All About Drake Maye’s Parents, Mark and Aimee Maye

Drake Maye is the last of his siblings to carry on his family’s University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill legacy, following in his parents’ footsteps.

The UNC quarterback continued his family’s storied history with the school by attending his dad, Mark, and mom, Aimee’s, alma mater. While Aimee was a student there, Mark also played football for the Tar Heels from 1983 to 1988.

In addition to Drake, Aimee and Mark are also parents to three other boys: Luke, Cole and Beau. Mark told 247Sports in July 2023 that he and Aimee tried to instill strong values in their sons, regardless of their competitiveness on the field.

“We are really fortunate with our family. There’s a lot to be thankful for,” he said. “The guys have, for the most part, have adhered to their values. We really tried to do our best with them and enjoy them.”

Now, Drake is up for the NFL draft — and his parents are cheering for him by his side.

From their own experiences at UNC to raising four boys, here’s everything to know about Drake Maye’s parents, Mark and Aimee Maye.

Aimee was a competitive basketball player in high school

Aimee grew up in North Carolina, where she was a star basketball player at West Charlotte High School and the Mecklenburg County girls’ player of the year in her senior year of high school. Though she could have attempted to play for UNC, she chose not to, she told the Charlotte Observer in 2017.

Mark played football for UNC

Mark had an impressive career at UNC as a quarterback, starting for two years in 1986 and 1987. He was the captain of the team in 1987 and broke multiple school records, including longest pass play, most passing yards in a game and most total offense in a game.

When he graduated, he had a brief stint with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but eventually returned as a graduate assistant and earned his M.B.A. He suffered from multiple shoulder and arm injuries which prevented him from continuing to play professionally after college.

“I didn’t understand why,” Mark told The News & Observer in September 2023 of his career-ending injuries.

They met in college

Mark, who is five years Aimee’s senior, met Aimee when he returned to UNC as an assistant and coached her Powder Puff game. She was working in the football recruiting office and thought he was “really cute,” but “probably married with children” when she first saw him.

However, he wasn’t, so Mark asked Aimee to dinner at Golden Corral, and from there, their relationship took off. They knew from the start that they wanted to have a big family together, Aimee told The News & Observer.

“[I knew he] would have a lot of fun coaching his kids one day,” she said.

They have four sons

Aimee and Mark welcomed four sons — Luke, Cole, Beau and Drake — together, all of whom played a sport at the collegiate level. Standing at 6’ 4”, Drake is the smallest of all his brothers, which led to him fighting the hardest when he was little.

“A lot of big brothers would have worn him out, but it was a good thing for him to be the youngest,” Mark told 247Sports of his sons’ wrestling when they were young. “He had to really learn how to bring it in backyard basketball or football. He was also the smallest. He did not grow as fast. That helped him in a lot of ways.”

Mark raised all three sons to play football, basketball and baseball, but when it came time to choose which sport they’d play in college, only Drake followed in his dad’s footsteps.

Aimee and Mark’s oldest son, Luke, was a star on the UNC basketball team from 2015 to 2019. Their second son, Cole, won an NCAA title in baseball at the University of Florida, while their third son, Beau, also played for the UNC basketball team until his graduation in 2023.

Aimee made an impressive 36-egg meal for Drake and his brothers

Raising four athletic boys was no easy feat, and sometimes Aimee got creative when meal-prepping. One of the family’s favorite stories is how Aimee would make a giant pile of 36 scrambled eggs in her “huge skillet,” and the boys would compete over who could eat the most eggs.

Though the brothers now argue about who won — Aimee swears they each could eat six eggs at a time — the story has become “by far the most popular,” Aimee told The News & Observer.

“I know for a fact every single time I made that meal, at the end of the meal, there was not a morsel of food left,” she said. “And some of the boys would be like, ‘I’m still hungry.’ And I’m like, ‘too bad.’ ”

Mark helped coach all his children

Mark always had advice to give his sons on their athletic careers, coaching them on baseball, basketball and football. He even advised Luke to stick to basketball because he thought he would continue to grow taller, even though he wanted to focus on football in high school.

“We were around it all. It was a lot of fun,” Mark told 247Sports. “I was fortunate to be involved with coaching a lot of the teams. It was a great experience.”

Now, he enjoys watching how Drake led the UNC team, 40 years after he did the same.

“A lot of us old quarterbacks always say, ‘Man, I wish I played today,’ ” he said. “The game is in the quarterback’s hands. Having a son be able to go through that and play in those offenses phrases is a lot of fun to watch.”