It’s official: Draughn, EB, Patton back together as realignment wraps up

Reunited.

And yes … for three Burke County high schools’ athletic programs who have felt the burden of travel costs, late weeknight bus rides, and traditional, nearby rivalries being eroded since 2021, it feels so good.

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association (NCHSAA) realignment committee on Feb. 14 released its third and final draft of 2025-29 statewide realignment. And as in the prior two drafts which were released over the last couple months, the final draft keeps Draughn, East Burke, and Patton together in the same conference.

Conferences aren’t quite final yet. Though no additional drafts of realignment will be announced, individual member schools may still appeal their conference placement to the NCHSAA, and if approved, be moved into a different conference.

However, none of the county’s schools are appealing, meaning their placement is set, said Burke County Public Schools’ countywide athletic director Casey Rogers, who also represented District 7 as one of 21 total members on the realignment committee.

In the third draft, 3A schools Draughn and Patton and 4A East Burke will wear out U.S. 64 as they are joined in the thus-far unnamed, eight-team “3A/4A Conference D” by Chase (3A), East Rutherford (3A), West Caldwell (3A), Hibriten (4A), and R-S Central (4A).

In many leagues statewide, the third draft more closely resembles the first draft released on Dec. 18, 2024, than it does the second draft released Jan. 21. The third draft of 3A/4A Conference D is, in fact, identical to the first draft, adding back in the three Rutherford County schools and subtracting Ashe County.

Draughn, EB, and Patton were each members of the Northwestern Foothills 2A Athletic Conference (NWFAC) from 2017-21 before being separated three different ways from 2021-25. Draughn went into the Western Highlands 1A/2A, EB into the Catawba Valley 2A, and Patton into the Mountain Foothills 7 1A/2A, and gone locally were the days of late-season, meaningful games that helped shape conference races and state playoff seedings, as well as close geographic rivalries. Those three county schools faced off for the NWFAC boys and girls basketball tournament titles on multiple occasions in that span.

NCSSM-Morganton became a full WHC 1A/2A member alongside Draughn prior to the 2023-24 school year, but aside from girls tennis the last two years, those schools have not played a first-place contest in any sport.

And the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years were the only ones since Burke County’s consolidation of the mid-1970s that in-county conference matchups did not exist.

But the good old days are now back, starting this August.

“First, it cuts travel for Patton and Draughn considerably,” Rogers told The Paper last month. “And then playing each other later in seasons with potentially more at stake means you get more games that folks around here want to see and so probably also some bigger gates.”

Rogers last week added: “When you look at what had been done to (the county) the last four years versus where we’re about to be, I don’t think you can beat that.”

Patton and Draughn’s average miles traveled for conference contests are currently 63.3 and 55.3, respectively. Those numbers are trimmed by more than half assuming the conferences from the third draft remain untouched, going to 27.0 and 24.4, respectively, while EB’s travel goes up slightly from 21.9 miles to a still-modest 29.7 miles.

Freedom, meanwhile, was placed alongside fellow 6A members Alexander Central, South Caldwell, St. Stephens, and Watauga, plus 7A McDowell into 6A/7A Conference J in the third draft, which also exactly mirrored the first draft.

Alexander and Saint had not been present in the league’s second draft though both were in the first draft, and second-draft members A.C. Reynolds, Asheville, and T.C. Roberson were removed for the third draft.

Unlike the other three BCPS high schools, Freedom’s new league is pretty similar in makeup to its current league, the six-team Northwestern 3A/4A. The only changes will be adding McDowell and St. Stephens and losing Ashe County and Hibriten.

Those changes will save Freedom an average of 5.6 miles per league contest (38.6 to 33.0).

And 1A school NCSSM-Morganton was placed into 1A/2A/3A Conference B for the third draft, largely moving the Dragons back in with Charlotte-area schools.

NCSSM-M is now back alongside first-draft members Carolina International (1A), Jackson Day (1A), Queen’s Grant (2A), and Sugar Creek Charter (2A) but still minus Valor Prep from the first draft. Also gone are second-draft members Cherryville (2A), Highland Tech (2A), and Bessemer City (3A), with second-draft members Bonnie Cone Leadership Academy (1A), Thomas Jefferson (1A), Mountain Island Charter (2A), and Piedmont Community Charter (3A) remaining in place.

This year’s NCHSAA realignment is unlike any before it since the state is doubling the number of classifications from four (a number that’s been in place for nearly 65 years) to eight beginning this August.

As announced over the summer, only the largest 32 schools in the state will make up the 8A class, with the remaining member schools as evenly divided as possible among the lower seven classes (with roughly 60 schools apiece).

Schools each learned their new classifications in November 2024 when the NCHSAA announced average daily membership (ADM) numbers, which are the sole determining factor for placement in this realignment (unlike in the previous one which incorporated athletic success and socioeconomic factors).

For now, there is no indication that the new leagues will run for a shorter duration than the NCHSAA’s traditional four years. However, the NCHSAA’s bylaw task force committee in the spring of 2024 recommended to the NCHSAA that conferences be redrawn every two years due to more schools likely changing classes with double the number of current classes in place. That topic appears likely to resurface as first-time issues arise given double the number of classes.