The Dallas Morning News has hired Ishmael Johnson, formerly of Dave Campbell’s Texas Football, as its newest high school sports reporter.
You can follow Ish on X (formerly known as Twitter) via @IshmaelRJohnson and read his work on his author page.
Here are a few things to know about SportsDay’s newest writer.
1) Where are you from and what is your journalistic background?
I was raised in Manor, Texas, a town about 15 minutes east of Austin. Right now, Manor’s an ever-growing suburb in Central Texas but for most of the time I grew up, it was a rural outskirt that struggled to eclipse 3,000 people by the time I graduated in 2010.
Before joining The Dallas Morning News, I worked for Dave Campbell’s Texas Football starting in 2017. I wore many hats, including assistant managing editor, college editor, managing editor of Texas Basketball and most recently, social media strategist. There, I truly gained an appreciation for the depth and quality in football and basketball at the Texas high school and collegiate level. Connecting and following the next generation of top-level coaches and athletes when they first break through became the driving force of my career.
I graduated from Texas State University in 2014, and right out of college I cut my teeth at the San Marcos Daily Record as the high school sports reporter and eventually was promoted to sports editor where I covered Texas State Athletics for two years.
2) What are your hobbies?
I’d like to imagine that I’m out at the movies and concerts more often than I actually am. But I do consume a lot in terms of movies and music, mostly just at my apartment now where I’m not too far from my Playstation 5 and laptop where I’m terminally online. I’ll never log off, unfortunately.
With football and basketball taking up the bulk of my work life in recent years, Premier League soccer has become my leisure sport along with my re-emerged love of professional wrestling. Imagine a warm blanket on the couch during a cold day in January and that’s how I picture my current obsession with those two sports.
3) Favorite sporting event you’ve attended?
This is a two-part answer. Professionally, it’s covering the 2023 women’s basketball national championship and seeing the explosion of the Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark rivalry, as well as Clark and Iowa’s upset of Aliyah Boston’s South Carolina team.
As for a personal event, I can go to the very recent past with my pro wrestling fandom and say it was attending All In Texas 2025 at Globe Life Field with some of my closest friends. AEW’s the reason why I started watching wrestling again, and witnessing its biggest stateside event in-person felt like the culmination of growing up watching wrestling on TV with my dad.
It was the only event where me and my friends sat back in our seats afterward and asked each other, “Did we just witness that?”
4) Favorite athlete you’ve interviewed?
My favorite high-profile interview to this day is LaDainian Tomlinson when he hosted his free youth football camp in San Marcos back in 2014. He was shockingly enthused to talk to a nervous first-year reporter on a cold and rainy day, more than he had any reason to be, and I always appreciated that.
But in general, former Texas Tech and current Cincinnati Bengals running back Tahj Brooks was always a treat every time we talked. Being from the same hometown helped us connect easier every time we chatted, and covering his draft party was a great experience.
5) If not journalism, what other career(s) would you pursue?
For the brief time I considered majoring in political science in college, I imagined myself as either a history instructor or getting into the political sphere. During the COVID-19 shutdown, I even loosely laid the foundations for an eventual career change by going back to school for public policy … I never finished because it turns out it’s insanely tough to do while also working full-time, so full credit to those that manage to do both; I couldn’t.
That said, I’ve loved organizing at the local level and channeling frustrations with greater international/national news into learning about where I can effect change via grassroots community service, and that’s been something I’ve consistently done more of since moving to Dallas.
Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.