Doumarier Tabb’s life took a tragic turn when he was a high school freshman.
The current Curie senior was living in Milwaukee and attending Riverside University High School when his mother died.
“There was a lot of stuff going on,” Tabb said after the Condors’ 26-0 win over Muchin on Oct. 8 at Rockne Stadium. “So I moved here and met a lot of great people. …
“I moved in with my auntie … shoutout to her. She took me in, my uncle took me in. They didn’t have to, but they did because they loved me very much and I appreciate them so much for that.”
The move also was a good one in other ways.
“Curie accepted me as a new student,” Tabb said. “They taught me how to be positive. It was a lot of negatives, but I understood the positives. But you’ve got to have negatives to be positive.”
When he arrived at Curie, newly hired coach Jarve Lewis-Bey was starting to rebuild a program that had fallen on hard times. In the four years before he arrived, the Condors went winless twice and had four total victories.
On the first day of practice, only about 15 players showed up.
“We had a lot of flaws at the start because people didn’t understand how hard coaching is,” Tabb said. “Even I — I can say I can stick up for myself — even I didn’t really understand it. … (Finally) I really understood like, it’s going to be like this in college so I’m gonna have to accept it and take it. And most of my teammates understood that and they went hard.”
Football made it easier for Tabb to adjust to living in a new city and attending a new school.
“It helped me a lot because I took responsibility as a leader,” he said.
Now the Condors are again relevant under Lewis-Bey, qualifying for the IHSA playoffs three straight seasons — the longest run since a four-year stretch from 2014-17. They’re 5-3 overall this year and finished third in the Public League Red North at 3-2.
Tabb, a 6-3, 240-pounder, has been a dependable lineman through his time at Curie. Against Muchin, he even scored the first touchdown of his career on a 10-yard scoop and score. BJ Cunningham and Isael Barrow-Salazar each ran for TDs and Cunningham also threw a scoring pass to Josiah Hogan in the win.
“I’m really proud of myself for doing that because we practice that every day, the elevator drill and stuff like that,” Tabb said of his TD.
Lewis-Bey also is proud of Tabb’s development.
“He played at a lower level (to start),” Lewis-Bey said. “He just developed himself up. … He’s a senior (now) so he’s one of the best ones we’ve got.”