Yousef Mugharbil
OL, Class of 2021
Murphy High School, Murphy, NC
6-5, 315

In August, the North Carolina High School Athletic Association made the decision to postpone fall sports until the spring. It’s a decision that has been difficult to accept for plenty of high school athletes, including Murphy (NC) three-star offensive lineman Yousef Mugharbil.

What has added to the frustration is in part proximity. Murphy is the westernmost high school in the state. Tennessee and Georgia are a short drive away. The lack of a fall season hasn’t deterred Mugharbil’s recruitment much, with a top seven group of schools and a couple of others that could especially be standing out. But even as he eyes a likely upcoming decision of where he’ll play football and attend college, he struggles seeing others having the chance to play fall sports.

“You drive 25 minutes and watch a high school game and it’s like, ‘why can’t we do that?’ Mugharbil said. “‘Why does that 25 minutes matter?’ But there’s bigger cities like Raleigh dealing with it more than we are. It just makes you think, there’s no difference with us and (somewhere like) Union County, Georgia.”

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