North Brunswick’s Amari Macklin (Source: Twitter)
He finished the season with 140 tackles, top ten in New Jersey.
He recorded 12 1/2 sacks, 2 picks, 3 QB hits, and a forced fumble.
And he’s come along way since an injury earlier in his career.
North Brunswick’s Amari Macklin picked up Defensive Player of the Year honors from Central Jersey Sports Radio Thursday night, but he’s getting more attention from college coaches too.
Macklin says he’s spent a lot of extra time with Raiders’ head coach Mike Cipot this week, going through the flood of interest now headed his way after a great senior season.
Click below to hear Central Jersey Sports Radio’s Dom Savino talk with Macklin about the progression of his career, and his stellar senior season:
Honorable mentions included Cranford’s Will Gallagher, Jared Tynes of North Brunswick, and Jon Wyatt of St. Thomas Aquinas.
Gallagher could have earned the honorable mention status on his 3-pick night against Sparta in the North 2 Group 3 title game alone, but he also had an INT that set up the first score of the game at Priscoe Field midway through the year, in a battle of unbeatens against Woodbridge that Cranford would win. He finished the season with 33 tackles and 9 interceptions, two of which he brought to the house for scores.
Tynes had 83 tackles from his defensive end position, and was dominating; he had 22 TFLs, 9 1/2 sacks, and 9 QB hits. he also forced two fumbles and had one fumble recovery. He’s 8th on the North Brunswick career sack list heading into his senior season.
And the Villanova-bound Wyatt didn’t give up a catch all year. Then again, his presence was so dominating, no one wanted to throw to him. In fact, he had two catches from opposing quarterbacks, while the players he was defending had none.