There have been just three 32-seeds to have ever beaten a 1-seed in the N.C. High School Athletic Association, and all three have been in 2A baseball.

(32) Hunter Huss over (1) West Stanly, 2015

In 2015, 32-seed Hunter Huss took down top-seeded West Stanly in the 2A playoffs by a 2-1 score. Huss was led by pitcher Andrew Jordan, who was selected in the 13th round of the MLB Draft a few months later. Jordan struck out 15 batters that game, allowed two hits and no earned runs, and had the go-ahead solo homer. He finished the year with a 0.60 ERA that year with 109 strikeouts in 68 innings.

Huss was eliminated in the next round (5-2 to West Lincoln), ending the season 6-18. West Stanly ended the year 23-4.

(32) Dixon over (1) North Johnston, 2016

In 2016, 32-seed Dixon took down top-seeded North Johnston 4-3 in the 2A playoffs. The Bulldogs rapped out 10 hits and North Johnston made three errors.

Dixon fell in the next round (4-3 to South Columbus), ending its year 10-18 overall. North Johnston was 20-3.

It took a number of years for the next 1-vs-32 upset, but once again it happened in the same class and the same sport.

(32) St. Pauls over (1) West Bladen, 2025

St. Pauls’ baseball team defeated West Bladen 5-4 in the first round on Tuesday. It was the third meeting between the two conference opponents, and it went down to the wire. A three-run fifth inning by St. Pauls put the Bulldogs up by two runs, but West Bladen scraped together a run in the bottom of the sixth, but could not do the same in the bottom of the sixth.

St. Pauls is 10-13 and heading to SouthWest Edgecombe in the second round. West Bladen ended its year 17-5 overall.

Bracket size makes these matchups rare

The 1-versus-32 game promises the chance at the ultimate upset between the highest and lowest seeds in a given bracket. But as bracket sizes change, so does the likelihood of these games happening again.

Next year, with eight classifications, the maximum size of a bracket will be 48, which rules out any 1-versus-32 matchups (1-versus-24 is the “new” 1-versus-32, to a degree).

The very notion of seeding brackets is still fairly new in the grand scheme of the NCHSAA’s full history.

Most sports used predetermined brackets until the 2010s. Football was the first sport to use seeding back in 2002.

In football, there has been at least one 16-seed beating a 1-seed (North Edgecombe made it to the state championship as the last seed, 16th, one year). Football, however, was not seeded 1-32 until 2021, when it ended subdivisions.

However, most sports had predetermined brackets until the 2010s.

In 2024, in the 4A football playoffs, Heritage nearly knocked off Cleveland. Rams quarterback Jackson Byrd rushed for a touchdown with 20.3 seconds left to send Cleveland past the Huskies, 24-21.