Daily Pilot High School Football Player of the Week: Carmichael chases down QBs

Kenny Carmichael’s birthday falls on Thanksgiving Day. On the day he turns 18, all Carmichael wants to do is practice with the Edison High football team.

Carmichael and the Chargers are one win away from playing the day after Thanksgiving. After feasting on turkey, the defensive end hopes he can feast on the quarterback.

Carmichael is closing in on two Edison sack records, and it’s possible he can take down both on Friday. Carmichael is eager to get after the quarterback when No. 2-seeded Edison (10-1) plays host to Buena Park (10-1) in the quarterfinals of the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs at Huntington Beach High’s Cap Sheue Field at 7 p.m.

The site of the game is where Carmichael has recorded seven of his 12.5 sacks on the season. One of his 10 tackles last week went for a sack during Edison’s 49-24 win against Newbury Park, leaving him 2.5 sacks away from tying the school’s single-season record of 15.

The player who holds the record is Todd Belitz, someone Edison Coach Dave White said he would never forget.

“He was a quarterback and defensive end. You don’t see those [types of two-way starters] anymore,” said White, who appreciated players like Belitz during his 31 years at the helm of the Chargers. “He also wore a neck roll. I think he kept it on [when he played quarterback].”

The neck roll looked a lot cooler when Belitz chased down quarterbacks. He set the sack record at Edison during his senior year in 1993.

Twenty-three years later, Carmichael, in his senior year, is harassing quarterbacks almost at the same clip.

Carmichael is only in his second season on varsity, and during that time, he’s compiled 21 sacks. The Edison career sack leader is Manase Time, a 2015 graduate who finished with 22.5 sacks.

White said Carmichael reminds him a lot of Time.

“The highest compliment you can give a defensive football player is to say he has a motor, and Kenny never stops going 100%,” White said. “He never stops. That’s why he makes plays. He gets an extra tackle or two, or he gets a sack because he just keeps going, going and going.”

Slowing down Carmichael will most likely be Buena Park left tackle Ryan Nelson’s job. The two have faced each other before, a year ago in the second game for both Edison and Buena Park.

The result on the scoreboard went to Edison, which blanked Buena Park, 38-0, at Cap Sheue Field. From what Carmichael remembers, Nelson, a 6-foot-6, 260-pounder who’s committed to the University of Virginia, was a load.

“I think I was a little bit underdeveloped when I first played them,” said Carmichael, who is now 6-1 and 205 pounds. “I’ve definitely learned a lot since then. He kind of controlled me with his size. I got into him a little bit too much. I learned to speed rush a lot better since then.”

Last year marked Carmichael’s first season on varsity. He said he began that year as a linebacker, before coaches moved him to the line in the second game.

After not registering a sack against Buena Park, Carmichael improved at getting past offensive linemen. He finished his junior year with 8.5 sacks, earning him first-team All-Sunset League honors.

Carmichael credits Bruce Belcher, who coaches the defensive ends at Edison, for helping him develop pass-rushing techniques. His favorites are the spin move and bull rush, and the latter is what Carmichael used to get to Newbury Park quarterback Braden Handy with less than four minutes left in the first half last week.

At the time, the score was tight, Edison led, 21-17. In those final four minutes before halftime, Carmichael and the defense stopped Newbury Park twice.

The first time came three plays after Carmichael’s sack. The Panthers tried a fake punt on fourth down, and the Chargers were ready, as Shaun Colamonico stopped the run by Josh Madison behind the line of scrimmage.

The next defensive stand happened when Newbury Park got inside Edison’s one with four seconds remaining. Carmichael and the Chargers prevented Madison from punching it into the end zone, ensuring the Chargers stayed ahead, 28-17, as time expired in the first half.

“The goal-line stand definitely changed the game, changed the momentum,” Carmichael said.

Edison scored the first 21 points in the second half to seal the program’s first trip to the quarterfinals in three years.

While Carmichael and the defense kept Newbury Park scoreless for the first 19½ minutes of the second half, his younger brother, Jack, contributed on offense. The junior running back recorded 91 of his 109 rushing yards in the second half, and he finished with six receptions for 59 yards and one touchdown.

The younger Carmichael is beginning to look like his normal self. He played for the second straight week. A shoulder injury sidelined him for two league games.

The Chargers are going to need a healthy Jack if they plan to get past Buena Park, which finished atop the Freeway League for the first time since 1994.

“They have a lot of guys going to big-time schools,” Carmichael said. “If we can stop the passing game, we will do well.”

White believes Carmichael will play a big factor in the outcome. Carmichael likes his chances of being able to practice on Thanksgiving next week.

“I think our front four on defense … can do well against their offensive line,” White said. “They have that one lineman [Nelson] going both ways, but we don’t, so I think we can be a little fresher that way.”

Kenny Carmichael

Born: Nov. 24, 1998

Hometown: Huntington Beach

Height: 6 feet 1

Weight: 205 pounds

Sport: Football

Year: Senior

Coach: Dave White

Favorite food: Pasta

Favorite movie: “Full Metal Jacket”

Favorite athletic moment: “Winning the [Edison] Wildman Award last year. That [goes to] whoever gets the most defensive awards.”

Week in review: Carmichael finished with 10 tackles and one sack in the Chargers’ 49-24 win against Newbury Park in the first round of the CIF Southern Section Division 3 playoffs at Cap Sheue Field.