Keisean Henderson Loves Chili’s For Celebrations, Gets Grief From His Little Sister and Dances Anywhere — How UH’s Future QB Star Is Shaped By His Close Family Life

Keisean Henderson did not celebrate at his favorite restaurant. Not this time. Not after one of the most electric debuts in recent Houston sports memory. His younger sister Keiara had a softball tournament early the next morning, and in Keisean Henderson’s family no one’s moment is more important than another’s.

It does not matter if you are the No. 1 ranked freshman quarterback in college football, a potentially transformative figure for University of Houston’s football program. You still have to respect your little sister’s schedule.

“He didn’t get to go to Chili’s,” Erica Henderson, Keisean’s mom, says with a laugh. “His favorite. It was just a little late. And his sister plays softball. And the next morning, she had softball games. So we couldn’t really do much. But we all stayed out there (outside the stadium), gathered and hung out. And just was super excited, screaming and hollering at him. ‘You did great.’ ”

Henderson put on something of a show in his first extended action for Willie Fritz’s football program, completing six of seven passes for 83 yards and two touchdowns, turning a bad snap into an electric 54-yard touchdown run last Saturday. Call it a glimpse of the speeding future. But even before UH football quickly moved on to this Friday night’s Top 25 showdown with Texas Tech, with the 18-year-old Henderson getting to see how proven starting quarterback Conner Weigman goes about preparing for a big game, his little sister put him in his place.

As little sisters are known to do.

Keiara Henderson hit an inside-the-park home run in that softball tournament the next morning, and ended up winning two different MVP awards for the tournament. Then this 12-year-old made sure big brother knew about it.

“She definitely was telling her brother, ‘I came after you. So don’t worry about it. I got this.’ ” Erica Henderson says. “It’s a nice little competition between the two. I don’t think he feels like it’s a competition. But she feels like she is in it.”

When people ask Keiara Henderson what she wants to be when she grows up, she has a quick standard response.

“So much better than my brother,” she says.

If you really want to get to know Keisean Henderson, you need to get to know his family, the large close-knit group of grandma and grandpa, five sisters and six grandkids (with Keisean the oldest of those) and countless cousins who gave him plenty of love and some ribbing after he rose to the moment in his first extended college game action in that blowout of Southern. While University of Houston coach Willie Fritz marveled over how fast his Quarterback of the Future got going on that touchdown run once he scooped up that loose football (with Henderson clocked at more than 20 MPH on the 54-yard dash), Mom noticed all the different dance moves he used in the celebration.

“I think he secretly choreographs his dance moves at night,” Erica Henderson says. “I really do. I don’t know. I don’t know if they just come off the dome. My sister said, ‘Did he just do the Michael Jackson out there?’ I said, ‘Girl, he probably did.’ He did a little Thriller out there. Then there was a karate chop. It’s a lot.”

Still as Keisean Henderson hung outside the stadium with his family, those who know him best could tell how much it means to him.

“It was just the joy on this face,” Eric Henderson, Keiseasn’s always hyped-up, football-loving grandfather, tells PaperCity. “Being able to see the big smile, man. And the happiness.”

Keisean tells his mom how he does not want to let anyone down, how determined he is to pull his weight whenever he is given a chance to play.

“We came into this story knowing that he would be behind Conner,” Erica Henderson tells PaperCity. “Keisean’s not the person who’s coming in to take no one’s spot. He’s coming into learn. . . He’s so humble a kid. He was just so excited to able to be a part of the team, a part of a legacy, a part of something. Having that moment (against Southern) was just like, ‘Aaaah!’

“And I know for him, it was like, ‘I told everybody I’m not going to let anybody down. I just want a chance.’ ”

The 18-year-old with the magic moves will try to make the most of every chance he gets in relief of Weigman, the proven 23-year-old college winner who everyone in this UH program believes can lead them into the College Football Playoffs this season. Weigman’s last ride and Henderson’s first.

“I think it was great for him to get to go play football,” UH offensive coordinator Slade Nagle says. “Get comfortable. . . We were happy to get him out there.”

Maybe Keisean Henderson will get in for a few plays against Texas Tech in this Friday night prime time showdown as part of a special package. Maybe he won’t. But his stretch against Southern certainly gave Texas Tech head coach Joey McGuire and his staff a little something else to think about as they prepare for this game. McGuire is playing two quarterbacks in Will Hammond and Florida State transfer Thomas Castellanos, but the sense is that’s because the Red Raiders may not have a real No. 1.

Fritz and Houston have no such concerns. They have a Guy in Weigman. And a Guy for the near future in Henderson.

“Everybody knows their role and I think everybody is bought in,” is how Keisean Henderson put it himself before the season. (UH has not made Henderson available to talk to the media since the season began.)

A Speeding Teammate

As fast as he ran on his touchdown run, Keisean Henderson may have run even faster to get all the way down the field to the end zone to join the celebration when Weigman threw a 43-yard touchdown pass to Koby Young earlier in the game. Henderson was really moving then, surprising both Weigman and Young with how quickly he got to them.

“That’s just who he is,” Erica Henderson says. “That’s exactly who he is. He loves to tell me, ‘Mom, I ran so fast.’ . . You ran so fast to get down there to celebrate. But you didn’t run as fast when you was running with that ball? I feel like he was running slow (on that touchdown).”

Erica Henderson laughs. “He’s going to celebrate all the wins for everybody,” she says. “That’s just what he does. And it doesn’t matter how far away you are. He’s going to make it down there.”

Erica remembers games in high school where Keisean would run more than 50 yards to get to an end zone celebration after throwing a pass. And still end up being the third person there.

“I think he secretly choreographs his dance moves at night. I really do. I don’t know. I don’t know if they just come off the dome. My sister said, ‘Did he just do the Michael Jackson out there?’ I said, ‘Girl, he probably did.’ He did a little Thriller out there. Then there was a karate chop. It’s a lot.” — Erica Henderson on her son Keisean’s celebrations

Then again, this is somebody who always knew how to keep moving. When Erica Henderson took Keisean to the grocery store when he was a little kid, she’d turn around and he’d be dancing in the aisle. When they went shoe shopping, he’d be dancing amid the boxes of shoes.

“Literally he’s the kid I couldn’t take to the store because he’s going to break dance in the store,” Erica Henderson says. ” ‘Get your hands off the dirty floor. Stop dancing again.’ I’m like, ‘Sir, relax.’ ”

Keisean Henderson’s never stopped dancing. When he’d go to parties in high school, he’d dance even when no one else was.

“Mom, when the music comes on, I got to let it go,” is how Keisean Henderson explains it.

After his one play (just missed touchdown pass) cameo in UH’s opener and the extended run last week, there is no extended postgame dancing though. Instead Keisean Henderson just hangs out with his big family, tells his 10-year-old cousin Ace, a youth football player himself, that he needs to keep pushing and improving. He’ll laugh with his grandfather, who calls him his Big Timer for the magic he creates on the field. His mom will ask him when he’s ever going to make the short trip home (“I haven’t seen Keisean since he left for UH,” Erica Henderson laughs. “He might have came home three times.”)  And he’ll hear it from his little sister.

No Chili’s for you. A Henderson has a softball tournament to dominate.