‘This season is about greatness.’ Mooresville aiming for breakout prep football season
If you drive about 35 minutes north of uptown Charlotte, down the always busy Interstate 77, you’ll wind up in a town of about 50,000. This is where Lowe’s — the home improvement giant — is headquartered.
On its official website, the Town of Mooresville said the place is best known for Lowe’s as well as being “the home of many NASCAR racing teams and drivers ... which has earned the town the nickname ‘Race City USA’.
But there’s also one more thing that Mooresville is known for: high school football.
Many analysts and experts in the sport will talk to you about Rockingham and Shelby and Tarboro and Kannapolis as being the state’s high school football hot spots, but the players at Mooresville High School believe their town is right up with there with the best of them.
“I came here after my freshman year (at Hough High in nearby Cornelius) and it’s just special to be a player here,” said Mooresville High quarterback Brody Norman, who was named the Greater Metro 4A conference offensive player of the year last season, when he was a sophomore. “The amount of people who went to school here 30 to 40 years ago that still come to games is amazing. I think the culture and community is great here. It just is.”
Norman and Mooresville High have a rivalry with crosstown Lake Norman High that is — regardless of sport — one of the best in North Carolina. Norman and his teammates say that playing Lake Norman is always one of the biggest highlights of the season.
But after going 28-7 the past three seasons, and not getting past the second round of the playoffs, the Blue Devils have even bigger goals than beating a rival.
“This season is about greatness,” said senior linebacker Jamari Farmer, who has committed to Power 5 Indiana. “Our offense is pretty good and our defense is probably the best it’s ever been. We’ve got a lot of young guys and a lot of old guys. It’s like a mix. We all grew up together.”
New coach, same scheme
Almost to a man, the Blue Devils said they wanted Zach Mayo to be their coach.
“He’s our guy,” senior defensive back A.J. Graham said. Graham has committed to the University of Delaware, a Division I program. “He was the guy we wanted. He’s younger and he could really relate to the guys.”
Mayo, 26, grew up around football. His dad, Scott Burleson, was defensive coordinator at Mount Pleasant High School in Cabarrus County, working under legendary coach Mike Johns, who the school named its football stadium for last year.
While playing college football at Catawba, Mayo interned with Joe Nixon, then head coach at West Rowan High in Mount Ulla, about an hour’s drive north of Charlotte.
In 2020, Nixon left to become coach at Mooresville High. Mayo was looking for a job. Nixon gave him one.
And last April, when Nixon left, after three straight winning seasons, to become system athletic director for Rowan County Schools, Mayo got his first head job.
“It’s different for me as far as (organization),” he said of the new role, “but from what our culture and identity is, it hasn’t changed. We’re still going to play fast, physical and relentless. We’re going to be a physical team that’s going to run the football at you, take play-action (passing) shots and let our best athletes make plays. On defense, we’ll play with speed and let those guys get to the football.”
Mayo figures, why change the formula? It’s kind of what the Blue Devils have done for many years, under several different coaches, and that formula seems work. Mooresville was 0-11 in 2009, but has only had two losing seasons since then — and one was during COVID.
Last year’s team finished 11-1, and tied for the third-most wins in school history. And this is a town, the players say, where you grow up wanting to be a high school football player.
“There’s always pressure to win,” said Graham, the two-time all-conference defensive back. “There ain’t much to do in Mooresville other than play football. Everybody comes to the games. I mean, you’ve got to win. If you don’t win, everybody’s going to talk about it.”
To the playoffs, again
For the past three seasons, Mooresville has won a lot. It’s beaten Lake Norman three straight times, won two consecutive league championships, had back-to-back years with at least 10 wins.
But that playoff record just doesn’t sit right with most anybody around the program. Mooresville hasn’t made a really deep run since 2000, when coach Mike Carter’s Blue Devils set a school-record with 13 wins before losing 48-7 to Jamestown’s Ragsdale High in the N.C. 3A state semifinals.
These Blue Devils think the 2024 season is a time to change all that history.
“This is the most excited I’ve been for a season,” said Norman, the junior quarterback, “and I believe we’ll go twice as far as last year, at least. I think the attention to detail and assertiveness of our team and staff right now is amazing. I can just feel the energy. I felt it this spring.”
Norman said his team — which returns 16 starters, including nine on offense — has a “real sense of urgency.”
“I try to not feel pressure,” he said, “and I’ve said it before that there’s been a narrative around the second round (playoff) exits we’ve had these past two years, but with attention to detail and the things we’re doing inside the weight room and outside the weight room and in the meeting room, I think we’re going to change that.”
Like his QB, Mayo said there expectations to win every year at Mooresville. He said he wouldn’t want to coach at a place where there were no expectations.
He also believes he’s got a team that can perhaps exceed them this season.
“The goal is to always win a state championship,” Mayo said. “A lot of people preach that ‘Let’s go 1-0.’ But I’m not talking about 1-0 each week. I’m trying to be 1-0 each rep. When I line up in practice, I’m trying to win that rep. I’m wanting to win that next rep. We keep stacking those, that’s how we get to our ultimate goal.”
