Three. That’s the combined number of wins for the Druid Hills and McNair football programs in the years 2019, 2020, and 2021. Three wins for two teams in three seasons.
Both McNair and Druid Hills have had seasons defined by failure recently. The Mustangs experienced a short spurt of success under Johnny Gilbert in the early 2000s, but have since struggled to win more than three or four games in a season. The lowest point in program history came at the end of the 2021 season, when McNair lost its 24th consecutive game.
Druid Hills, on the other hand, was a hallmark of consistency. From 2010 to 2016, the Red Devils won the same number of games every year: four. That trend took a turn for the worst in 2017; the Red Devils only won six games from then until this past summer.
Prior to the 2021 season, both schools hired new head coaches. The Mustangs chose first-time head coach Mario Drayton, while the Red Devils selected former Lithonia coach Frederick Greene. That first season for both coaches was rough, as their teams fell apart defensively. After posting a combined record of 0-19 in 2021, the programs seemed to harbor little hope heading into this season.
Druid Hills opened its 2022 football campaign against none other than McNair, so someone was bound to win. It turned out to be Druid Hills, which emerged victorious in a thrilling 21-20 Friday night game. Then McNair made history. The following week, the Mustangs snapped their 26-game losing streak with a resounding 24-0 shutout win over North Clayton. Just under a month later, they tacked on another win over Towers, whom they had lost to by 46 points last year. Then, they notched their best win in four years, defeating Redan in a shootout this past weekend. At 4-4, McNair is off to its best start since 2009.
Druid Hills didn’t disappear after that victory over the Mustangs. At the end of September, they defeated Riverside Military and crushed Clarkston two weeks later. They had lost to both teams by one score last season. Additionally, it was the Red Devils’ first-ever win over Riverside Military and the largest margin of victory over the Angoras in five years. With games against winless Johnson-Gainesville, Lakeside-DeKalb, and Stone Mountain remaining, the possibility of Druid Hills’s first five-win team since 1993 is real.
The rebirths of McNair and Druid Hills football hold striking parallels. Both teams hired relatively new head coaches prior to 2021, both went winless that season, and neither has made the playoffs in at least 15 years. However, it was that Week 2 battle between the schools that proved to be a sign of things to come – a competitive game between two programs on the rise once again.
