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Hough High celebrates Luke Maye's rise to success

By Mark Barber
By Mark Barber

CORNELIUS, N.C. — Before Luke Maye a hit game-winning shot in the NCAA Tournament for the University of North Carolina, he attended Hough High School, in Cornelius.

His former high school coaches don't just think of him as a national champion at UNC. They remember him as an athlete who could do it all, from football in middle school, to basketball and baseball in high school.

"His senior year still stands to this day as the single-season record," said Jimmy Cochran, Hough’s head baseball coach.

Maye was a star first baseman at Hough High and could have chosen to play college baseball.

He selected basketball instead.

In his high school yearbook, in 2015, Maye wore a North Carolina Final Four T-shirt.

He was also voted by the school class as the “Most likely be featured in ESPN's Top 10 plays."

A few years later, Maye scored the game-winning basket in the Elite Eight that lifted UNC to its win over Kentucky, which ultimately ended with an NCAA championship.

Jason Grube, Maye's high school basketball coach, acknowledged Maye's accomplishments on the court, bus said that he’s prouder of who Maye is off the court.

"Obviously, he's the best basketball player to ever come through Hough High School, but he was an even better kid," Grube said.

Jenna Anderson, one of Maye’s former teachers, doesn’t worry about his triumph getting to his head.

"I think he will stay humble throughout,” Anderson said. “He's always been one of those kids you've kind of known great things were going to come for him."

When Maye returns to Hough High during its next basketball season, his coaches plan to retire his jersey No. 32, the number he wore in high school and at UNC.

"He treated people with the utmost respect and care,” Cochran said. “What a tremendous role model for us to have as a community.”

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