Soccer Goalkeeper Mo Isom Looks Forward to a Superb Senior Season
Mo Isom entered the 2011 season as the winningest goalkeeper in LSU history. Still, she thinks there’s more to accomplish — both on and off the field.
An Achilles’ tendon injury sidelined her for part of 2010, but now she’s fully healthy for her senior and final season.
“I truly feel back on my game — 100 percent Mo Isom in the net,” she said.
Healthy or injured, Isom, a product of Marietta, Ga., has been a leader in both sports and the community.
Those leadership skills have sharpened her game over the course of a record-setting career.
“Your perspective changes, and you experience different things, and you save all of that and use it for more effective leadership,” Isom said.
Through LSU, she volunteers as a motivational speaker at schools and churches, and for youth sports teams and civic groups.
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“I really take advantage of the fact that I’m a student-athlete. We have such an amazing platform and such an awesome opportunity to influence,” she said.
Off the field, Isom is active with the Fellowship for Christian Athletes, Athletes in Action, Habitat for Humanity and St. Vincent de Paul’s Battered Women’s Shelter. She also mentors a child at University Terrace Elementary.
All those activities don’t seem to allow much time for sleep.
“Sleep?” she said, laughing. “I just try to do as much as I can in the time that I have here.”
She does all this as well as earning a spot on the SEC Academic Honor Roll as she pursues her degree in broadcast journalism.
Isom’s achievements have drawn attention on a national scale.
She is one of 30 women’s soccer players nationwide to be nominated for the prestigious Lowe’s Senior CLASS (Celebrating Loyalty and Achievement for Staying in School) Award. The award celebrates impressive game play, community service and academic achievement.
“It’s a fantastic honor,” she said. “I think it’s most special because it doesn’t have to do with just performance on the field. It has to do with the person I am off the field, and it has to do with character.”
Isom said the nomination won’t add pressure to her play. “I can only hope to do my best this season and hopefully win,” she said.
The only additional pressure she feels is the fact she’s playing her final season.
“You’re leaving everything you have on the field, and it’s the last time you’ll play all of these teams,” she said. “You want to leave that final impression. You want it to be a bookend year that you can hang on the wall and be proud of.”
Between her stats and awards, Isom has already made a lasting impression.
She entered this season with 22 shutouts and 31 wins, both LSU career records. In 2010, she won the Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award. The national award honors college athletes who overcome odds to achieve academic success. Isom endured the death of her father and a near-fatal auto accident.
Isom has also trained with the national women’s soccer team. Nothing’s set in stone, and she’s keeping her future options open, but “if the opportunity presents itself, I would love to continue to train with the national team,” she said.
Whether or not she continues playing soccer, “sports is always going to play a part of my life,” she said.
For now, though, she’s focused on her final season as a Tiger.
“This is certainly my second home, and I love everything about it,” she said. “LSU as a whole has been such a fantastic community and such a fantastic family environment. I’m so proud to be a Tiger, and I’m proud to be a part of LSU.”