ALL-AREA FOOTBALL: DEKALB DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR: Kearney piles up hits, sacks
Michael Carvell - Staff
Thursday, December 23, 2004
Tucker's Tavares Kearney, the DeKalb defensive player of the year, was fun to watch even when he wasn't making the tackle.
The senior linebacker was one of the hardest hitters to come through the area in years. Even when Kearney wasn't in on the tackle, he usually could be found making contact with someone on the field.
"I just love to hit," Kearney said. "Every play, my goal was to make the tackle. And if I didn't make the tackle, I was going to hit everybody in the way."
Kearney was that rarest of defenders in that he could change the course of the game on that side of the ball. He led DeKalb County with 14 sacks and had 12 tackles for losses and a stunning 51 quarterback hurries.
"He had a lot of hits behind the line of scrimmage," Tucker coach Bill Ballard said. "He did a really good job of going after the other team's quarterback in passing situations. If he didn't get the sack, he would usually get pressure on the passer."
Ballard said Kearney's speed was often overlooked because of his physical style of play. "Tavares can consistently run under 4.5 seconds," Ballard said. "Even if the play ran to the other side of the field, [Kearney] was always a threat to catch up with the play. You can't say that about many football players."
The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Kearney appeared to have a breakout year during his senior season, but Ballard said that was not the case. He said Kearney was stellar as a junior, but just overshadowed by teammates such as Brandon Lang (who signed with Georgia) and James Swinton (Auburn).
During Kearney's junior year, he started the first seven games at defensive end. When tailback Thomas Brown was injured in midseason, Kearney was moved to free safety, the position he will most likely play in college. As a senior, he lined up just about everywhere on defense to keep other teams from keying on him.