NORFOLK, Va. — Renika Johnson was worried about her son. R'Tarriun Johnson wasn't a bad kid, but like many 7-year-olds, he often didn't listen to his mother.
He was at that age when kids push boundaries, get into mischief and subconsciously long for role models to emulate.
His biological father, who is now in prison, wasn't a part of his son's life. Her brothers tried to help, but they had full-time jobs and families of their own.
"R'Tarriun needed a male figure in his life," she said.
The family, which is devoutly Christian, says God intervened at that point.
Renika was working for a Head Start program in Wiggins, Mississippi, where she met Shea Martin. She was teaching Jala Martin, one of his three daughters.
"We just started talking and things took off from there," Shea Martin said.
They began dating, fell in love and eventually got married, and in the process, changed R'Tarriun Johnson's life.
"I would not be where I am without my step dad," he says. "When he came into my life, it turned my life around.
"My step dad has been the father figure that I needed. I thank that man for everything I am now.
"He taught me how to be a man."
R'Tarriun has turned out to be a very committed, hard-working and successful young man. Now 23, he's a 5-foot-11, 200-pound standout safety for Old Dominion's football team who has already graduated with a bachelor's degree and is working on his Master's.
Friday night he and his teammates host Virginia Tech at S.B. Ballard Stadium and a national TV audience.
Safeties coach Remington Rebstock said R'Tarriun has NFL potential, something he certainly showed last season when he had 91 tackles, two interceptions and six pass breakups.
Although not particularly tall, Johnson is instantly recognizable because of his long, flowing dreadlocks and his often kamikaze style of play.
"His teammates call him The Eraser," Rebstock said. "That's because when a play is developing, here comes No. 1 across the field and he erases the play.
"RT is one of the nicest kids I've ever coached. But he's also one of the most physically violent safeties I've ever coached."
Johnson's mother, now Renika Martin, has not had an easy road in life. Renika had R'Tarriun when she was 16 years old.
Her mother, Quillie Johnson, was sympathetic to her daughter's plight but only to a point. Renika took her son with her to class at Stone High School and worked a full-time job after school while her mother babysat her son.
Johnson with Shea Martin
When she graduated, she began working two jobs, with her mom and aunts combining for child care.
"My mother was a firm believer that the bed you lay in you have to make, that you have to take care of yourself," she said.
"So, I worked. I worked very hard."
She's still working hard. She earned a bachelor's degree at Southern Miss while working full time. She's a social worker for the state of Mississippi and is working on her Master's degree at Southern Miss.
"I worked a lot of long nights," she said. "I've always believed that what you put into life, you get out of life. Nothing is ever given to you."
R'Tarriun watched his mother struggle and even though he was young, the memories stuck with him.
"We stayed in Section 8 housing for a while," he said. "We stayed with my grandmother for a while.
"My mom has been trying her whole life to get our lives on track. I watched her cry plenty of nights when she was just trying to figure out how to pay the bills.
"She's worked at McDonald's, nursing homes, churches. I saw her work 70-hour weeks three weeks in a row. I told her she needs to take a break and she told me, 'I can't afford to take a break. If I take a break, we don't eat.'
"That's why I try to do my best. I know her life wasn't easy. I'm doing the best I can to make the rest of her life easy."
When Renika introduced Shea into her son's life, he showed just the right amount of respect and discipline, R'Tarriun said.
"I never asked him to call me Dad," Shea said. "He has a father."
Eventually, R'Tarriun settled on calling him Pops.
It wasn't just R'Tarriun's life that changed when Shea married his mother. Shea's life also changed.
He was something of a party animal and was not particularly religious when they first met. He put that life aside, and got saved, after attending church with the family.
"I used to drink and party a lot," he said. "I don't do none of that anymore."
Even though he was a young boy, R'Tarriun noticed the change, too. He knows it came in part because Shea was trying to set a good example for his stepson.
"He was young and had his own life," R'Tarriun said. "But he was around me 24/7 and he changed things for me. That meant a lot to me."
So did the change Shea brought into her mother's life.
"She still worked two jobs, but the extra money we had when they got together made a big difference in our lives," R'Tarriun said. "And when she went to work, he took care of me."
Shea loved his daughters – Kelsey Henry and Megan Eastland, in addition to Jala – but had always wanted a son.
Johnson holds his brother, Grayson
"When I met RT, I just fell in love with him," Shea said.
At first, he danced the fine line step parents always face with the children of their spouse. Eventually, he began to become a father figure to R'Tarriun and began to show him some tough love.
When R'Tarriun was a young teenager he began to slack off in school. Shea warned him there would be consequences, and when R'Tarriun came home with an "F" grade, the consequences hit him like a ton of bricks.
He told R'Tarriun that he could not play recreation sports of any kind for a year, and that if his grades didn't improve, the ban would go longer.
"His mom got mad at me," Shea said. "I told him I'm doing something that will make you do better. I told him I did it out of love."
Just to make sure the message got across, he took R'Tarriun to basketball and football games to watch his friends play.
"He told me I've got to change," R'Tarriun said. "And I did.
"He taught me how to be a man."
R'Tarriun was a football star at Stone High School, where his mother also attended.
"Some of the teachers I had also taught my mom," he said. "They remembered her bringing me to class with her.
"They all admired how hard she worked."
But he didn't land a scholarship offer from an FBS school, so he enrolled at nearby Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College.
While there he roomed with Terrion Avery, now a running back at South Alabama, which hosts ODU on Nov. 26 in the Monarchs' last regular-season game.
"It was like going to the 13th and 14th grade," he said. "I didn't feel like I really got away. I could still drive and get a home-cooked meal."
Then ODU coach Bobby Wilder was the first FBS coach to offer him and he quickly committed to the Monarchs.
"I always told my Mom that I wasn't going to stay in Mississippi, that I wanted to see something new," he said.
Johnson with his grandmother, Quillie Johnson
"It's been hard being 15 hours away from my family. But it's also changed my life."
Injured his first season in 2019, he played sparingly and redshirted. Then came the 2020 season, when the Monarchs did not play because of the pandemic and took all of their classes online.
"That was hard," he said. "I tried not to get distracted. I saw so many people get distracted. Some people dropped out and quit. They quit on their dreams.
"I wasn't going to quit on my dreams."
When Rebstock was hired in late 2019, he realized R'Tarriun had potential but was far from reaching it.
"He had some work to do," Rebstock said. "He's the kind of kid who's going to commit to what he needs to do to be successful.
"It didn't surprise me the kind of impact he made last year."
R'Tarriun was named honorable mention All-Conference USA.
"I thought he deserved better than that," Rebstock said.
Shea said the family reveled in his success.
"RT is one of those kids who was often overlooked," Shea said. "He would be the guy who made all of the tackles.
"Coming out of high school, some kids got scholarships who weren't as good as he was. RT was better than them.
"But I told him, that's OK. God's got a plan for you.
"That plan was for him to go to ODU. We're so grateful for all ODU has done for him."
R'Tarriun was among a small group of ODU players and officials eating in a Cajun restaurant last month in New Orleans. We were there for Sun Belt football media days and had just been served our meals when R'Tarriun's family walked in.
Shea now has two sons – he and Renika have a 4-year-old boy named Grayson Martin who is so tall he could pass for twice his age.
"Someday, I'm going to come recruit you," head coach Ricky Rahne said.
Johnson with his stepsister, Jala
His mother, stepfather, Grayson and Jala made the two-hour drive to see their son for perhaps an hour or so.
R'Tarriun's eyes lit up when they walked into the restaurant. Grayson ran over the hug him and sat on his brother's lap
"They drove that far just to see him for very short time," Rahne said. "That shows you how much that family loves R'Tarriun."
That was a trip around the block compared to what the family does during football season. On Thursday evening, eight family members will pile into a car to make the 15-hour drive from Wiggins to Norfolk.
"We'll be in South Carolina when the sun comes up," Shea said.
And this isn't a one-time thing. The family went to 12 of ODU's 13 games last season – the only game they missed was at UTEP, 1,200 miles away from Wiggins.
"When he told me he was going to ODU, I said to him, 'that's OK. Wherever you go to school, we'll be there to support you.' "
Jala, his 22-year-old stepsister, visited ODU this summer and stayed with R'Tarriun.
R'Tarriun is not bitter at his biological father. "I've met him but don't really know him," he said.
"I don't have any hard feelings for him. I still love him."
Perhaps that's because his family has showed so much love on him.
Both Shea and Renika talk to R'Tarriun nearly every day.
"Sometimes I just tell him I love him and I let it go at that," Renika said. "I know he's busy."
But she can't go a day without reaching out to her son.
"God is always first with them," R'Tarriun said. "When I'm at home we had bible study. When I'm here, sometimes we do bible study on the phone."
R'Tarriun said his goal is to play in the NFL, but not so much to fulfill his dreams of stardom as much as his dreams of taking care of his family.
"One day, I want to buy them a house," he said. "I want my mom to be able to retire. I don't want her to have to work again.
"That's been my goal since I started playing football, to one day take care of my family."
Just like they took care of him.
Minium: ODU Safety R'Tarriun Johnson's Success Made Possible By His Family's Love
