Khamari Brooks filled up the stat books last season at North Oconee High, catching 31 passes for 569 yards and nine touchdowns on offense — but that wasn’t his most important role.

The 6-foot-4, 225-pound junior, rated as the nation’s No. 11 edge for the 2026 class, had 131 tackles, 17 tackles for loss and 13 sacks. He forced two fumbles, recovered two more, picked off a pass and added two more scores on defense.

In the GHSA Class 4A state championship game against Marist, Brooks tallied eight tackles, 2½ tackles for loss and one sack. He also had 52 receiving yards and caught a touchdown.

Brooks is also a standout basketball player for North Oconee, where he has played both guard and forward positions. The Titans basketball team, ranked No. 2 in GHSA Class 4A, is on a 15-game win streak in its march to a state title defense.

Georgia legend David Pollack, who is an assistant at North Oconee, says the most intriguing thing about Brooks would not be the stats, the film or his sharp developmental curve.

“Khamari is one of the most brilliant people I’ve ever been around,” Pollack said. “Khamari is brilliant. So how I got Khamari to North Oconee is, he was in third grade and we played against him (in youth football).”

“We had wristbands for every play. Khamari figured out our wristbands by the second half and was in the third grade — where the ball was going, what it was. I was like, he was the biggest and strongest kid on the field too. He was the best player by far.”

Brooks, who was playing for a local Athens YMCA team at the time, remembers that day. One of his best childhood friends was playing for Pollack’s team.

“You know in Little League, there’s not that many plays that you could possibly run,” Brooks said. “So you’re able to pick up on those things and just, like, know where the ball was going.”

By middle school, Brooks was playing for one of Pollack’s teams. Now, Brooks utilizes those skills for Pollack and his state champion Titans.

“You ask coach (Tyler) Aurandt or you ask Coach Pollack now,” Brooks said. “I will come to the sideline and tell them things I am hearing on the field out there that will really help us when it comes game time.”

Khamari Brooks recruiting: Where does Georgia football sit?

Brooks has clear ties to UGA, but he said the Bulldogs turned up their recruiting interest after his dominant state title game performance.

“I can say that’s when they kind of dialed it in and started going harder than they were,” he said. “After I got the offer, I heard from them every once in a while. But after that state championship game — and I really showed that I could really play and I really showed up in a big game like that — after that game coach (Chidera Uzo-Diribe) has been talking to me nonstop and you saw coach Kirby Smart was just at my (basketball) game.

“After that state championship game, Georgia’s recruiting really got harder.”

There have been three teams consistently mentioned by Brooks in his recruitment. There’s a lot of Alabama and Tennessee, but UGA has always been there at the forefront.

“Knowing that it is right down the road, that will always be a school that will be in that mix with the other top schools I’ve talked about,” Brooks said. “That will be a school that is always up there no matter what happens because they are so close to home.”

Clemson and Georgia Tech are also in the mix, with the Yellow Jackets having an advantage given that offensive coordinator Buster Faulkner’s son, Harrison, is North Oconee’s quarterback. The Faulkner family has watched those boys grow up together back to Buster’s time as an offensive analyst on the Georgia staff (2020-22).

Brooks said he’s planning visits to Alabama and Clemson for Junior Days as well. He is also planning to take an official visit to UGA in June. Brooks is tuned into what Georgia has to offer for him, and he said Uzo-Diribe has complimented his versatility and quick development.

“They get players on the field early,” the likely early enrollee said. “They play a lot of guys on the defensive side of the ball. They’ve had multiple freshmen all-Americans over this past couple of years. That’s the thing I like the most. If you show that you are good enough to play, they are going to put you out there.”

The junior calls education a “nonnegotiable” when considering where he will play college football.

“That’s always going to be the most important thing,” Brooks said. “Then having a great relationship with my position coach. Those are two things that are really going to be the most important no matter where you go.”

He said he grew up in Athens as a Bulldogs fan. And his family ties to Georgia are substantial.

His step-grandfather, Charles “CJ” Junior, was a receiver on Georgia’s 1980 national championship team, and his great-uncle, Horace King, was a pioneer in the SEC as one of the “First Five” Black players at Georgia.

“I do it for my family, man,” Brooks said. “My mom, my brother and my grandma. Those are the three that have been around me my whole life. I grew up with just my mom and my grandma. Those are the people who have been taking care of me my whole life. Those are the people I do it for the most.”