K’Lavon Chaisson won a Class 6A Division I State Championship at Galena Park North Shore in 2015 and a national championship with the LSU Tigers in 2019. He can hit the trifecta on Sunday in Super Bowl LX if his New England Patriots knock off the Seattle Seahawks.

This might be exactly where a former five-star prospect and first round draft pick was destined to end up, but Chaisson hadn’t played a snap of varsity football when he and some fellow North Shore prospects attended an LSU camp in the summer of 2015, months before Chaisson was a junior in high school. That’s because he quit football ahead of his sophomore season to focus on basketball. 

Chaisson arrived in Baton Rouge as a basketball player returning to the gridiron. He left as one of the fastest-rising recruits in the Class of 2017. Ed Orgeron was just the first one to see it up close.  

“He was just doing basketball moves on some of the best offensive line prospects in the country,” said Joe Price, who is now the wide receiver coach at Kentucky but was the recruiting coordinator at North Shore when Chaisson burst onto the recruiting scene. “Ed O walked up and offered him a scholarship on the spot, and for the rest of the summer, he blew up more with each camp he hit. He had four or five legit Power Four offers before he ever played a snap of varsity football.” 

Jon Kay, the former legendary head coach at coach at North Shore who is now the defensive coordinator at Rice, first noticed Chaisson when he was a freshman walking around the track at the ninth-grade center. Kay described the young Chaisson as a “baby giraffe” because of his high hips and lean frame. He knew Chaisson, the son of a standout football player, could be special when he grew into his body. 

Kay didn’t blink when Chaisson asked to return to the football team in the spring of 2015. Chaisson blew up on the keep scene that summer, but he still needed to learn how to play football at the highest level. The first month of the season was a struggle for Chaisson and North Shore. The team was 1-3 heading into October and Chaisson hadn’t quite turned potential into production in early battles against competition that included future NFL starter Samuel Cosmi. 

As district play revved up, so did Chaisson. And once the playoffs in 2015 began, Chaisson and his teammates were running on all-cylinders. 

“Once we got into the playoffs his junior year, he hit a whole different level,” Kay said. “That’s when the production started to match his potential.” 

Chaisson’s ascension from camp star to bona fide Texas high school legend culminated in a Defensive MVP performance in a 21-14 win over Westlake and quarterback Sam Ehlinger in the state of Texas’ biggest classification. Chaisson recorded two sacks, forced a fumble, blocked a potential game-winning field goal late in regulation, and then came up with the key tackle on a trick play in overtime to seal the victory and give Kay the first of his four state championships. 

“He was disruptive all year, but in that game, he showed up on the biggest stage so there is no surprise that he’s showing up in those same moments in the NFL,” Price said.  

Price believes Kay and the North Shore program he helped build deserves some of the credit for Chaisson’s success on the gridiron. North Shore has produced 10 NFL players since 2015 with four – Chaisson, Ajani Carter, Upton Stout, and Dorance Armstrong Jr. – currently active on NFL rosters. 

Kay was 117-18 as a head coach over nine seasons and was the long-time defensive coordinator for David Aymond before that, helping the Mustangs win a state championship in 2003. The program produces nearly a dozen FBS signees on a yearly basis and that type of competition inside the team produces prospects that arrive to college more prepared to handle the required grind and sacrifice to reach the NFL. 

“There’s such a great tradition of winning, right? And all that comes with a cost and that cost is paid in the weight room and in the summer time,” Price explained. “Those kids (from North Shore) don’t know any different than to show up and work every day because if you don’t, another talented kid is there who is willing to do it and he’ll take your spot.”

It took Chaisson five years to earn his spot in the NFL. The Jaguars elected to not to pick up his fifth-year option ahead of the 2024 season. He was signed by the Carolina Panthers and then cut weeks later, only to wind up in Las Vegas for the Raiders, where he matched his combined sack total from his time in Jacksonville with five in 2024. Chaisson recorded 7.5 sacks in the regular season, a career high.  

Chaisson would live up to his big-game moniker as an LSU Tiger, earning Defensive MVP of the 2019 Peach Bowl after a six-tackle, two-sack performance against Oklahoma. A few weeks later, he became a national champion with a win over Clemson. He’s done the same in his first year with the Patriots, racking up three sacks in three playoff games en route to the Super Bowl. On Sunday, he can solidify his status with a winning performance against the Seahawks. He’ll have all of East Houston rooting for him, even Kay. 

“There’s been very few times in my life that I’m a Patriots fan, but this is certainly one of them,” he joked. “I’m excited for him to get this opportunity. He’s a lot of fun to watch and he’s earned it.”