The William Byrd football team is returning almost every single one of their starters from last years 5-6 playoff team. The problem is that one standout graduated last year.
Derrick Palmer, the team's starting quarterback who accounted for over 4,000 yards his junior and senior seasons, is now busy playing football at Bucknell. Replacing him is like replacing an entire team.
"We have a lot of people back. We have eight back on offense and nine back on defense. We are still a young group. With Derrick leaving, there went 84 percent of our rushing yardage, seventy-four percent of our scoring, seventy-one percent of our passing yardage. He was third on our team in tackles. We think we are going to be better at most positions. Someone is going to have to step up and produce the numbers," said Jeff Highfill.
Coach Highfill is entering his 30th season at the helm at William Byrd and has replaced star players before. The good thing for the Terriers is that last year, six freshmen started and a number of sophomores saw playing time as well. So while this year's team is young, they are varsity tested.
