Drake Maye’s journey from Charlotte high school star to Super Bowl quarterback

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Patriots coaches Mike Vrabel and Josh McDaniels deservedly get a lot of credit for getting the best out of 23-year-old quarterback Drake Maye this year.

In just his second pro season, the Charlotte native was the runner-up for NFL MVP, tossing 31 touchdown passes.

But the coaches who mentored Maye in college and high school deserve a lot of the credit, too, and they say it will be surreal to watch their star pupil suit up in the Super Bowl on Sunday.

 “Very surreal,” Scott Chadwick, Maye’s coach at Myers Park High School, said. “A guy that literally, as a kid, sat on the couch in my office at Myers Park.”

Maye transferred in his sophomore season from Hough. Chadwick, now at Clayton, recognized the talent immediately.

“There were many times where you just kind of like did you see that throw? I think that’s one thing that’s translated from high school to college and now to the NFL is his amazing accuracy,” Chadwick said.

It wasn’t long into his Mustangs career that Maye attracted the attention of big-time colleges, and ultimately committed to Alabama, not North Carolina, where his father and brother were star athletes.

The news did not sit well with then Tar Heels coach Mack Brown, who received the call from Maye while at home in the North Carolina mountains.

 “That’s a crusher, man. We can’t do that,” he said. “We can’t lose Drake Maye.”

But Maye’s commitment to Alabama didn’t last long. Nick Saban recruited over Maye to bring in a new quarterback in the same class.

Some guy named Bryce Young.

That led to a much happier conversation with Carolina’s coach.

Maye was an immediate star in Chapel Hill, a freshman All-American, All-ACC quarterback who broke the school’s single-season passing yards and touchdowns records.

“I’m seeing him make the same plays now that he did at Carolina,” Brown said.

Off the field, Brown saw a fierce competitor and a leader even as a freshman.

“A guy like Drake has the it factor,” Brown said. “When he walks in a room, everyone stops and looks. Everyone wants to meet him, everyone wants to talk to him. People ask me ‘Is he real? Is this who he is?’ And it is.”

Maye is about to suit up in front of 100 million people in the world’s biggest sporting event. He’s still the same kid who sat on his coach’s couch at Myers Park High School.

“The one thing I’ve been most proud of is how he has not changed one bit,” Chadwick said. “He’s still that same humble, team first, deflect all the credit, great human being. This has not changed him one bit.”

Contact Nick Carboni at ncarboni@wcnc.com and follow him on Facebook, X and Instagram.

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