Spalding coach Kearney charged with murder in Maryland

Spalding football coach Carl Kearney Jr. has been charged with first- and second-degree murder for the strangulation death of his girlfriend in Maryland, Prince George’s County police reported late Sunday evening.

Kearney, 43, entered a Clinton, Md., police station Saturday morning and confessed to strangling Patrina Best, 38, during an argument in her Accokeek, Md., home, the police report said. Police offers responding to a welfare check found Best unresponsive. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Kearney, a Griffin High graduate, led Spalding, the crosstown Griffin school, to its first region title in 20 years last season. Spalding finished 13-1 and reached the Class 4A quarterfinals.

Kearney became head coach in 2020 and quickly turned around a program that had gone 1-9 the previous season as his teams advanced playoff rounds in 2021, 2022 and 2023, an unprecedented streak in school history.

Kearney was the winner of Georgia High School Football Daily’s Class 4A coaches award for most improved winning team in Class 4A following the 2021 and 2023 seasons.

Before coming to Spalding, Kearney had coached at Griffin since 2016. Kearney was a Georgia Southern wide receiver who played in NFL preseason games with the New York Jets in 2004 and 2005 but never made an active regular-season roster.