Among the state’s best in 2 sports, this Meck star is Observer male athlete of year
Myers Park High football coach Scott Chadwick thinks Mustangs star Drake Maye is a throwback.
Maye, named the 2019-20 Charlotte Observer male athlete of the year, was a standout football and basketball performer this season.
Committed to play football at North Carolina in 2021, Maye completed 210-of-290 passes (72 percent) for 3,512 yards, 50 TDs and just two interceptions as a junior. He missed eight fourth quarters due to blowouts.
In basketball, he averaged 16.1 points, 11.3 rebounds, 2.7 assists and had 15 double-doubles. He was all-conference in the Southwestern 4A and made the All-Charlotte Observer team.
“What makes him unique,” Chadwick said, “is his ability to be such a standout in two separate sports. I’m sure you have to go back a ways to find a guy who is arguably one of the top two football players in his state and one of the top 25 in basketball.”
Recruiting analyst Rick Lewis of Phenom Hoop Report tracks N.C. athletes annually and believes that Maye could be a Power 5 recruit in basketball if he played basketball exclusively. His brother, Luke, won a national championship for Roy Williams’ North Carolina Tar Heels.
But like his father, Mark, Maye is a star in multiple sports.
Mark Maye was a senior at Independence High in the 1982-83 school year. He was named all-state in basketball, along with a future Kansas star named Danny Manning. Mark Maye was named all-state in baseball, too, but football was his best sport.
In the ‘82 season, Mark Maye was 6-foot-4, 195 pounds and played a game many of his opponents couldn’t understand. Most teams back then primarily ran the ball. Maye completed 132-of-247 passes for 2,353 yards and 19 touchdowns. He ran for 333 yards and 12 touchdowns. In one game against West Mecklenburg, he completed 22-of-34 passes for 481 yards and four touchdowns in a 40-39 win.
It took 20 years before a Mecklenburg County player would break Maye’s single-game passing yardage record. And like Maye, Independence’s Chris Leak was an All-American in 2002 and considered by some to be the nation’s No. 1 high school quarterback.
Chadwick believes Drake Maye is a lot like his dad.
“And I think the fact that he’s doing this against a high level of competition,” Chadwick said, “4AA level in football and 4A level in basketball, that’s a key point people need to realize. He’s doing this against the best there is, and I think his basketball numbers are probably hurt by the fact that he plays football.
“I can only imagine how good he might be if he was a year-round basketball guy. But he’s that rare guy who has dominating skill sets in two different sports. In this day and age, it’s refreshing to see. I think, in high school, guys need to play as many sports as possible.”
▪ Here are the other nine finalists, listed by school
BURNS
KUJUAN PRYOR, SR, FOOTBALL, BASEBALL: Running back led Burns to a 12-3 record and a N.C. 2A state semifinal performance. He rushed for 2,433 Yards with 9.8 yards per carry and 31 total touchdowns. He was the Southwestern conference offensive player of the year. He was the starting shortstop on the baseball team. In six games this year, Pryor was batting .313 with one double, one triple and seven stolen bases.
CHARLOTTE CHRISTIAN
BRETT ADAMS, SR, FOOTBALL AND BASEBALL: Adams, a tight end and linebacker, filled in at QB when the starter went down with an injury in the first game of the year. Adams completed 38-of-84 passes for 591 yards and seven TDs. He also rushed for 195 yards and one TD on 31 carries. Adams tied the school’s single-game passing TD record with four against Covenant Day. For the 2019 baseball season, Adams was named to the CISAA all-conference and NCISAA all-state teams, after hitting .373 with five home runs and 22 RBIs. He was 7-0 as a pitcher with an 0.089 ERA and 78 strikeouts in 47 innings. In Game 1 of the 2019 NCISAA state championship, which Christian eventually won, Adams had 15 strikesout. In the shortened 2020 season, he was hitting .500 with three RBIs and was 2-0 as a pitcher with an 0.00 ERA.
CHERRYVILLE
LANE HARRILL, SR, BASKETBALL, CROSS-COUNTRY: 2020 Southern Piedmont conference player of the year was a two-time N.C. Basketball All-District 10 pick. Signed to Mars Hill, Harrill averaged 30.2 points and 13.2 rebounds per game this season. In cross-country, Harrill is a three-time all-conference pick and a three-time school MVP.
CHARLOTTE COUNTRY DAY
JACK STAJOS, SR, FOOTBALL, TRACK: Stajos was a first-team all-conference and second-team all-state lineman on a football team that went 9-1 in the regular season and reached the NCISAA Division 1 semifinals. In track, his top shot put performance of the indoor season (54-10) ranked fifth in the state across all classifications, as did his top mark (52-0) for the abbreviated outdoor season. His top outdoor discus mark of 168-3 ranked second in the state. He is the defending NCISAA Division I champion in the discus. He will be a member of the Track & Field team at Davidson College next year.
HUNTER HUSS
DONTAVIUS NASH, JR, FOOTBALL, BASKETBALL: Nash was all-conference in football and basketball. He averaged 10.7 points, 5.7 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 2.7 steals in basketball. In football, he had 756 receiving yards on 48 catches. He had 10 receiving touchdowns and 11 total.
MOORESVILLE
KESHAUN BLACK, SR, FOOTBALL, TRACK: Black had 46 carries for 333 yards and three touchdowns in football, plus 55 catches for 809 yards and seven touchdowns. On special teams, he averaged more than 30 yards on kick returns and had two scores. In indoor track, he was the 4A state champion in the long jump, and runner up in the 55 meters and qualified for nationals. He had a top five national time in the 55.
RICHMOND SENIOR
CALEB HOOD, JR, FOOTBALL, BASKETBALL, TRACK: Hood has been a three-year starter at quarterback, where he has thrown for 6,305 yards and 59 TDs with only 16 interceptions, while completing 59 percent of his passes. He has also rushed for 1,899 yards and 27 TDs, while averaging 6.3 yards per carry. Richmond is 31-8 with him at QB including a berth in the N.C. 4A Western Regional final last season. In basketball, Hood is a three-year basketball starter who led the team in rebounds at just 6-foot tall (5.7 per game) and was second in scoring (8.7). He helped lead the Raiders to a 20-9 record. In track, he ran an 11.1 100-meter dash in his only meet this season. He has personal records of 6-foot in the high jump and 20 foot in the long jump.
SOUTHLAKE CHRISTIAN
LUCA LUTZEL, SR, FOOTBALL, LACROSSE: NCISAA two-time all-state pick in football finished the 2019 season with 14 pass deflections, 51 tackles, and 16 interceptions. Lutzel was picked for the Blue/Grey All American Bowl and played in the Queen City Senior Bowl. Will play college football at Johns Hopkins. Lutzel was named a 2019 all state lacrosse player as well for the two time Div II Eagles’ state champs.
WEST LINCOLN
CANON BRIDGES, SR, FOOTBALL, WRESTLING, TRACK: Bridges broke the Lincoln County single season rushing record with 2,294 yards in 2019. Defensively, he had 166 total tackles with 25 tackles for a loss, and 9.5 sacks. He led West Lincoln to the most wins in school history (10) to the NCHSAA Western Regional semifinals. West Lincoln had never won a playoff game. He was an All-Observer and all-state pick. In wrestling, Bridges won the N.C. 2A regional and state titles at 152 pounds after finishing runner-up in 2019. This season, he was 32-1. In track, he runs the 200, 400 meters and on two relay teams. He only had one meet before COVID-19 stopped the season.
COMING SUNDAY: The Observer will announce the winners of the reader’s vote for athlete of the year. At 6 a.m. on CharlotteObserver.com you will find out who was “The People’s Choice.”
This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 6:05 AM.
