Isbell continues family tradition
SHIPPENSBURG – Growing up in an athletically gifted family is not always easy. Being the youngest of three brothers can make the situation even more difficult.
Ask DeQuay Isbell. The Washington High School senior began playing basketball at a young age. Some people did not bother to learn his first name. He was simply known as Tommy Kelly’s little brother.
The same goes for football. Isbell decided to use his speed wearing a helmet and shoulder pads, but he could not escape the label of being Jailyn Kelly’s younger brother. Of course, Isbell has always looked up to the pair. Making them proud means more than any medal, but he always wanted to make his mark and escape the shadow.
That was the plan when Isbell began playing baseball. Things changed quickly.
“He got hit with a baseball and he was done,” Patty Gordon, Isbell’s mother and a volunteer assistant track coach for Wash High, said with a laugh.
It was only natural for Isbell to trade baseball spikes for track spikes. His great-grandfather ran at Washington & Jefferson, his three uncles were outstanding athletes at Wash High and of course, Patty, a 1988 graduate, was a standout for the Prexies – reaching the PIAA championships as a senior on the 1,600-meter relay team.
Her chosen event: the 400-meter dash. Not only did Isbell take one more step out of his brothers’ shadows, but he made his mother proud Friday afternoon.
Isbell finished first in the third heat of the Class AA 400-meter dash at the PIAA Track & Field Championships at Shippensburg University with a time of 50.08 – the third-best time in Class AA – to qualify for today’s finals.
“I never thought I was going to be a track runner,” Isbell said. “I stopped playing baseball, and when I did, my mom told me I should try to run track. I thought I’d have some fun, meet some people and try to do something.”
He’s done more than something. Isbell, who has competed at the state meet for three consecutive years, also took first place in the third heat of the 200-meter dash in 22.72 seconds – the second-best time in Class AA – to earn a spot in the semifinals.
In both races, Isbell not only displayed his incredible speed and athleticism, but used the knowledge gained from his mother to methodically approach the race, especially the 400. In that event, he sped up the first straight away, gained the lead around the first bend and kicked to create separation from four competitors.
“I just worked on coming out a lot faster, so I would make up for the stagger along the back stretch,” Isbell said. “It seemed like I wasn’t going to be ahead, but the way the stagger went, I was ahead of (Wyomissing’s Heriberto Colon) along the corner. Along there, I waited until we got around then kicked on him, passed him up and kept gaining ground.”
It was much of the same in the 200, when Isbell emerged from a pack of four runners and sped past Nkosi Pile of Church Farm School.
“I had the stride and the speed to come up from behind and creep in fast,” Isbell said. “It shocks a lot of people. I came out of the blocks with a good pace, made the turn and I saw them catching up. When they did, I kicked for separation.”
Though Isbell works extensively with Wash High assistant coach Richie Barnes, it also helps having his mom close, critique minor details of his technique in the 400 and offering encouragement.
“She’s at every practice. She ran the 400, so she goes out whenever I’m running workouts,” Isbell said. “She’ll talk to me about my strides, sprinting, my technique, my form. She just tries to work on everything and critique it as much as she can. With us not having a track, having her helps to make up for that.”
While Isbell is stoic as he runs, often talking to himself throughout each race, Gordon absorbs every bit of nervousness. It all settled down once she saw him cross the finish line, but there’s still much to be done.
The finals in the 400 are today at 1:45 p.m. The semifinals of the 200 are at 11 a.m., with the finals beginning at 2:40 p.m.
“I was taught years ago how to run it, so I can tell him what he needs to do to run the race,” Gordon said. “With hard work and determination, you can succeed at it. It’s a hard race to run. If you don’t know how to run it, it will be really bad.”
It might never had happened if it wasn’t for a baseball, but it did not take long for him to notice that speed ran in the family. Isbell recalls a race during his freshman year where he ran in the same heat as Dustin Fuller, who is now a standout at Pitt. Isbell finished second behind Fuller.
“I knew then that I had a lot more than what everyone had thought and there was a lot to me,” Isbell said.
He still has more to prove. Isbell will seek a state title for the second consecutive season after earning a gold medal as a member of the Prexies’ 3,200-meter relay team.
“I’m glad that he’s run track because the other little ones in the neighborhood and the family say, ‘I can do that. I want to run track just like him,'” Gordon said. “It’s really good that he can be a role model for the community and he escaped that shadow.”