West Cabarrus QB Johnta Harrison is The Observer’s prep football player of the week

Johnta Harrison said he and his West Cabarrus football teammates met after the Wolverines’ third game of the season.

The Wolverines were 0-3 at the time, and Harrison said the team’s leaders felt they were at a crossroads.

“We had played three pretty good teams, but we were 0-3,” said Harrison, the Wolverines’ senior quarterback. “We decided that we would focus on winning the rest of our games and getting to the playoffs.”

“That really seemed to help us turn the corner,” he added.

Harrison had a key role in that turnaround. In the Wolverines’ 41-38 victory Oct. 24 over Central Cabarrus, he completed 11 of 20 passes for 183 yards and three touchdowns, and he carried the ball 24 times for 110 yards and three more scores.

For that, he was voted the Charlotte Observer’s Football Player of the Week for games of Oct. 24 and 25.

West Cabarrus’ opening three games were against teams that had a combined record of 22-5, entering this weekend’s games (Northwest Cabarrus, Jay M. Robinson and Lake Norman). The Wolverines won five of their final seven contests, finishing third in the Greater Metro 6A/7A Conference.

“Now we know we’re going to the playoffs, and now we’re focusing on finishing the season in a big way,” Harrison said.

The Wolverines have played a number of high-scoring games this season. The week before the Central Cabarrus contest, West Cabarrus outlasted Cox Mill 35-34.

“Yeah, we’ve had some games like that,” Harrison said. “They get pretty wild at times. We have to just keep playing our game and executing the plan that coach (Matthew Jenkins) set up for us.”

In the Central Cabarrus contest, West Cabarrus bolted to a big lead, but the Vikings scored 21 in a row.

”I had a with the offense,” Harrison said. “In the last few minutes, we simply played our style of offense. When we do that, we succeed.”

Harrison said his preparation for the 2025 season began last November, when West Cabarrus appeared in the playoffs for the first time and lost to Northern Guilford by one point.

“I’ve been waiting for another chance since last November,” he said. “I spent a lot of time in the weight room during the offseason, and I also worked a lot on my footwork. Our whole team has worked hard to get back to the playoffs.”

Harrison started playing football at age 8 and was always a quarterback.

“I like being a leader,” he said. “I like having the job of getting the other guys to follow me.”

He also is a standout in the discus throw and last spring was ranked among the best in North Carolina.

“I plan to do that again in the spring,” he said. “It’s fun, and it helps keep me in shape.”

In the meantime, he has football on his mind.

“This is what we’ve worked so hard for,” he said of the postseason.

This story was originally published November 1, 2025 at 6:00 AM.