Before he heads to UNC, Charlotte Catholic star Malik McGowan wants 3rd state ring
Moments after Charlotte Catholic lost to Weddington High in early October, Malik McGowan said he wasn’t sure his senior season would turn out the way he wanted it to.
McGowan, a 6-foot-4, 315 pound offensive lineman, is the only four-year starter at Charlotte Catholic in 20 years, according to Cougars coach Mike Brodowicz. Committed to play for Mack Brown at UNC, McGowan has also been a big part of back-to-back N.C. 3A state championship teams at his school.
He desperately wanted to make it three straight this season.
But walking off the field after losing 45-0 to Weddington Oct. 4, McGowan said he cried and saw his teammates crying, too.
Catholic was 2-3, had lost its top running back (transfer to Gastonia’s Hunter Huss High) and had just seen a 10-year conference win streak -- one that had lasted 66 straight games -- abruptly come to an end.
Winning state, all of a sudden, seemed like a very distant dream.
“I’ll be real,” McGowan said. “I didn’t think we could get here at first.”
Saturday, Charlotte Catholic (11-3) will play Southern Nash (15-0) in the state final at N.C. State. Kickoff is at 3 p.m.
The Cougars have won 10 straight games, including last week’s wild 56-49 7-overtime state semifinal with Kings Mountain, and McGowan said it all started the Monday after the Weddington loss.
“Coach pulled us into a meeting,” he said, “and we agreed things needed to change. We moved around a couple players and changed things up, and since then it’s been pretty good. We just said we have to work 10 times harder and we can’t let anyone run over us anymore. We were like, ‘We won’t let that happen.’”
Brodowicz said Catholic’s tough schedule maybe caught up with them a little early in the season, too. The Cougars lost 7-0 to Good Counsel (MD), a team ranked No. 17 in MaxPreps national poll. The following week, Catholic lost 7-3 to Archbishop Rummel (LA), ranked No. 19.
“I might’ve bit off a little more than I could chew,” said Brodowicz, whose team graduated 26 seniors from last season’s state champions. “We wanted to play some challenging teams to see what our program is like outside the state. It’s fun to have those games. We played really well, but losing those two heartbreakers set us back a little bit and then we ran into a juggernaut. We ran into Weddington who’s (beating) everyone.
“It made all of our team sit back and re-collect our thoughts and approach the game a little more day-to-day and not so much big picture. It’s been a different route we’ve had to take, but when you’re scratching and clawing every single day, it brings your team and coaching staff closer together. It’s been a memorable year for me.”
Saturday, Catholic will try to win its fourth state championship in five years. It will try to win its seventh overall state championship, matching Independence for the most in Mecklenburg County public school history.
And McGowan has been a big part of the run.
“Malik has been the only four-year starter since I’ve been here the last 20 years,” Catholic coach Brodowicz said. “Being a Power 5 (conference) signee at Chapel Hill shows you the talent he has. But people dont know the type of teammate and great leader he is. He’s well-liked in the halls, very humble and always has a smile on his face.”
McGowan is primarily on offense at Catholic, but has played some defensive line, too. He has played seven games on defense and totaled 17 tackles and two sacks. On offense, he grades out to nearly 90 percent, or 10 percent higher than average lineman at Catholic.
“But what he did Friday was the most impressive thing,” Brodowicz said. “He didn’t come off the field in those overtimes. He played 42 straight snaps of football after playing a whole football game against a very talented and physical Kings Mountain team.”
For McGowan, there’s only one game -- and one goal -- left.
“It’s very important to me to win this last one since we’ve won the past two,” he said. “I’ve put everything into this season and for this team. Now, we’ve got to finish.”
Wertz: 704-358-5133; twitter.com/langstonwertzjr
This story was originally published December 13, 2019 at 6:59 PM.
