Palmetto’s senior class aims to finally get over the hump with a playoff berth

The game still stands out for this group of soon-to-be seniors at Palmetto. Head coach Dave Marino watched from the bleachers to see his 2014 freshman team in action against Manatee, an annual test for two of Manatee County’s most successful programs.

This year, though, it was a rout. The Tigers offense pushed them out to a four-touchdown lead during the first half. Palmetto’s defense shut the Hurricanes out. The game was called at halftime because of lightning with the Tigers rolling against their fiercest rival.

“We felt like if those kids stayed together,” Marino said, “then we’d have a really good shot when they became seniors.”

It was evidence of what the rising senior class had the potential to be in Palmetto, but so far it has yet to yield a playoff appearance. The Tigers have missed the postseason each of the past two seasons. Palmetto feels as if it’s been building to something — seven senior Tigers have been starting on varsity since their sophomore years — and with a change to the Florida High School Athletic Association’s playoff structure, there’s no more room for excuses.

“We feel like it’s our time,” Marino said at Palmetto High School after the Tigers’ wrapped up their photo day and prepared to practice in pads Saturday for the first time this summer.

Most of Palmetto’s continuity has come on defense, where the bulk of the starting lineup returns from last year’s team, which finished the regular season No. 2 among county public schools in fewest touchdowns allowed. The entire starting linebacker group returns, as does half of the secondary with experienced reserves ready to fill vacancies. Only up front, where the Tigers lost three starting defensive linemen, are there any significant question marks.

Two of the departures were at defensive tackle, leaving added responsibility for two of Palmetto’s team captains. Alonzo Houston and Andrew Duncan share enough similarities to be thought of as one collective duo. The inside linebackers are both slightly undersized, making up for their sub-6-foot frames with bulk and burst. They both spend their offseason as wrestlers, and their success on the mat has mostly transferred out to the football field.

In 2017, both will need to excel as run-stoppers, sliding into gaps that will inevitably emerge with an inexperienced group of defensive tackles.

“We’ve basically got to bring it in every game,” Houston said. “We can’t rely on them to stop the ballcarrier every time, so we’ve just got to do what we do every time.”

They’ll be the heart of the defense with their steadiness — Houston led the team with 101 tackles last year and Duncan was second with 70 — which could be enough to ensure a few more wins this fall if the offense improves even marginally from last season, when the Tigers scored fewer touchdowns than everyone in the area aside from Bayshore and Lakewood Ranch.

The biggest difference between last year’s defense and this coming season’s is the turnover production. With cornerback Desmine Ross’ graduation, Palmetto loses six interceptions. Duncan’s biggest focus during the offseason, he said, was improving his speed to add a bit of extra playmaking ability and avoid leaning too heavily on the secondary for game-altering plays. Senior defensive back Derrick Bradley, another undersized but wildly talented member of the Tigers’ defense, should have the largest presence in terms of turnover creation.

Bradley was one of the few late additions to the program, transferring in from Southeast before last season. The most important factor for Palmetto has instead been stability. Enough players have stuck around all four years for the Tigers to feel ready for a culmination in 2017.

“We all played together as a team freshman year,” Duncan said. “We kind of foreshadowed what was going to happen.”

This story was originally published August 6, 2017 at 1:50 PM with the headline "Palmetto’s senior class aims to finally get over the hump with a playoff berth."