North Brunswick’s Tyrell Pereira is GMC Football Defensive Player of Week
EDITOR'S NOTE: MyCentralJersey.com’s Week 8 Greater Middlesex Conference Player of the Week poll inadvertently closed at 5 p.m. on Wednesday, an hour earlier than its scheduled closing time, apparently the result of a daylight savings time computer glitch. As a result, MyCentralJersey.com has picked two winners for this Week’s Player of the Week poll, one for his offensive performance and the other for his defensive efforts. At the time the poll closed, 968 votes separated the top two vote-getters, who combined to receive 79.47 percent or 60,704 of the total votes cast.
When a football coach calls someone a “football guy,” he doesn’t just mean the player puts on a helmet and shoulder pads. It’s an attitude. A toughness. A mentality that the player is going to have dirt hanging from his helmet and will always go forward.
It’s among the highest compliments one can get. North Brunswick High School’s Tyrell Pereira is a football guy.
“He’s got that ‘it factor’ for sure when it comes to a football player,” North Brunswick coach Michael Cipot said. “You always hope that rubs off on other people on the team. … Football-wise, he’s got it all. He’s got the smarts. He’s got the speed. He’s got the tenacity.”
READ: Central Group V football playoff previews for North Brunswick, Old Bridge, South Brunswick
The senior linebacker/offensive tackle doesn’t always garner the headlines like some of the other Raiders stars, but he’s been a big reason for the team’s success. In last Saturday’s 38-21 win over Westfield, Pereira had a team-high nine tackles and returned a fumble 65 yards for a touchdown in the final three minutes to seal the victory.
For his efforts, readers voted Pereira the MyCentralJersey.com’s Defensive Player of the Week. He leads North Brunswick with 51 1/2 tackles and forced a fumble. He’s had at least eight tackles in each of the last three games as North Brunswick got ready for the playoffs.
The Raiders (8-1) earned the No. 1 seed in NJSIAA Central Group V and was slated to host a first-round game Friday against Eastern.
Pereira has formed a dangerous linebacker trio with Chris Arnold and Jaiquil Boyd. Cipot noted the 6-foot, 215-pound Pereira is among the more physical guys that he’s ever coached and that “he’s the heart and soul of the defense.”
“I mean, he’s not a 6-8 lineman, but he plays like it,” Cipot said. “He’s got that tenacity and he’s got that physicality to him and that toughness. He just has that mental toughness."
Pereira’s the kind of leader who was not only regularly sweating in the weight room during the offseason, but he made sure his teammates were also working out. Cipot noted that he got slimmer, faster and stronger from last fall.
“Going into this year, he had a great offseason,” Cipot said. “So you kind of knew that he was going to be primed for a big year. And he’s been pretty steady. He’s consistent at his play, week-in and week-out. He’s scoring high grades on the o-line every week and he has a great defensive performance every week. So he’s been very, very consistent for us the last two years.”
Cipot credited Pereira’s position coaches Chris Meagher and Paul Day for helping in his success.
Pereira has also formed a bond with the other tough offensive linemen in Jarron Douglas, Mike Gonzalez, Amaan Maiden and Derek Rossman. They’ve helped senior star Myles Bailey become the school’s all-time rushing leader find space.
Offensive tackles don’t always double as linebackers. Cipot said that Pereira is an athletic player who can both drive defenders back one-on-one and help in zone blocking. Then, there are the intangibles that Pereira brings to the team.
“He’s really an unsung hero in the locker room and on the field," Cipot said. "He’s got great leadership skills. I can go on and on about him. He’s been the rock of the foundation of the success of North Brunswick football for the last three years. You got Myles and those guys, but Tyrell definitely needs to be mentioned in that sentence.”
In Saturday’s win over playoff-bound Westfield, the Blue Devils and quarterback Hank Shapiro were driving late in the game down 31-21. North Brunswick defensive end Leon Lowery applied the hit on Shapiro and Pereira scooped up the ball and took off.
One could say the North Brunswick players and fans were excited.
“Oh man, the place went in a frenzy,” Cipot said. “The sideline was like a rock show, to be honest with you. I mean, because all the kids respect and love him because he’s such a stand-up guy. For them to see like, ‘The Guy’ pick up the ball, it just set everyone off.
“You couldn’t have asked for a better exclamation point on the regular season. It was fun. It was a great win. Now we have to focus on the playoffs.”
Chances are, their “football guy” will be right in the middle of a postseason run.
“We sometimes talk as a staff and say who on our team is a football guy,” Cipot said. “He is in that category. He’s a football guy. Some guys are just good football players. He’s a football guy. He’s definitely got it. Tyrell’s a throwback, for sure. He’s a tough, old-school player that you always want to lead your team. So we’re lucky we got him.”