Difficult Decisions
September 05, 2006 03:25 PM | General
September 6, 2006
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – When West Virginia University coach Rich Rodriguez offered Greg Isdaner a scholarship two years ago during the offensive guard's official visit to Morgantown, Isdaner never dreamed his life would become so complicated.
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| Greg Isdaner has fulfilled a dream of becoming a major college football player.
All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks photo |
The Gladwyne, Pa., resident had just a handful of smaller schools recruiting him and the Mountaineers were the only Division I football program to offer him a full ride. It seemed like an easy choice for Isdaner -- accept Rodriguez’s offer right on the spot and head on over to the WVU Team Shop to get some Mountaineer gear.
But life can often be much more complicated than that.
Greg’s parents Bart and Eileen Isdaner had completely different plans for their son. Both went to Georgetown and while they enjoyed sports, they were more interested in having Greg attend a prestigious academic institution that could open up doorways and present a much easier path to future success. College football was just fun and games – a distraction to the more important things in life.
What ensued was a battle of wills that lasted six months and has only recently been resolved.
“I wanted to come here real badly and they wanted me to look at Penn and Georgetown,” Isdaner said. “I wasn’t even living at home for a while.”
Isdaner attended The Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pa., a prep academic factory that develops Ivy Leaguers much like the Mountaineer program manufactures professional football players.
“Every year (Episcopal) sends 50 percent of its class to Ivy League equivalent schools,” Isdaner said. “I think we had something like eight kids go to Penn, four go to Harvard and we had only 100 kids in a class. The average SAT score was like 1320 and that takes in low factors like me and all those football guys.”
Isdaner is joking, of course. Like WVU senior linebacker Jay Henry who has never achieved anything less than an A his entire life, Greg is as bright and as articulate as they come. Isdaner admits that those around him were making pretty persuasive arguments that he should give up his dream of playing major college football.
“It’s hard to turn down the Ivy League,” he said. “When you get out into the real world you can get pretty much any job you want.”
But like most normal 17-year-olds, Isdaner wasn’t interested in immediately preparing himself for board room meetings and making complex business decisions -- he wanted to get out in the mud and dirt and tackle his friends on the football field. Besides, he figured the real-world stuff would be there waiting for him soon enough.
“I just love football – I love hitting people and it was just a goal,” he said. “I didn’t even really think about playing football in college until my junior year but once that hit and I started getting letters I thought to myself, maybe I can do this. Why not give it a shot even if I have to walk on somewhere?”
That meant walking away from some of the very best schools in the country.
“My parents were split about it,” Isdaner said. “My mom and dad took different sides on the issue but they both sort of had the same feeling that they wanted me to look at the more academic schools that would have better connections throughout the world. If you say you went to Harvard eyes are going to open right away.”
Both sides dug in. Isdander decided to dig his way out by moving out for a while.
“It was a rough stretch,” he said. “I lived with our equipment manager from high school for a while until things settled down a little bit.”
Through all this West Virginia stuck by Isdaner even though he never signed a letter-of-intent on signing day. Both sides had a good faith agreement until Isdaner could get things resolved with his family.
“Finally I got my parents to come around in July (of last year),” he said. “(West Virginia) didn’t have to stick with me for five or six months but they did.”
Isdaner was originally going to come in last year as a walk on and play his way into a scholarship, but he got one on the second day of camp when North Carolina defensive back Marquis Melvin chose to pursue a singing career. That was music to Isdaner’s ears.
“I’m so glad I’m finally here and I wanted to show them that they made the right decision for sticking with me for so long,” he said.
Last year, Isdaner spent the entire season as a backup and actually ran with the twos for a while before redshirting. Some of his friends, disappointed in his decision to walk away from the Ivy League, were beginning to remind him of what he was missing.
“It was rough at the beginning of last year, but more and more it’s gotten better,” Isdaner said.
Today, he has worked himself into a prominent role playing in one of college football’s rising programs. When starting left tackle Damien Crissey went down with an ankle injury during last weekend’s season opener against Marshall, Isdaner went in at left guard and Ryan Stanchek moved out to tackle.
“I was a little nervous at first and when I first went out there I was like, ‘Whoa.’ We called a pass play thank God and I couldn’t mess that up. After the first play we scored a touchdown and that was such a great feeling. I got to come back to the sidelines and compose myself to get ready to go back out there. As the game went on I got more and more comfortable out there with those guys.”
Like all first-time players, Rodriguez says there is plenty of room for improvement.
“He did OK,” said the coach. “It wasn’t a great performance but for his first time in there he battled and he competed. Every mistake he made was a correctable mistake so we’re pretty pleased with his first outing.”
Isdaner wants more.
“This year I wanted to prove that I was good enough to play early here,” he said. “Now I’ve gotten to the point where I proved that. Now I’m trying to prove to myself that I can be a good player here.”
And perhaps someday even play beyond WVU. As slim as those odds may be, the odds of Isdaner making the NFL are actually better than him becoming a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
Isdaner believes his West Virginia University education will serve him just fine when it’s time to go job hunting. There are plenty of WVU success stories out there in the business world to rely on.
“I’ll be halfway through my degree by December,” he says. “My plan is to graduate in three years and still be on scholarship to get my master’s degree.”
As for his parents, they’re starting to come around, too. They were at last weekend’s home opener to witness the pageantry and excitement surrounding the nation’s No. 5-ranked college football team. Pretty soon they may even have to buy some of those My Son is Number 79 buttons to wear at the games -- if they haven’t already.
And soon his friends back home may be walking into the Episcopal Academy gymnasium and seeing a picture of big Greg proudly wearing his Mountaineer uniform, providing inspiration to some other kid wanting to spend some time playing in the dirt and mud tackling his buddies.
As for the real world -- whenever that comes – his experiences as a member of the West Virginia University football team will serve him well. During those awkward moments at the start of a big job interview, all he’s got to do is show off that bright, shiny Nokia Sugar Bowl championship ring that he earned last year -- and have a good story or two ready to tell.
That shouldn’t be a problem at all.
