Many have been hit hard by the news that schools will not return to campus for the remainder of the academic year. It’s a tough and transformative time for all, but especially for the senior class, the class of 2020. Sports360AZ wants to hear from those seniors on how they’re adjusting, what they’re feeling and how this experience can make them stronger moving forward in a segment we call “2020 Vision.”
For most of his prep career Higley’s Isaiah Eastman was a multi-sport athlete.
In a weird coincidence, he decided to give up one of his sports, track, to focus on getting ready for his first season of college football this coming fall.
So as the COVID-19 pandemic essentially wiped away all Arizona high school spring sports, including track, Eastman is left wondering what his emotions would have been if he opted to run track for the Knights as he’d done in the past.
“I don’t have much to say but it’s just kind of a tough [deal],” he explained in a recent Skype interview with Sports360AZ.com. “I just feel bad for all the people who did get their senior season canceled. It’s just a rough situation all around.”
Fortunately for the versatile 5-foot-10, 185-pounder – who played both wide receiver and running back for head coach Eddy Zubey over the past three seasons – Eastman’s final season on the gridiron not only went off without a hitch, he proved to be one of the most dangerous weapons in the southeast Valley tallied over 1,000 rushing yards and 12 touchdowns, while hauling in 40 receptions for 528 yards and five scores.
Soon he will be joining now former Horizon High School quarterback and future roommate Jake Martinelli, as both will be playing for South Dakota School of Mines – one of the top public universities in the country.
“My brother also goes to school there, he’s been going there for two years,” Isaiah said of Adrian Eastman, one of Isaiah’s six siblings and a junior defensive back for the Rockers. “I definitely wanted to play with him for a long time. I feel really comfortable in that system and how I can be used in that system at both receiver and running back.”
Eastman’s big-picture view outside of football is positioning himself for life after college. He plans on pursuing a business in technology degree – a new program being offered by the school coinciding with his arrival.
