King Degraffenreid.

Byline: Denny Seitz, The Charlotte Observer, N.C.

Dec. 25--In 2002, a star-studded defense helped Rock Hill High's football team win the Big 16 State Championship. They were led by a freshman.

It's rare for freshmen to get playing time at a school that is a perennial state champ contender, but Donkay Degraffenreid has always been a rare kind of player. Degraffenreid, the 2005 Observer S.C. Football Player of the Year, dominated for four years with the Bearcats, calling all the defensive signals, even as a freshman when the people he was leading included current college stars Ko Simpson, Jonathan Hefney, Michael Grase, Miguel Graham and Andre Clark. He ...