Meet the high school QB who forced Drake Maye to transfer — and set him on superstar path

As Drake Maye gets ready to play the biggest game of his life Sunday, the quarterback who prompted him to switch high schools eight years ago is preparing for the next stop in his own football journey.

Maye, the 23-year-old Charlotte-area native, will become the second-youngest QB to start a Super Bowl (behind Dan Marino) when his New England Patriots face the Seattle Seahawks at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif.

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Nearly 3,000 miles away on the opposite coast, Kennique Bonner-Steward will watch Super Bowl LX with friends and recall how his and Maye’s paths briefly crossed before heading in different directions.

While Maye followed a linear route from a big high school to a Power 4 college program to becoming a top-five NFL Draft pick, Bonner-Steward’s path has been more circuitous. After signing with Temple and spending two seasons with the Owls, Bonner-Steward transferred to a two-year school in Kansas in 2021.

That was the first of eight moves for Bonner-Steward, who mostly beat a path up and down the eastern seaboard — with stints at Division I and Division II schools, as well as junior colleges — looking for a place where he could thrive as a quarterback.

Bonner-Steward, who turns 26 in two weeks, is still searching. He recently enrolled at a Division II school in a mid-Atlantic state, where he plans to play football in the fall. Bonner-Steward didn’t want to disclose his latest school publicly until closer to the season.

“Everybody’s story is different. I’ve still got the dreams and aspirations of getting a shot at the league or CFL, XFL, UFL — whatever the case may be,” Bonner-Steward said last week. “I’m still training hard, doing the same thing I’ve been doing since 2017. So ain’t nothing changed. Everybody’s time is different.

“But I’m very excited to see someone from Charlotte, especially that I know, that I