By Bob Sutton
Special to The Alamance News
Hawbridge School is joining the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, becoming the 10th school in Alamance County in the association.
The NCHSAA approved Hawbridge School among three new members at last week’s semi-annual meeting. The Herons will officially become members at the beginning of the 2026-27 school year.
“We’ve slowly been expanding our sports offerings over the last few years,” athletics director David McDuffie said. “It made sense for us to go ahead and apply.”
The school is located in Saxapahaw, though part of its campus has a Graham address. It has about 225 high school students.
The Herons compete in boys’ and girls’ cross country, boys’ soccer and girls’ volleyball as fall sports, girls’ and boys’ basketball for winter sports and girls’ soccer and boys’ and girls’ track and field as spring sports. Girls’ soccer will be in its first season in the spring.
Hawbridge School can join an NCHSAA conference for 2026-27 if an established league accepts its bid. Otherwise, it will be an independent until the next realignment cycle, NCHSAA commissioner Que Tucker said.
“They have to find their own home,” Tucker said.
McDuffie said the school will seek to join the Central Tar Heel 1-A Conference, which includes Clover Garden and River Mill. McDuffie said the Herons also have similarities with Woods Charter and Chatham Charter.
“We feel we’re the right fit for them,” he said.
Hawbridge School had loose conference arrangements in the past with nonaffiliated schools, McDuffie said. He said scheduling has been difficult, so NCHSAA membership eventually will solve some of that. There also were no postseason opportunities.
“We’ve had to piece things together,” he said. “It will be good for our fans and our school.”
McDuffie said he hopes to meet with officials from Central Tar Heel 1-A Conference schools in early 2026 to discuss the process to join the league.
McDuffie, who also coaches cross country and track and field, said student surveys largely have driven what sports Hawbridge School adds. He said it’s possible more sports will be offered by the 2026-27 school year.
Other than cross country trails on or near campus, Hawbridge School mostly has to branch out for venues. What McDuffie calls a half-gym works for volleyball on campus.
The Herons are playing home basketball games at Eli Whitney Community Center. It uses the artificial turf fields at Mebane Community Park for soccer.
“Venues are a challenge,” McDuffie said. “But not unlike the challenges that a lot of other small schools have.”
Hawbridge joins Clover Garden and River Mill along with the seven traditional public high schools in the Alamance-Burlington School System as an NCHSAA member.
Also approved for NCHSAA membership on the same cycle as Hawbridge School are Revolution Academy in Summerfield and Wilson’s Mills (scheduled to open next summer in Johnston County).
