Isaiah Joe
SENIOR / FORT SMITH NORTHSIDE HIGH SCHOOL
OUTSTANDING PLAYER: BOYS BASKETBALL
>> WHY HE WON
Senior Isaiah Joe will fulfill a lifelong dream when he officially steps onto the court as a Razorback for the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. Joe has been around basketball his entire life, having played since he was in kindergarten for his dad, Derrick, on the Arkansas Hawks. So getting the chance to play at the University of Arkansas — where both his parents went to school — has been “a dream come true” for Joe. “It just means a lot to me,” he said. “I was raised around basketball. I grew up around it and fell in love with it.” Joe was recently named the 2018 All-Arkansas Preps Boys Outstanding Basketball Player of the Year. Joe, a 6-2 shooting guard, finished his senior season at Fort Smith Northside High School, averaging 23 points, 5.6 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game. “It means a lot to me to be one of the few to make the list,” Joe said. “It is a great honor.” He said winning the state championship as a junior is one of his favorite memories at Northside. Northside head coach Eric Burnett said the turning point for him was when Joe was a sophomore. Burnett said that during a practice, he was working Joe and the other sophomores pretty vigorously, almost to the point of exhaustion. “And he had gotten sick,” Burnett said, “so I told him I would give him some time off when he didn’t have to run, to allow him to rest. He looked up and said, ‘No, coach. If everybody else is going to do it, then I am going to do it.’” Burnett said he saw something in Joe and knew he could go a long way in basketball. “He is a leader. He doesn’t say much, but when he does, [his teammates] lock in and focus,” Burnett said. “He is doing everything the right way because he knows everybody is always watching him.” Joe was also named this year’s Arkansas Boys High School
Player of the Year by the Arkansas Basketball Coaches Association. “He tries to be humble and help people,” Derrick Joe said of his son. “He is a hard worker and does what is required of him. He is pretty committed to working really hard.”