Cannon School girls’ basketball is No. 1 in The Charlotte Observer’s Sweet 16 poll

Cannon School girls’ basketball coach Kelvin Drakeford thinks his 2024-25 team can be one of the best ever from North Carolina.

The Cougars, the reigning N.C. Independent Schools state champion, return four starters and begin the season at No. 1 in The Charlotte Observer’s Sweet 16 high school basketball poll.

The poll, which began in the 1984-85 school year, ranks the top teams in the media company’s coverage area, which includes schools in the following counties: Mecklenburg, Cabarrus, Gaston, Iredell, Lincoln, Union, and York and Lancaster counties in South Carolina.

At the end of the season, the Sweet 16 champion will get a large banner to hang in the school’s gym.

Drakeford — whose team had six freshman and two seniors last season — likes the Cougars’ chances to repeat as state and Charlotte Observer champions.

“Man,” he said, “they can be really good. We’re going to challenge ourselves, but I think (we) have a chance to be one of the better teams that has come out of the state of North Carolina.”

One of Drakeford’s key players, senior Maya McCorkle, said she backs up her coach 100 percent.

“I stand by that wholeheartedly,” said McCorkle, who has committed to East Tennessee State. “This team is special. We have all the pieces we need and we put in the work. We’re ready to do everything we’re supposed to do this year. We have every piece you need. We have the big. We have the passing. We have the scoring. We have the shooting, and we have the defense to back it all up.”

Drakeford, who graduated from Cannon in 2008, said it was personal for him to turn the Cougars into a regional and state power.

He seems on his way.

“I think this is the beginning of something, of something special,” Drakeford said after winning the school’s second state title last February. “I am really happy where we’re going.”

Cannon had gone through three straight losing seasons before Drakeford took over the program in the 2017-18 season.

The year before he began, the Cougars were 1-19.

Drakeford’s first team was 4-15, but that was followed by 15- and 17-win seasons. Since then, Cannon has won at least 20 games in the past four school years.

And this team could be the best in school history.

McCorkle and sophomore forward Madison Drayton were all-state last season. Brooke Busby, now a sophomore, looked like the team’s best player at times during last season’s 62-51 win over national power Providence Day in the state finals. Khloe Thompson, now a senior, was a starter on that team and nearly averaged double figures.

With that amount of talent coming back, Drakeford’s team would’ve probably still landed at No. 1 in The Sweet 16, but then the Cougars added even more high-level players.

Northside Christian closed its school and basketball programs after reaching the state championship game. Jakaila Gaskin was an eighth-grader for the Knights and made the all-state team.

The 6-3 post player — already a Power 4 recruit — transferred to Cannon, along with 5-11 junior Jaiden Thompson, who averaged more than 17 points a game at 1A public Union Academy last season. Thompson has committed to Drayton.

“I think there’s going to be some pressure,” Drakeford said, “but I think they’re really talented. I think we have all of our bases covered this year. I just think they have to switch their mindset, from them being the hunter, like last year because we were so young. Now the mindset is a little different. Can we handle being the hunted and getting everybody’s best shot?”

Charlotte Observer preseason Sweet 16 poll