I was really proud of my defense.”

Clark’s explosiveness carried over to the offense when he capped off the Demons’ first drive with a 48-yard touchdown.

P.S. Jones’ defense, even as it enjoyed a lopsided lead early in the third, continued to shut the Chargers down. Romelo McCall’s tackle for a loss helped the Demons continue to cut off the run game.

The secondary also stood tall as the increasingly desperate Chargers looked to the air more and more often. P.S. Jones did give up a 45-yard touchdown pass, but Ridge Zerniak made up for it with a late-game interception.

Moore found the end zone for a second time with a 29-yard run in the fourth quarter.

The Demons now look forward to a spirited week of practice. They hope to win out and contend for a conference championship.