Kelcy Quarles: Ready for Impact

Last spring, highly touted defensive lineman Kelcy Quarles was primed and ready to start his South Carolina career. There was a barrier in his way however. This was his grades. Quarles was not going to qualify at the University of South Carolina in 2010. This is something Quarles somewhat expected.

“I kind of knew after my last test score that I wasn’t going to be able to go,” Quarles admitted.

Just like Quarles does on the football field, he took this block head on. South Carolina defensive line coach Brad Lawing addressed Quarles and his family at their home in Greenwood, South Carolina about the situation. The situation being Fork Union Military Academy in Fork Union, Virginia, a prep school that has produced such football players such as Eddie George, Vinny Testeverde, Plaxico Burress, Jacoby Ford, and the late Gaines Adams. This was a tough pill for Quarles to swallow.

“I was upset but everything happens for a reason. I was upset because I felt like I let a lot of people down,” Quarles said in an exclusive interview with PalmettoFootballPlus. “I told [Coach Lawing] that anything to get me to be a South Carolina Gamecock that I would do it.”

Quarles says that he received guidance from his future teammate Chaz Sutton, who also attended Fork Union. He said that Sutton told him that if he dedicated himself to this he would come out not only a better football play but a better person.

Quarles has been dedicated to the Gamecocks since he made the announcement official November 29^th, 2008. Just like when he was a high school senior, Quarles received a lot of interest from other schools when he was at Fork Union Academy. Quarles recalls schools such as Miami, Tennessee, Virginia Tech and Marshall trying to get him to take an official visit and even to switch his pledge. He kept talking to the recruiting coaches to benefit his Fork Union teammates, not himself.

“I talked to the coaches that came just so they would come around and get other players so I could help my teammates at Fork Union,” Quarles said. “I thought that maybe they could go to some of those schools that were trying to recruit me.”

The place that Quarles benefitted the most from the year at Fork Union was not the extra year on the football field. It was the year to catch up in the classroom. He cited a mindset change for most of his success.

“It just made me more determined to do better in the classroom and not to worry as much about football because it would take care of itself,” Quarles admitted. “It just taught me to be as dedicated in the classroom as I am on the field.”

The 2010 South Carolina Gamecocks did things that were unmatched in the history of their school like winning the East division of the SEC and beating Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Clemson all in the same year. Quarles, who watched almost every South Carolina game on TV, said it was bittersweet for him.

“It was something I wish that I would have been a part of but I’m so proud of them,” Quarles says. “It was hard watching some of the games when I knew I could have been out there making an impact.”

While watching the Gamecocks play, he said he saw things that he thought he could improve on.

“Sometimes I think that they could have done better but not having the depth that we need can do that,” Quarles recalls. “I can understand that the guys needed a blow of air every once in a while.”

With the 2010 season behind him at Fork Union, Quarles is ready to fulfill his dream as to be a Gamecock. The 2011 season is something he has talked about at great lengths. Quarles has his eyes set at the top for the 2011 Gamecocks.

“The expectations are real high. This year you’ve seen that we can go to the SEC Championship game,” Quarles says of South Carolina’s 2010 success. “It’s like me and my Dad always talk about, we can run the tables next year and do some of the same things. I feel like we have a National Championship team.”