Brody Dawyot and Tre Dawyot have been roommates and teammates, but they have an even deeper connection.
The two Glenvar High School seniors are soulmates.
That’s because for the last 11 years, they have also been brothers.
Roanoke County residents Tam and Grant Dawyot have four biological children, but when the couple wanted to further expand the family in 2014, the route they chose was adoption.
The Dawyots adopted a young son, Tre, when he was 6 years old; six years later, they formally added two daughters, Kamy and Sany.
The additions increased the Dawyot household to seven kids and instantly gave Brody Dawyot a brother who was his age.
It also ultimately provided Glenvar’s football team with a pass-and-catch tandem that has the Highlanders on the doorstep of a 2025 Virginia High School League Class 2 football championship.
In leading Glenvar to Saturday’s 11:30 a.m. kickoff in the state final against Strasburg at Salem Stadium as a 6-foot-5, 220-pound quarterback, Brody has set a new VHSL career record for touchdown passes with 135.
Many of those scoring plays have gone to Tre, a 5-foot-9, 160-pound wide receiver who has 10 TD receptions this season as the undefeated Highlanders have conquered 14 opponents.
More than one football fan glancing at Glenvar’s roster might assume that No. 7 (Tre) and No. 15 (Brody) are twin brothers.
Not quite.
“I’ve always wanted twins,” Tam Dawyot said. “I prayed for twins. I’m like, ‘Look how God works. I got my twins. One’s Black and one’s white.'”
* * *
Tre Dawyot, now 18, does not know his birth parents.
He was placed in foster care when he was 10 months old and was fostered by more than one family until Grant and Tam brought him into their embrace.
Tre knows his birth name, but the earliest details of his life remain out of his reach.
“Some things went on when I was a baby and I got put into foster care,” he said. “My foster people I was living with were older people. They were really cool. Did a lot for me. Over the years, I really haven’t gotten a chance to go talk to them.
“There has been some type of contact from my birth sister, but nothing recently.”
The Dawyots allow Tre to run his own race concerning his family history.
“With the counselors we’ve spoken with, they’ve always told us unless they ask, don’t tell,” Tam Dawyot said. “Tre has been inquisitive in his teenage years — with good reason, of course — and we tell him what we know, but there’s not a whole lot [known] about his biological family.”
Prior to adopting Tre, the Dawyots fostered several children who were later returned to their birth parents.
“They had to go back to their biological families,” Grant Dawyot said. “So we took a little break for about a year or two years. Then we said, ‘From now on we’re only going to foster to adopt.'”
Tre was required to spend six months with the Dawyots before the adoption was legal.
“They tell you, ‘If you’re here for adoption, this is not an adoption agency,'” said Tam, who works as a nurse at Friendship Richfield Living.
“They tell you all the kids who come into foster homes, the goal is to get them with their biological family,” Tam said. “But what they did say was 88% of the children who come into the system get adopted.
“So we took that as really good odds to grow our family.”
With two older boys in the house, Brody Dawyot was just happy to have another brother.
“It was pretty cool because we were the same age,” said Brody, who turns 18 this spring. “It was basically like having a twin brother. People started kind of catching on to it that we’re brothers. It was kind of simple, but at the same time some people were shocked by it.”
Tam said when the family first adopted Tre, the situation was confusing to strangers. Once at a local store, young Tre ran up to the person at the checkout counter after cavorting through the aisles.
“The lady was like, ‘Where’s your mama?’ I said, ‘Doesn’t he take after my side of the family? I’m his mama,” Tam said. “A lot of that [happened] when they were younger. Coming from a small town, most people know the Dawyots and our story now.”
Two years after adopting Tre, the Dawyots took Kamy and Sany into their home in 2016 and adopted the biological sisters in 2020.
“Our girls needed a home for ‘a week,'” Tam said. “One week turned into four years.”
Brody and Tre shared a bedroom as brothers, but not for long.
“They thought it was like a sleepover every night,” Tam Dawyot said. “We had to nix that because they were up until midnight goofing around every night and they were in first grade.”
The two boys were youth soccer teammates, but as all the Dawyot children grew older, Tre had a flash of realization: His siblings were exceptional athletes.
Noah Dawyot played football at Salem High School, graduating in 2020.
After the family moved to Roanoke County, Daisy Ann Dawyot starred on two Virginia High School League Class 2 state championship teams in the fall seasons of 2021 and 2022 at Glenvar.
Owyn Dawyot transferred to Cave Spring High School for his senior year and hit the game-winning free throw in the Knights’ 76-75 victory over Petersburg in the VHSL Class 3 state final in March 2022. Owyn spent his freshman year at Virginia Tech as a walk-on with the men’s basketball team.
Now comes Brody, who recently signed a football scholarship with the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
When Tre first sized up his siblings, he wasn’t sure he measured up.
“It was definitely kind of scary. At the time, I was very unathletic. I was kind of a stay-in-the-house kid. I used to be scared of playing football because I was scared of getting hit.
“I moved in with them. Really that day is when it all changed. I became really a whole different person.”
* * *
The young man born as Treshaun Hunter Turner also got a different name, perhaps one that suggested future football stardom.
“When he came to us he wasn’t real fond of his name,” Tam said. “We used to read a children’s book. It’s called ‘Chrysanthemum’ about a little mouse family. The little girl mouse hates her name. I would read that and Tre would say, ‘I don’t really like my name.’ So I’d say, ‘When you’re adopted, we can change your name.’
“He named himself.”
He chose Patrick Tre Tillman Dawyot.
The first and third names are in honor of Pat Tillman, the former college All-American at Arizona State and ex-NFL player who became an Army Ranger and a war hero after he was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan.
Sports fans in the Roanoke Valley have known the Dawyot surname for many decades.
Grant Dawyot played football at Ferrum College after graduating from Patrick Henry High School in 1990. His brother, Scott Dawyot, was backup center to George Lynch on Patrick Henry’s 1988 VHSL Group AAA boys basketball championship team.
Brody’s grandfather, Pete Dawyot, after the Richmond Touchdown Club named him the state’s college football defensive player of the year.
Their father, Pete Dawyot, grew up on Long Island and played football at Virginia Tech under head coach Jerry Claiborne and was named the state’s top defensive player in 1969.
Grant Dawyot said his family’s heritage is Lithuanian. His great-great-grandfather emigrated from Europe and Americanized the surname.
Saturday, two Dawyots will carry it into a high school football championship game.
“It’s amazing,” Brody said.
* * *
Brody Dawyot’s name will be chiseled into the VHSL record book for many years.
His 135 career touchdown passes have blown away the old record of 121 set in 2023 by Tristan Evans-Trujillo of Freedom-Woodbridge.
Brody has passed for 2,557 yards and 37 touchdowns with just four interceptions in 2025. He has rushed for another 754 yards and 19 TDs. Missing half the regular-season finale against Floyd County and the first-round playoff game against Nelson County with a shoulder injury, he will fall just shy of the VHSL career record for touchdown responsibility that ex-Hampton High quarterback Ronald Curry owns at 186.
“I’m not a stat guy, but if I was, Brody would have 4,000 yards passing this year,” said Glenvar head coach Kevin Clifford, who took the Highlanders to the 2014 state title. “After halftime of almost every game, we haven’t [run up] anything offensively in the second half.”
Tre has witnessed it up close for four years.
“I feel blessed to be his receiver and play with him,” Tre said. “I think it’s awesome. He works really hard and deserves everything he’s got. I don’t think we expected all this to happen. It’s very cool that this is all happening.”
Glenvar’s football team came close to winning the big trophy in 2024 before a state semifinal trip to Bluefield, to face eventual state champion Graham, resulted in a 28-24 loss.
Graham ultimately scored a 31-8 victory over Strasburg in the championship game.
Tre has 44 receptions this season for 650 yards as slot receiver. He also plays cornerback, where he has 44 tackles and three interceptions, production good enough to attract offers from Division II West Virginia State, along with Roanoke College and Hampden-Sydney.
True to the other part of his name, he is considering joining the military.
First, he would like to help his brother obtain the one thing Brody’s football career lacks: a state title. Tre was part of Glenvar’s 2023 Class 2 boys outdoor track and field championship team as a freshman sprinter. In last year’s state meet, he was part of Glenvar’s 400-meter relay team that placed seventh.
Owyn and Daisy Ann were also part of VHSL championship teams. It’s Brody’s last shot.
“It’s been the goal for a year ever since that [2024 semifinal] ended,” Grant Dawyot said.
Brody will be out of the house soon. He plans to graduate from Glenvar this winter and begin his college career in January.
He plans to leave his 2001 Dodge Ram 1500 at home for Tre to use, provided his brother obtains his driver’s license.
Grant apologizes to his neighbors for all the noise. But that was the goal all along, right?
The house in south Salem is about to get quieter. But not by much.
“We’ve got seven kids, three dogs, seven chickens, two cats,” Tam said. “Never a dull moment.”