Welcome Draughn to The Observer’s Sweet 16 poll as NCHSAA playoffs move to quarterfinals
On Friday night, Jimmy C. Draughn High School from Valdese, N.C., made its first appearance in the third round of the N.C. football playoffs.
We’d say it went pretty well.
Draughn, in Burke County, is about an hour’s drive west of uptown Charlotte. It has about 630 students, according to the National Center for Education Statistics, and has a student-teacher ratio of slightly more than 17 to 1.
The school was named after the former mayor of Valdese who died in 1999. Jimmy C. Draughn was also a longtime teacher and the first principal of East Burke High.
And the namesake would be awfully proud of the current team.
Draughn has won 10 consecutive games since a 28-27 overtime loss to East Burke, which finished the season 3-7. Since that loss, Draughn has played angry, scoring 50 or more points seven times. Before this season, Draughn had managed two winning seasons in the past three years, but this was after going 8-43 from 2014-18.
Next up for Draughn, a quarterfinal game at unbeaten Andrews (13-0), which has outscored opponents 603-151 this season.
The Observer’s Sweet 16
| Rk. | School | Class | Rec. | Prvs. |
| 1. | Kings Mountain | 3A | 13-0 | 1 |
| 2. | Providence Day | IND | 12-1 | 2 |
| 3. | Hough | 4A | 11-2 | 3 |
| 4. | Weddington | 4A | 12-1 | 6 |
| 5. | Burns | 2A | 12-1 | 8 |
| 6. | South Point | 3A | 12-1 | 10 |
| 7. | Independence | 4A | 11-2 | 4 |
| 8. | Butler | 4A | 10-3 | 5 |
| 9. | Chambers | 4A | 9-3 | 9 |
| 10. | Charlotte Catholic | 4A | 9-3 | 11 |
| 11. | Maiden | 2A | 12-1 | 12 |
| 12. | Charlotte Christian | IND | 10-3 | 7 |
| 13. | East Lincoln | 3A | 13-0 | 13 |
| 14. | Monroe | 2A | 12-1 | 16 |
| 15. | Mallard Creek | 4A | 8-4 | 14 |
| 16. | Draughn | 1A | 12-1 | NR |
Dropped Out: Chase (2A, 12-1)
This story was originally published November 20, 2022 at 6:10 AM.
