Nate Palmer began playing football at age 6. He was never the biggest or fastest, but he played an outsized role in every game thanks to his relentless focus on doing whatever was needed to help his team win.
When Rockville High School Coach Erick Knickerbocker first saw Palmer play, a smile crossed his face. Nate was the kind of player coaches dream about. “He put his heart and soul into every single play,” Knickerbocker said.
Freshman don’t usually win spots as starters at Rockville High School, but Palmer did. He was even better his sophomore year, racking up impressive stats as a linebacker. Knickerbocker looked forward to what would come during Palmer’s junior and senior years.
But on the first play in the first game of his junior year, Palmer tore his ACL while making a tackle. He was out for the season. Weeks before training camp was to begin his senior year, Palmer tore his ACL again. His playing days were over.
Palmer had always dreamed of winning an award from the Walter Camp Foundation for his on-field performance. But it is what Palmer did after the injuries ended his playing days that impressed the Walter Camp Foundation and result in Palmer winning the organization’s 2024 Inspiration Award.
Palmer was an extraordinary football player who was all about leading by example and winning.
“We were building a team around his energy, his emotion, his leadership,” Knickerbocker said. “We made him a captain his junior year.”
Palmer and his teammates were devasted when the injuries prevented him from playing.
“What do I do now?” Palmer wondered. He considered backing away from the sport he loved.
“But then I thought about my friends and what the program has done for me. I knew I just couldn’t walk away,” he said. “If I can’t play, I’m still going to try and be loud and obnoxious and, overall, just be there for the team.”
Palmer volunteered as a coach, as he had done after the injury ended his junior season, and played a key role in the team’s success. He worked with the linebackers, helped Knickerbocker write pregame speeches and worked to amp up the team before each game. And when his coach got a little too excited with the referees, there was Palmer to gently pull him back to the sideline.
“I thought when Nate got injured, we would lose everything he brought to the table, but I was completely wrong,” Knickerbocker said. “Nate found ways to help the team that had nothing to do with his play on the field.”
Players looked to Palmer for guidance and leadership. When they applied eye black, they did it like Palmer did, and checked with him to make sure they’d done it right.
“It’s in his DNA to help people,” Knickerbocker said. Writing pregame speeches with Palmer was especially fun and rewarding, he said. They’d meet in his social studies classroom at Rockville High and collaborate, and carefully choose every word.
There was still more for Palmer to do.
In talking with his good friend and teammate Amir Muhammad, the pair pondered a question Amir’s mom had asked. What would they do when they got to college, when football was over? How would they make friends and find the same type of camaraderie they experienced in athletics? That question made them think. And ask questions. Do some research. And think some more.
The result was the pair launching an organization called The Fifth Down, which works to help high school athletes deal with the inevitable – the end of their playing days and taking what they learned and experienced as athletes into the next stages of their lives.
“No matter how far you go in sports, it will eventually come to an end, and who are you after it ends?” Palmer said.
Palmer and Muhammad met with fellow athletes at Rockville High School to consider those questions, conduct workshops and discuss mental health. They also hosted a conference with athletes from other high schools. They have worked to raise money from various foundations to continue the program’s work.
“Fifth Down is a conversation starter for the topic no one wants to discuss because no one wants to talk about the end,” Palmer said. “As much as we all know it’s coming, we want to live in the now. Some people really do get stuck.”
The Fifth Down helps athletes with the transition to the that next stage.
“You gain things when you play a sport – that sense of how to lead, how to work with others,” Palmer said. “You also get to see who you are as a person.”
Through his experience so far with The Fifth Down, Palmer has learned that he likes helping others. His plan is to study social work, but also to work with Muhammad to continue and build The Fifth Down.
Knickerbocker said what Palmer and Muhammad have achieved with Fifth Down has opened his eyes and made him think differently about coaching and working with young people.
“The injury pushed Nate in a new direction,” Knickerbocker said. “He couldn’t lead with his pads anymore, but there were other important things he could do. It’s opened opportunities he would not have realized he had.”
And while he would have preferred not to twice tear his ACL, Palmer said some good has come from it.
“I don’t think I’m doing a lot of the things I’m doing if I don’t get injured,” Palmer said. “I don’t think I become who I am. As unfortunate as tearing my ACL was, I’m so glad to be the person I am right now.”
For video about Nate by RHS Senior Kyle Clark, please click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yAJBPQ9V_MA