UNC recruit Malaki Hamrick put 'everything I had' into Shelby football. Now, he's a three-time champion

RALEIGH – Malaki Hamrick was already emotional. Then a teammate, Cam Anderson, leaned down and whispered four words to the four-star UNC football commit as he soaked in the celebration around him.

On to Chapel Hill.

After that, Hamrick said Saturday night, “all my tears spilled out.”

It was a justifiable sob. Shelby High School had just won its 12th NCHSAA football state championship, defeating Wallace-Rose Hill 55-34 at N.C. State’s Carter-Finley Stadium. And Hamrick, who’d grown up dreaming of nights like this, starring for his hometown team on the biggest stage, had just won his third.

The talented linebacker/edge rusher earned most outstanding defensive player honors in the last game of his prep career with a game-high 14 tackles, 1.5 tackles for loss and one sack, while the Golden Lions coasted on offense and made good on a halftime promise to better contain the Bulldogs’ option attack.

Shelby, which led 34-27 at halftime, outscored Wallace-Rose Hill 21-7 in the second half to clinch its seventh 2A state title in the last nine years. As the final seconds ticked down on a 21-point win, Hamrick joined a few teammates in dousing coach Mike Wilbanks with a cooler of Gatorade on the sidelines.

Then he experienced some waterworks of his own.

“I put everything I had into this program since freshman year,” Hamrick told the USA Today Network. “And it started way before I was a freshman: when I was a little kid going to games, playing on the hill, looking down seeing that black and gold and saying, ‘Hey when is it my turn to be in black and gold?’”

He continued: “Just to see all the success we’ve had, all of the emotions, all the hard work and tears and everything, hit me all at once (postgame). We finished this season how we wanted to, with a ring, with my boys, with the team and community I love, so it’s all God. It’s all God. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

Saturday’s win ended a decorated four-year run for Hamrick, a longtime program contributor who’s added plenty of muscle to his 6-foot-4, 205-pound frame and excelled as a defensive end and linebacker alike while emerging as the No. 5 class of 2022 recruit in the state, per 247Sports composite rankings.

Hamrick (who also won state titles as a freshman in 2018 and a sophomore in 2019) entered Saturday with 118 tackles, 37 tackles for loss, 18.5 sacks and two forced fumbles as a senior. He’ll leave Shelby with 397 career tackles (7.5 per game), 109.5 career tackles for loss and 51.5 career sacks, plus three forced fumbles and three blocked punts.

Next up for Hamrick? Coach Mack Brown’s UNC football program. Hamrick verbally committed to the Tar Heels over Appalachian State, Notre Dame, Ohio State and Penn State in late February, citing the team’s top-to-bottom family feel and his own personal fandom as key factors in his college decision.

Committing on the eve of his junior season allowed Hamrick to indulge in the back half of high school without recruiting stress – and he certainly did this fall, tweeting out the same photo of him wearing a Halloween killer clown mask, a nod to Shelby’s “Dark Side” defensive brand, before every game.

But the last one of those tweets went out at 1:27 p.m. on Saturday, and by 6 p.m. Hamrick’s Shelby tenure had ended in storybook fashion. The next steps are coming quickly: Hamrick even went directly from Carter-Finley Stadium to a Triangle hotel ahead of his official visit in Chapel Hill tomorrow.

After that extravaganza – more a formality and a chance to kick back for recruits such as Hamrick, who’ve already been committed to their respective schools for months – the senior will ink his binding national letter of intent during next week’s early signing period and enroll early at UNC in January 2022.

The Tar Heels’ incoming class currently ranks first in the ACC and eighth in the country. Hamrick is one of nine four-star recruits in a 16-man group that also includes two five-star recruits – Grimsley defensive lineman Travis Shaw and Virginia offensive tackle Zach Rice – for the second time in program history.

As one of UNC’s earliest verbal commits, and its first in-state commit, Hamrick wasn’t too surprised by the additions of Shaw, Rice and in-state four-stars Omarion Hampton and Beau Atkinson, among others.

“That’s what I expected,” he said with a grin. “And with all of the in-state guys, I feel like if Carolina comes together, nobody can stop us. To be the first one, to lead that group, that’s special. I knew we had more talent coming, so to see the way it transpired and the way it ended it up, it’s just a blessing.”

With his signing day next week and his early enrollment less than a month away, Hamrick will soon be in full UNC mode. Before fully transitioning to college football, though, he had one last state championship locker room celebration awaiting him around the corner here in the bowels of Carter-Finley Stadium.

And he planned to take full advantage.

“It’s moments like these that we live for,” Hamrick said, his defensive MOP trophy in hand, and minutes later he ducked away, ready to ensure his last night in Shelby’s black and gold uniform was a good one.

Chapel Fowler is a recruiting reporter for The Fayetteville Observer and the USA TODAY Network. Reach him by email at cfowler@gannett.com or on Twitter at @chapelfowler.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: UNC football recruit Malaki Hamrick wins state championship with Shelby