Journal: Isler tops in state

Clovis High’s Jaden Isler has experienced more highs and lows in the past year than most do in a lifetime.

After helping push the Wildcats to the state championship game in football and basketball, Isler nearly lost his life and then lost an opportunity to play Division I basketball. Now, he has another shot at college basketball and he’s been honored as the Albuquerque Journal’s Male Athlete of the Year.

Previous Clovis winners include Hank Baskett , Joey Garcia, Bubba Jennings and Nelson Frantze.

“It’s awesome,” Isler said, “just to be mentioned in the same sentence with those two guys who have gone on to bigger and better things.”

Isler’s athletic year started on the gridiron with a school-record 10 interceptions and ended in a 49-48 double overtime loss to Mayfield in the 5A state title game.

Days later, he traded in his cleats for his more familiar basketball shoes, and helped Clovis start the season with 26 straight wins. His final high school game ended as a 73-71 state title setback to Hobbs. Along the way he became Clovis’ career assists leader and No. 2 career scorer in the 29-2 campaign.

Then the real challenges came. Hours after he announced his verbal commitment to Division-I Charleston Southern University in South Carolina, Isler collapsed while sitting in the stands at a Clovis girls softball game in Canyon, Texas. For reasons no doctor has figured out, Isler’s heart stopped — but he was fortunate enough to be at an athletic event with emergency personnel already standing by.

A few weeks later, Isler had a defibrillator in his chest and a letter-of-intent to play for the Division-I Buccaneers. But summer school in South Carolina revealed a different story.

Isler loved the team and Charleston, but school administrators balked and decided in late May they couldn’t accept the risk of an athlete with an unknown heart condition. The school said they would honor his scholarship, but Isler declined.

“I’m going to go somewhere I can play,” Isler said. “I can get an academic scholarship to go anywhere. I’m ready to play and I’m healthy enough to play, so I’m going to go where I can play.”

The road led him not too far from Clovis. J.D. Isler, Jaden’s father and high school coach, said he placed a phone call to Lubbock Christian coach John Copeland. Coach Isler brought up Jaden’s situation, and asked if Copeland knew of any school that could use a point guard.

Copeland said his team could. But this time, the Islers went to the school administrators first. There would be no hesitation from LCU, so Jaden Isler decided to sign with the Chaps.

“It was kind of relieving to hear a positive approach to the situation,” Coach Isler said.

Jaden Isler could have gone to Howard Junior College, or joined Clovis teammate Bryce Hill at Jacksonville College. But he remembered Copeland had recruited him throughout his senior year even after it was evident Division I was his aim.

That’s still the case.

“If the right situation comes along, I want to get back to Division I,” Jaden said. “But I feel loyalty to this coach and that school, because they gave me a chance when nobody else would.”

Now, Jaden Isler can be closer to his family, making the stress much lighter on a family that can watch him play and not worry about his heart condition from 1,000 miles away.

“Through this whole thing,” Coach Isler said, “we’ve always said God will put Jaden where he needs to be, and maybe this is where he needs to be.”