Kenny Harrison remembers when the father first walked into Humble Summer Creek’s coaches’ office like it happened yesterday. His son wasn’t even in high school yet, but Dad wanted an exercise regimen, position advice, anything to help the boy succeed. 

Eric Johnson wasn’t an overbearing sports dad and didn’t have time to be one. He was a paramedic and EMT with the Harris County Emergency Corps and Memorial Hermann Northeast Hospital. But Eric knew his son had an athletic gift that could take him to a college education, and he’d do his part to get him there.

Coach Harrison told him young Jashaud, playing running back and defensive end for the middle school team, could be an elite interior defensive linemen if he added weight and kept his athleticism. And with no questions asked, Eric relayed that to his son.

Jashaud Johnson is now a senior and part of Summer Creek’s most successful class in program history. When Harrison took the job in 2018, the Bulldogs had never made it past the second round of the playoffs. The Class of 2025 has reached the regional final in 2021, 2023 and 2024. Jashaud is a standout nose guard who’s achieved what his father always wanted for him, earning scholarships to multiple Division II colleges like Colorado Mesa and East Central University. Standing 6 feet tall and weighing 250 pounds, his running back background and the exercises his dad had him do make him quicker than most interior linemen trying to block him. 

Nowhere was that quickness more evident than in the third-round playoff game when a high snap sailed over the Katy Jordan punter’s head. As the punter frantically crawled on his hands and knees to grab it, Jashaud scooped it and scored, mobbed by his teammates in the back of the end zone. 

His father had always wanted him to make it in football, and here he was, scoring a touchdown in the Houston Texans’ NRG Stadium. Except Eric Johnson wasn’t there to see it. He’d passed away just 24 hours earlier, on Thanksgiving morning, and Jashaud had returned from football practice to find out.

In the immediate aftermath, playing in the next day’s playoff game was the furthest thing from his mind. Until he got what he calls a sign from God.

“I went through his phone, and the last screenshot he had was a picture of me holding the area championship football trophy,” Jashaud said.

On a memorial Facebook post from Harris County Emergency Corps, comments praising Eric’s jovial nature in the ER are outpouring. Some mention the care he showed for everyone’s family, how they’d always share pictures of their kids. That screenshot was Eric’s latest update of how proud he was of his son.

Jashaud decided to play in honor of his father the following afternoon. In the pregame locker room, Harrison told his team to ‘Be great for Eight,’ referring to Jashaud's jersey number. They couldn’t take the sting away, but they could do something.

“Our kids wanted to step up and make sure that when he woke up Saturday morning, he had something positive to think about,” Harrison said.

Harrison says he’s never met anyone who didn’t love Jashaud, even if Jashaud is elite at football and getting under his teammates’ skin with practical jokes. And for the team, the 54-20 win wasn’t as meaningful as who they did it for.

“They played that game for me,” Jashaud said.

And if Jashaud hadn’t known that when the game kicked off, he knew from how his teammates celebrated his touchdown, the joy on Harrison’s face when he came to the sidelines. The best part for Jashaud, however, was hugging his sisters over by the bench. It put his father at the forefront of his mind.

“All my dad said he wanted if he ever died was for me to protect my sisters and make sure they’re okay,” Jashaud said.

In that sibling embrace after the touchdown, Eric Johnson was there. 

“Football is about family,” Harrison said.

For Jashaud, it always has been and always will be.