2011 Sun-Times Football Player of the Year: Joliet Catholic’s Ty Isaac

Updated: November 24, 2011 6:52PM

Aspiring football players usually start going to Joliet Catholic’s summer camps when they’re in fifth grade, but sometimes there are exceptions.

Ty Isaac was only a third-grader when he began attending the Hilltoppers’ camp. And the favor wasn’t done just because his dad, Tyrone, had a great career of his own for the school. Tyrone Isaac was a captain and a 1,000-yard rusher for Joliet Catholic’s 1987 state championship team, and he caught the winning touchdown pass in the title game.

But the elder Isaac’s resumé pales next to that of his son, who it now seems was destined for greatness ever since he was a little kid at those summer camps.

‘‘We always moved him up with the older kids,’’ Joliet Catholic coach Dan Sharp said.

It was a tradition that continued up until two years ago, when Isaac was a freshman playing varsity ball for the Hilltoppers’ Class 5A
state runner-up team. At the time, he was along for the ride on a team that featured current Illinois running back Josh Ferguson and Northwestern recruit Malin Jones.

Now Isaac is the man. After an injury-plagued sophomore season, he has emerged as the most dynamic talent in the state for an explosive offense that has scored 40 points or more 10 times this season.

Isaac, who has rushed for 2,114 yards (11.9 per carry) and has scored a school-record 45 touchdowns, also is the Sun-Times Player of the Year.

Though he’s regarded as one of the top prospects nationally in the Class of 2013, Isaac’s head is nowhere near as big as his numbers.

‘‘He’s a down-to-earth kid,’’ said Jones, who is having a great season of his own with 1,494 rushing yards and 28 touchdowns. ‘‘You see the work he’s putting in in the offseason. He’s earned what he’s been getting.’’

Not that Isaac was cocky before, but the adversity of last season kept him especially grounded. It wasn’t the season he expected for himself or for his team, which was knocked out of the playoffs by Richwoods in the Class 5A quarterfinals.

‘‘Coming up freshman and sophomore year, it was still a little bit of a learning process,’’ Isaac said. ‘‘Freshman year I was playing here and there, maybe six or seven carries a game. It wasn’t the same for me as the older guys.’’

The Hilltoppers made it to the Class 5A final that season before losing a heartbreaker to Montini, the same team they’ll face in the Class 5A title game Saturday. Not getting back to state last year, plus his own struggles to shake off a leg injury, served as an eye-opener.

‘‘It bothered me just because I knew there was hype around me,’’ Isaac said. ‘‘I wanted to go out [this season] and do my thing and put that to rest. With the injury, coming back prematurely and tweaking it again, nobody wants to play a season like that.’’

Or one that ends before Thanksgiving weekend.

‘‘It’s a tough road [to state],’’ he said. ‘‘It’s a lot tougher than I thought it was my freshman year.’’

But Isaac has made it look easy. At 6-2 and 215 pounds, he has the size to run through people and
also has the speed to run away from them.

‘‘Ty has matured,’’ Sharp said. ‘‘He really hit the weights hard in the offseason, got himself in great physical condition.’’

Now Isaac is putting up numbers that rival some of the best ever at one of the most storied programs in the state.

And perhaps the scariest thing for opponents is the knowledge that he still has one more game this season, then all next season to add to his legacy.

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