DELCAMBRE -- The 2007 football season wasn’t kind to the Delcambre Panthers, who finished the year 2-8 overall and 0-4 in an always-tough District 8-A.

But more importantly, the Panthers, who were in most of the games they played, had troubles finishing off those games and coming away with a win.

That’s something that head coach Darcy Delcambre would like to change this year.

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“I think that it was a learning experience for us last year,” said Delcambre. “Some things looked good and some things didn’t look good and that’s what we have to work on. We have to learn how to finish things off.”

For the 2008 season, the Panthers bring back a lot of experience on offense with eight starters returning, but also a big question on defense with only four starters coming back.

“We’ve got some juniors that have been playing since their freshman year and some of our seniors have played since they were freshmen. We’ve got some experience coming back,” said Delcambre. “Hopefully last year was a learning thing and we got over the hump and now we can handle the whole game, not just part of the game.”

Returning to lead the Panthers this year is quarterback Chris Esponge, who completed 52 of 114 passes for 827 yards and 10 touchdowns. Also returning is fullback Kyle Romero, who rushed for 646 yards and 10 touchdowns, and Lane Reaux, who had 1,091 yards and 10 touchdowns.

In fact, last year the Panthers accumulated almost 2,500 yards of offense and scored just under 25 points per game.

“We’ve got our whole backfield back and all of our skill players,” said Delcambre. “Quarterback, fullback, tailback, slot back, two split ends, tackle and center and all we need to replace is three offensive linemen.

“But behind our starters, we have guys that can step in and help us. We feel real confident in our skill positions.”

But replacing three starters on the offensive line can be tricky.

“Without a doubt,” said Delcambre. “We’re replacing three starters but we have both tight ends back and we’ve moving some players around to take advantage of what we have.”

Defensively, the Panthers have a little more concern replacing seven starters. That caused Coach Delcambre to rethink what he wanted to do on defense.

“We changed up our defense a little bit,” said Delcambre. “Last year we have an odd, five-man front. This year we going to an even front. We don’t feel that we have as many linemen but we have some linebacker types to where we can play two inside and two outside linebackers and still be a good situation.

“We think that the even man front is better for us this year.”

But there is still some work to do.

“Coaches always say that defenses are ahead of offenses but for us our offense is ahead of our defense,” said Delcambre. “We’re working a lot more on defense, making sure that we are getting to where we need to be.

“We’re not finishing things off. We’re getting there but we are not making the play.”

The other problem that the Panthers face this year is the schedule.

Over the summer, Acadiana Prep pulled out of the Louisiana High School Athletic Association and left DHS without an opponent in the third week of the season so Delcambre will only play nine games this year, which could affect the team’s power rankings as the Panthers try to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999.

“Hopefully it won’t, but it’s not going to help us,” said Delcambre. “It won’t hurt us if we take care of our business. It is in a bad spot because in the third date you’re really trying to get things going before district.

“But if there are any bumps and bruises after the first two games it will give us a chance to heal up before we start district play two weeks later.”