Mentor’s Bart Tanski is named Mr. Football
Cardinal Mooney’s Dan McCarthy was one of the finalists for the award.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
There are two things that set Mentor’s Bart Tanski apart from other kids his age: He has quarterbacking abilities that can’t be taught, and he listens to Celine Dion music.
More on the Canadian chanteuse’s songs later. What’s more important is that Tanski is the winner of the 21st annual Associated Press Mr. Football award, emblematic of the top prep player in Ohio.
Tanski, a 6-foot-2, 190-pound senior, leads Mentor into this Saturday’s Division I state championship game against top-ranked Cincinnati St. Xavier. It’s the second year in a row Mentor has climbed to the final, losing a year ago to Hilliard Davidson.
Asked his proudest moment from his football career, the soft-spoken Tanski doesn’t hesitate.
“Probably this, making it back to back to the state championship,” he said Wednesday before rushing off to a calculus class. “It’s probably the hugest moment for me as a football player.”
Tanski’s numbers are impressive, but not nearly so impressive as his ability to turn those numbers into wins. During an 7-2 regular season, Tanski completed 161-of-273 passes for 2,385 yards and 20 touchdowns with just four interceptions. He also ran for eight touchdowns.
Tanski is the opposite of brash, a kid who is uncomfortable speaking about himself. His father is a chemical engineer, his mother a logistics manager and he has a sister in the eighth grade. He has yet to pick a college, nor even to narrow his list of possibilities. A good student, he thinks he’d like to study engineering, like his dad, or business.
“My mom and my dad have been helping me out with football since like the second grade,” he said. “We’re a close family. We get along good.”
When he’s not starring on the football field, he likes to hang around with his friends, play basketball and listen to music. His selections vary with his mood.
“I listen to all kinds of music, like rap, rock and roll, some country, Celine Dion too,” he said.
Celine Dion? He laughed at how much trouble he might get into with his friends because of that admission.
The Mr. Football award was initiated in 1987 by the Ohio Associated Press. Past winners include former or current college and NFL stars Charles Woodson, Robert Smith, Bobby Hoying and Andy Katzenmoyer.
The award is based on balloting by a state media panel. Others considered for the honor include Mooney quarterback Dan McCarthy, St. Xavier receiver/kicker/punter Danny Milligan, Dublin Coffman quarterback Zack Stoudt, Sherwood Fairview quarterback Ryan Radcliff, Brunswick quarterback Sean Bedevelsky and Zanesville running back Bryan Gaiters.
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