By Randy Capps
In a season that featured the first eight-classification system in North Carolina high school football and more transfers than the New York City subway system, the strangest storyline from the 2025 season in Johnston County might actually be West Johnston.
A 4-7 record and a first-round playoff exit at West Brunswick may not seem all that unusual, but a closer look reveals a unique march through the schedule.
The defense, a talented and experienced unit last fall, posted five different nights of allowing 10 points or less and then sandwiched in between two such games was a headscratching 28-23 loss to otherwise winless Southern Lee.
The offense was much more consistent, but also not as effective, posting just 13.6 points a game.
Eighth-year head coach Jermaine Harper will have to overhaul that defense without seven of the top 10 tacklers, but he’s happy with the progress shown over the summer.
“Yeah, we got some young defensive linemen, guys that’s going to be stepping up,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of linebackers returning from a year ago that, you know, we plan on carrying the load for us.”
Those linebackers, Gavin Bullock (102 tackles, 17 tackles for loss) and Kevin Rojas (81 tackles, 10 TFL), should set the tone for a defense that is also buoyed by the return of Chrystian Coakley (91 tackles) in the secondary.
The offense will have a different look with either Braxton Bell, last season’s JV starter, or Memphis Graver, the starter in last year’s playoff game, at quarterback.
Coakley (423 yards, five touchdowns) and Ashton Tennessee (252 yards, TD) are back at running back, with JV starter Emmanuel Johnson in the mix as well.
A line with plenty of experience might wind up being the best group on offense.
“We’ve got a lot of guys returning,” Harper said. “We were very young last year on the offensive line. So we got a lot of those bodies returning. … We’re already looking better at the offensive line at this point in the summer compared to a year ago. We’re a lot better.”
A non-league slate that includes Clayton and South Garner leads into a challenging Carolina Pines 6A slate for the Wildcats, and Harper believes that staying healthy will make the difference for his squad.
“We had a tough part of our schedule early,” he said. “We had a lot of injuries early in the year as well. So this year, as long as we can kind of weather that storm … and keep our guys healthy, that’s going to be the key this year.”
