Introducing The Charlotte Observer’s high school football all-star team
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- The Charlotte Observer names its 2025 high school football All-Observer team.
- Samari Matthews won Mr. N.C. Football and anchored Hough’s first state title.
- Zaid Lott led Providence Day to an unbeaten 2025 season and a state title.
Today, The Charlotte Observer continues a longstanding tradition, naming its annual high school football all-star team on Christmas Day.
Meet the 2025 All-Observer team.
Quick links
Meet the 2025 All-Observer football team
The All-Observer defensive stars
The All-Observer offensive stars
The All-Observer defense
The defensive stars are led by defensive player of the year Samari Matthews of Hough High School.
Earlier this month, Matthews became the first defensive player to win the state’s player of the year award, Mr. N.C. Football. Matthews won that award on the same day he helped lead Hough to its first state championship.
During the season, Matthews was so good at defensive back that teams barely threw at him, treating him like a high school version of Deion Sanders. Matthews finished the year with 33 tackles and two interceptions, but impacted the game heavily with his ability to take away one side of the field and guard the other team’s top receiver.
Matthews is a 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior signed to Texas.
Tap here to see the rest of the All-Observer defense
The All-Observer offense
Providence Day’s Zaid Lott, The All-Observer offensive player of the year, had to wait two years to even get a chance to really play high school football.
He watched former Chargers star Jadyn Davis become the first player ever to win back-to-back Mr. NC Football awards before going to Michigan.
As a junior, Lott led Providence Day to the state championship game, coming up just short in the finals at Rabun Gap (GA).
This season, Lott and his teammates left no doubt, completing Providence Day’s first unbeaten season and winning a fourth state title in five years as well as The Observer’s Sweet 16 championship.
A finalist for the Mr. Football award, Lott, a 6-4, 220-pound senior signed to Syracuse, finished the season with 2,497 yards passing and 35 touchdowns, plus 708 yards rushing and 13 more scores.
Tap here to see the rest of the All-Observer offense
The coach of the year
Back in the summer, Hough’s DeShawn Baker, the first coach from his school to win All-Observer coach of the year, told anyone who would listen that his team had the best defense in the state.
The Huskies showed it all season. They held S.C. state champion South Pointe to 10 points, shut out N.C. power Independence and held Virginia state finalist Highland Springs to 14 points on the road.
In the playoffs, Hough gave up 17 total points in four games. That included shutting out nationally ranked West Charlotte in the semifinals and shutting out previously unbeaten Raleigh Millbrook in the final round.
The Huskies finished their first unbeaten season with their first state championship.
In three seasons at Hough, Baker has not lost a conference game and is 37-4 overall.
This story was originally published December 25, 2025 at 5:00 AM.