ROCK HILL, S.C. -- For much of the football world, NFL draft day is nothing short of a national holiday.

But in this former textile and mill town of about 66,000 people, some 25 miles south of Charlotte, North Carolina, it's become just another day.

In these parts, they do a few things religiously.

They go to church on Sunday mornings and still say "yes, sir" and "yes, ma'am." The high school kids cruise up and down Cherry Road, and they produce world-class football players.

The latest is South Carolina defensive end Jadeveon Clowney, who's projected to be the No. 1 overall pick in this year's NFL draft, which begins Thursday night with the first round.

Clowney will become the third straight player from one of the three Rock Hill high schools to hear his name called in the first round, a distinction no other city or town in America can claim.

Not Miami. Not Los Angeles. Not Dallas. At least not during the past three years.

"When you're from Rock Hill, it's really sort of the expectation now," Clowney said. "I know a lot of kids who play football grow up dreaming about being drafted. But in our town, it's more than just a dream.

"A lot of great players have come before me, and a lot more are coming."

When Clowney bursts out of the green room later Thursday evening to shake hands with NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, he will become the fifth player from Rock Hill to be drafted in the past three years.

"You carry that with you everywhere you go. It's like a brotherhood, something that a lot of different people played a part in," said Clowney, who's known simply as "Doo Doo" to those who know him best in Rock Hill.

It's the nickname his mother gave to him as a youngster when he used to dance to the old "Doo Doo Brown" rap song.

"That's how he knows if somebody's from Rock Hill, when they call him 'Doo Doo,'" joked Perry Sutton, who was Clowney's youth football coach with the Sylvia Circle Demons. "To everybody in the neighborhood, he's always going to be 'Doo Doo.'"

Sutton, 50, is coming up on his 27th season as a youth football coach in Rock Hill. He also coached Chris Hope, who was a third-round pick of the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2002.

"I've heard people say there's something in the water here," Sutton said. "I think it's more a commitment to doing things right, getting these kids into football at a young age, developing that talent and then turning them over to outstanding high school programs."

But 11 NFL draft picks in the past 13 years? For a town the size of Rock Hill, that's staggering.

To put that number in perspective, according to ESPN's Stats & Information research, that's more NFL draft picks since 2000 (players who played their high school football in Rock Hill) than nearby Charlotte has produced, and Charlotte is 10 times the size of Rock Hill.

Heck, it's more draft picks than Oakland, California; Compton, California; Nashville, Tennessee; Orlando, Florida; Pensacola, Florida; Columbus, Ohio; Austin, Texas -- all larger cities -- have produced in that same span.

"It might not be a big town, but we're on the map," said Minnesota Vikings receiver Cordarrelle Patterson, who was a first-round pick last year and played at Northwestern High School in Rock Hill.

"As a kid growing up there, you looked up to guys like Jeff Burris and Chris Hope and Gerald Dixon. They showed you that it was possible, and I also think back to all the talent that came out of Rock Hill that never got a chance to make it to the NFL for whatever reason. The word's out now, though. People around the NFL know. When they hear you're from Rock Hill, they're like, 'Man, y'all got some serious players down there.'"

Clowney went to South Pointe High, the third high school in town that opened in 2005. His former high school and college teammate, cornerback Stephon Gilmore, started the recent run of first-rounders when the Buffalo Bills selected him with the No. 10 pick in the 2012 draft.

Patterson's alma mater, Northwestern, opened its doors in 1971 and was the second high school in town after splitting off from Rock Hill High. Northwestern alone has produced five first-round picks.

Rick Sanford was the first in 1979. The South Carolina defensive back was drafted by the New England Patriots. Burris, who was an All-American at Notre Dame, came next in 1994 and was taken in the first round by the Buffalo Bills.