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Though fans made their voices heard choice for the Player of the Year Award for football, I always like to leave myself some leeway to honor athletes who have also stood out throughout the 2021 season and gained respect from their peers, opponents and scribblers like myself.

In that spirit, alongside the Player of the Year award I am also including a handful of awards for individuals who are worthy of praise for putting up stellar performances this year.

Offensive Player of the Year

Voters might have chosen CJ for Player of the Year, but I had my own mind made up (for offense, anyhow) back when I watched Harlem Diamond put up his second 3TD, 100+ yard performance in a row during the regular season. He’s my Offensive Player of the Year because, well, the numbers make sense. He had a 1,075-yard season on 94 carries and scored 20 times. Why some college looking to infuse their offense with a hard-to-hold, can change gears and directions running back hasn’t signed him right now, I’m unsure as to why.

Of note, it was announced last week that Diamond was a Top 10 rushing leader in Class 4A for the year. He took the ninth-place spot among some big talents on that list.

The best news for everyone is that we get another chance in 2022 to watch Harlem Diamond make big plays we can all enjoy next fall before he graduates and hopefully joins the ranks of recent D-1 prospects out of Polk County.

Defensive Player of the Year

When I look for a player to fill this spot, I look at numbers, but also at situations. How does a guy do in the trenches on third down stands in the red zone? What kind of statement are they able to make against offenses? How do they respond to opposition getting the upper hand?

So this first-ever Defensive Player of the Year award has to go to another Bulldog, but one well-deserving in Defensive Tackle Jai Barnes. The senior proved himself to be a sack master, able to get to opposing QBs 10 times this year and with 73 solo tackles made himself an instrumental part of the Bulldogs making anyone fear him when they faced him across the line of scrimmage on offense.

Barnes also donned the 55 jersey to honor teammate MJ Whatley on several occasions during the 2021, who passed away suddenly and tragically after his senior season.

Real class act of a guy.

Special Teams Player of the Year

During the year at Rockmart games, every time the opposing team punted the ball I would steady the camera the best I could and wait to see whether Dennis Sims would bring another punt back for six.

The numbers don’t fully reflect the threat he posed on special teams during the season, but with 3 scores off of runbacks off punts on the season, three more on kickoff returns and averaged it certainly felt like Sims could pull off a score anytime he got a hold of a punt or kickoff.

The Jackets junior still has lots of opportunity to make a name for himself in 2022, and look for him to dominate on special teams this coming year as the Jackets play in a new regional alignment coming up.

Lineman of the Year

The motto of any good lineman worth their weight in gold is: ain’t nobody touching our quarterback today. This year, Cedartown’s Jaylon Stephenson takes the first-ever Lineman of the Year Award for PolkSportsWire. He also earned himself a spot on the first-team offense for 7-4A as the senior wrapped up his career with all-region honors.

Stephenson is a machine on the O-Line, able to keep defenders at bay just on size alone

Underclassmen Offensive Player of the Year

Rockmart’s Brent Washington was the guy in the backfield who when you needed a first down, he could make it and then some if other backs getting touches weren’t gaining traction against 6-AAA defenses. Reliability is what y

His sophomore season saw his production still lower than some others on the team – like the late season rise of Cam Ferguson in the offense – but that just goes to show how many players were available in the Jackets system to get carries. If one guy isn’t finding his footing, another follows.

Still, Washington’s sophomore year saw more than 439 yards and 62 carries, picking up seven touchdowns on the year. What’s better: he’ll be back for his junior season with Rockmart and hopefully will get greater chances at more touches as Keyshaun McCullough graduates this May.

Underclassmen Defensive Player of the Year

Rockmart’s Jake Bailey is one of those guys who lives up to expectations. His older brother was a two-sport varsity QB in football his senior year, and played for the Jackets baseball team as a catcher and went onto college to play. Jake plays baseball as well, but the sophomore defensive back-wide receiver followed in the footsteps of his elder and turns out he has talent on the gridiron as well. Bailey grabbed an interception and fumble on defense this year. He still got plenty of time to increase his stats heading into his junior year with the Jackets.

Impact Player of the Year

This award goes to another big man with a big season, and the Cedartown junior fullback made his impact felt against every single team who had to face down the 5-foot-10, 260-pound Bulldog who pushes defenses out of his way to gain yardage.

Patrick Gardner, aka Juice (though with the way he runs through people, maybe he should be Tank) was one of the big game-changers for the Bulldogs throughout the year in the backfield and was just about unstoppable at the goal line for touchdowns. That totaled up to 843 yards on the year with 119 carries and nine touchdowns for 2021.

That’s double the production across the board he had during his sophomore campaign with the Bulldogs, and I suspect that number will grow further during his senior year.

That’s it for this first year’s round of awards for the 2021 season. Look for upcoming highlight reels showing off some of the editor’s choice top plays for 2021 for both squads.