On some fall days at Heritage High School, Drake Thomas looked like the kind of player who could solve a game before it happened.
He’d show up early — sometimes before the building fully woke up — catch his head coach, Wallace Clark, in the middle of film, and start asking questions that sounded less like a teenager and more like an assistant on the headset: What’s the scheme this week? What are you seeing?
Clark remembers Thomas doing it as a freshman, wandering in while Clark was game-planning and always wanting to know what was coming next. He didn’t just play football, he studied it.
That was the tell.
“He was spending a lot of time on film,” Clark said. “He kind of stood out … not only the work ethic, but the knowledge of the game.”
At Heritage, Thomas had the physicality that jumps off a Friday night highlight. Clark says you could feel it as soon as he went into the game. But the trait that Clark always returns to in his mind is the film work, the curiosity, the ability to connect what the offense was trying to do to where a linebacker needed to be.
“You could tell that the intellect was there. And then the physicality, of course, it was always there,” Clark recalled.
Years later, with Thomas now suiting up for the Seattle Seahawks, that same blend has carried him all the way to the sport’s biggest stage: Super Bowl LX, set for Feb. 8 at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, against the New England Patriots.
For Clark, none of it feels like a shock. He said it plainly when asked if he was surprised Thomas is in the Super Bowl: “No. I’ll be honest with you, no.”
A ball boy who was already paying attention
Long before Thomas became the face of the Heritage defense, he was around it
Clark’s first encounter with Thomas wasn’t a varsity snap; it was Thomas on the sideline as a ball boy in seventh and eighth grade, watching his older brother, Thayer, play for the Huskies.
Even then, Clark could feel what was coming. Drake was the younger kid on the sideline watching how things worked — where the coaches stood, how players responded, what mattered. When he arrived as a freshman, the switch flipped fast.
“At practice his freshman year, he kind of stood out,” Clark said. “You kind of knew that he was something special.”
Clark traces a lot of that to the household.
“That’s more or less the tradition in that family,” he said. “His dad is pretty knowledgeable about the game, and his brother, Thayer … and of course, Lex (the youngest brother). They all kind of know everything about the game itself.”
The family pipeline ran right through Heritage’s record book. Thomas finished his high school career as the school’s all-time leading tackler with 393. In Clark’s mind, that number isn’t just proof or production, it’s proof of identity.
“Once again, I think it goes back to intellect,” Clark said. “Putting himself in the right spot and knowing his role, and being willing to get to the football at all times. Those are the special players. You don’t deny them from getting to the football, no matter where it’s located.”
The kid who would not be denied
If you watched Heritage in those years, you didn’t need a scouting report to locate Drake Thomas. He was wherever the ball ended up — inside the box, out on the edge, scraping over the top, chasing screens, running down plays other linebackers don’t even attempt.
Clark talks about it like it’s a law of nature.
“Just watching him at NC State and also in the league now with Seattle, he’s flying to the ball, no matter where it is. So it’s one of those things, a beautiful thing to watch players like that,” Clark said.
The relentlessness occasionally came with a coach’s warning label. When asked what he had to “coach out” of Thomas, Clark laughed because the answer was immediate.
“Putting himself in harm’s way at times,” Wallace said.
Clark tells one story: the opponent pined deep inside their own 5-yard line, and Thomas decided the best way to finish the play was to go airborne.
“He wanted to jump over the pile to make a tackle,” Clark said. “And you could just see him approaching the line of scrimmage, and you knew he was gonna do it. So needless to say, he did it, and was successful at it, but at the same time, I was like, ‘Hey. You’re putting yourself in harm’s way doing things like that, especially in high school.’”
Then Clark delivered the line that, more than any stat, explains why Thomas made it to the NFL.
“Nobody was going to deny that young man from getting to the football,” he said.
‘Coach, we got this.’
Every program has moments that turn into legend inside the building. For Clark, the Drake Thomas moment came on the road in the playoffs.
“We were playing Pine Forest,” Clark explained, “and we were doing well that year. We had a long run into the playoffs, and we had to travel down to Pine Forest.”
The theme that week — echoed by coaches on staff — was simple.
“Trust the process, trust the process,” Clark said. “That was pretty much the theme going into that week.”
The game tightened. Heritage flirted with overtime. Clark called timeout. The sideline gathered, and for once, the coach admits, he was rattled.
“I’m panicked,” he said. “I’m seriously panicked.”
He remembers barking instructions, trying to steer the team to a win. Then he looked at his linebacker — calm and clear-eyed.
“I look at Drake, and he was like, ‘Coach, we got this. We got this.’ And I’m kinda losing my mind … He was like, ‘Coach, wait, wait, wait. Trust the process. We got this,” Clark said.
Clark tells the story half-amused, half-proud, and fully grateful.
“I was like, ‘Go play football then,’” Clark said. “He rallied the guys together, and they went out and played defense well, and we came away with the win.”
It’s the kind of scene that reads like fiction until you realize it’s been happening to Thomas at every level. The moment gets bigger, the lights get brighter, but he remains steady.
Thomas’ road to the pros
Thomas took the same mindset to NC State, where he became one of the ACC’s most productive linebackers — an every-down presence, a captain, a player who lived around the ball.
He built a college resume strong enough to give him a shot at the NFL, even if it didn’t come the way kids imagine on draft night.
Thomas went undrafted in 2023. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the Las Vegas Raiders, but was later released.
In August of that season, the Seattle Seahawks claimed Thomas off waivers. It was the kind of transaction that barely registers outside NFL buildings — until it becomes part of a bigger story.
Clark wasn’t shocked by any of it. In his mind, the throughline has always been opportunity meeting preparation.
“Just knowing that someone gave him the opportunity, that’s the main thing nowadays, right?” Clark said. “Putting that type of talent on display. NC State gave him the opportunity to put some of his talent and knowledge on display.”
It’s been reported that the Seahawks had their eye on Thomas after the NFL Draft, but the Raiders were able to sign him first.
It turns out, the Seahawks’ decision to claim Thomas off waivers was a smart move.
The same player, just a bigger stage
Clark has watched Thomas up close in spring settings and from afar on Sundays, and he describes the Seahawks version the same way he described the Heritage version: decisive, around the football, where he’s supposed to be.
“Just watching him at NC State and also in the league now with Seattle, he’s flying to the ball no matter where he is,” Clark said.
That’s why, as the Super Bowl nears, Clark’s reaction isn’t disbelief. It’s recognition.
The ball boy who lingered near varsity in seventh and eighth grade became the freshman who lived in film sessions. The two-way high school workhorse turned into an ACC linebacker. Then the undrafted pro who had to claw for a spot — who kept sticking, kept earning, kept proving — found a home in Seattle by doing what he’s always done: showing up prepared and arriving with a purpose.
And if Heritage ever needed a snapshot of who Drake Thomas was, Clark still goes back to Pine Forest — overtime looming, a sideline teetering, a coach feeling the moment squeeze. Thomas looked at him and didn’t flinch.
“Coach, we got this,” he said. “Trust the process.”
Now the stage is louder, and the stakes are higher, but the message is the same. The calm is the same. The work is the same.
Drake Thomas didn’t arrive at the Super Bowl by accident. He arrived the way he made 393 tackles in high school, the way he won over college coaches, the way he survived draft weekend and roster cuts — one read at a time, one rep at a time, one decision at a time.
Trust the process, he told his coach.
All these years later, the process has brought him to football’s biggest stage.
Other Super Bowl-bound players from Wake County
Drake Thomas is not the only Wake County Schools alum to qualify for the Super Bowl.
Dareke Young, who played high school football at Middle Creek High School, is a wide receiver for the Seattle Seahawks.
A member of the Class of 2017, Young caught 58 passes for 838 yards and eight touchdowns for the Mustangs. He played college football at Lenoir-Rhyne before being selected in the seventh round of the 2022 NFL Draft by the Seahawks with the 233rd overall pick.
John Jiles, a graduate of Wake Forest High School, is a wide receiver for the New England Patriots.
Jiles graduated from Wake Forest in 2018 after winning back-to-back NCHSAA state championships. He caught 24 passes for 587 yards and seven touchdowns, while also recording 135 tackles, seven interceptions, four forced fumbles, and two fumble recoveries as a safety.
Jiles played college football at Virginia Union and West Florida. He signed with the New York Giants as an undrafted free agent in 2024 before later signing with the Patriots.
