{"id":11593,"date":"2010-09-04T16:42:06","date_gmt":"2010-09-04T21:42:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/?p=11593"},"modified":"2010-09-07T09:09:51","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T14:09:51","slug":"tejay-johnson-embraces-leadership-role","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/09\/04\/tejay-johnson-embraces-leadership-role\/","title":{"rendered":"Tejay Johnson embraces leadership role"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tejay Johnson embraces leadership role<\/strong><\/p>\n

September 3, 2010
\nBy Andrea Adelson
\nESPN.com<\/p>\n

FORT WORTH, Texas — When the moment came to talk to his cousin for the very
\nfirst time, Tejay Johnson lifted his hands and let the words spill out.<\/p>\n

His cousin looked incredulous. Nobody in her family had ever done this for
\nher. Nobody had ever learned how to sign.<\/p>\n

Perhaps skeptical of her little cousin, she demanded he say “cat.”<\/p>\n

He obliged.<\/p>\n

Say “dog,” she signed.<\/p>\n

He did.<\/p>\n

The TCU starting free safety had just started learning sign language as part
\nof his major, habilitation of the deaf and hard of hearing, so his sentences
\nwere a bit choppy. But it was an extraordinary day last February at their
\ngrandmother’s house, especially for Johnson.<\/p>\n

His decision to help those who cannot hear came from many years of watching
\nhis cousin sign with her friends while struggling to communicate with her
\nfamily.<\/p>\n

“I’m so proud of him,” LaQueena Johnson said through an interpreter. “It
\nmakes me feel so good that Tejay is trying to communicate with me. He isn’t
\nshy about using sign.”<\/p>\n

Johnson isn’t shy about much of anything, really. On the field, he is the
\nvocal leader of the secondary. Having started the last 25 games, he is the
\nmost experienced player in the defensive backfield going into the opener
\nSaturday against Oregon State. His job is to communicate with the other
\nplayers, making sure they have the right reads and are positioned correctly
\non the field.<\/p>\n

Coach Gary Patterson is relying on Johnson to lead the defense this season.
\n“He’s one of those guys that don’t come along very often,” Patterson said.
\n“He’s always worried about somebody else.”<\/p>\n

That is the way it has been for most of his life. As the oldest child of 11,
\nJohnson took charge from an early age. His mother was in and out of their
\nlives, dealing with personal struggles. At the time, there were five Johnson
\nsiblings, and they shuffled from one family member to the next in his
\nhometown of Garland, Texas.<\/p>\n

In middle school, he went to live with his grandmother, who helped provide
\nmore of a structure. But even then, Johnson had to protect and provide for
\nhis younger siblings. With so many distractions and nary a role model, it is
\na wonder Johnson embraced the responsibility with a vigor others could never
\nmuster.<\/p>\n

His high school coach, Mickey Moss, remembers that dedication to his family
\nvividly. There were times Moss would buy Johnson a burger and fries, and the
\nyoungster ended up saving half his meal to give to his brother. Another
\nsummer, Johnson earned $800 for helping paint a house. He told Moss he was
\nsaving $500 to buy his siblings clothes for school.<\/p>\n

“He always put other people above himself. How do you not love a kid like
\nthat?” Moss asks.<\/p>\n

Johnson credits a spiritual faith for allowing him to make the right
\ndecisions. Rather than looking at his situation as a negative, he tried to
\nfigure out how he could help others, so they would not experience what he
\nhad.<\/p>\n

“I tell people now my outlook on life is a lot different than other people,”
\nJohnson said. “My mind is so open. Just growing up I always had this view
\nthat everything would be all right, like someone is watching over me.”<\/p>\n

When he got to TCU, Johnson decided on a social work major. It was through
\none of his first professors, Linda Moore, that he realized habilitation of
\nthe deaf was a major at the school. He thought back to his cousin LaQueena,
\nwho was born with profound hearing loss. With five children to take care of,
\nher mother never had the time to learn how to sign. When she tried, it was
\nsimply too overwhelming.<\/p>\n

So LaQueena communicated with a few words, but mostly a notepad and pen. She
\nfelt incredibly alone.<\/p>\n

It was with her friends that she would always come alive, her arms and
\nfacial expressions transforming her into a different person. Tejay always
\nwondered what she was saying.<\/p>\n

As a senior in high school, Tejay tried to teach himself to sign. He bought
\na book and learned the words to songs and would sign them. But he never
\nquite mastered it. When he switched his major at TCU, he began learning sign
\nEnglish as a sophomore. He is just now learning ASL, American Sign Language.<\/p>\n

His major is more than just learning sign language. He must learn about the
\nscience of hearing, do internships and lab work and visit agencies, all in
\nthe hopes of having a career as an interpreter.<\/p>\n

“You don’t go into habilitation of the deaf as a blow-off major,” Moore
\nsaid. “You can’t because there are so many requirements and so many ways you
\nhave to perform in the classroom and the lab.<\/p>\n

“Tejay just has such a passion for it. He always has this big grin on his
\nface, and even though he is always so busy, he never seems pressured. He
\nbrings a very different picture of what football players really are to the
\ncampus.”<\/p>\n

Johnson also volunteers for Big Brothers\/Big Sisters and sings in the gospel
\nchoir on campus. He has been selected one of 30 finalists for the Lowe’s
\nSenior CLASS award, which honors student-athletes for being positive leaders
\nin the community.<\/p>\n

For Johnson, it all goes back to helping his family. He now has a strong
\nrelationship with his mother, whom he talks to every day. He has a stronger
\nrelationship with his cousin, whom he texts every day.<\/p>\n

When he was home for his grandmother’s birthday this summer, he was so much
\nbetter at signing, he had a full conversation with his cousin. As all the
\ngathered cousins got up to say a few words about their grandmother, Johnson
\nwas able to serve as an interpreter for LaQueena for the first time. Two of
\nJohnson’s siblings are learning how to sign in high school.<\/p>\n

“It’s really rewarding,” Johnson said. “My childhood was really shaky. I
\nnever really had a role model growing up. When I help other people, it just
\nfeels really good to know I’m making a difference in somebody’s life and
\nbeing a role model to somebody who was in the same position I was in. I get
\na good feeling when I help them out.”<\/p>\n

Just as good as the feeling he gets every time he communicates with his
\ncousin.<\/p>\n

Andrea Adelson is a national college football blogger for ESPN.com. She can
\nbe reached at andrea.adelson@gmail.com.<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/sports.espn.go.com\/ncf\/news\/story?id=5524093<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tejay Johnson embraces leadership role September 3, 2010 By Andrea Adelson ESPN.com FORT WORTH, Texas — When the moment came to talk to his cousin for the very first time, Tejay Johnson lifted his hands and let the words spill…<\/p>\n

Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[2],"tags":[4621,6188,35,6187,201,831,121,836,40,6191,6190,191,3601,6189,6192,17],"class_list":["post-11593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-deaf-news","tag-article","tag-big-brothers-big-sisters","tag-community","tag-espn","tag-family","tag-football","tag-fort-worth","tag-garland","tag-interpreter","tag-laqueena-johnson","tag-mickey-moss","tag-sign-language","tag-tcu","tag-tejay","tag-tejay-johnson","tag-texas"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p752R-30Z","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":9586,"url":"https:\/\/deafnetwork.com\/wordpress\/blog\/2010\/03\/08\/blazing-the-trail-2010-leadership-conference\/","url_meta":{"origin":11593,"position":0},"title":"Blazing The Trail 2010 Leadership Conference","author":"Grant Laird Jr","date":"March 8, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Blazing The Trail 2010 Leadership Conference Early Bird Registration deadline in two weeks!! 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