Pillars that ushered in the most successful era of football at Independence high school, linebacker Jordan Harvey and offensive tackle Logan Isom signed to continue their next chapters Thursday which will take them in different directions.
Surrounded by friends, teammates and family, Isom signed his National Letter of Intent to play college football at Concord University while Harvey elected to take his talents north to Institute and continue his career with West Virginia State.
Each player went where they felt was the best fit and where they felt the most at home and their high school head coach, John H. Lilly believed each fit was perfect.
“Jordan was a three-year captain on defense and very rarely will you find a 10th grader that’s going to be captain of your defense,” Lilly said. “He’s a coach on the field and knows everything the opponent’s going to do just like the coaches did and executed it. The last two years, what he’s done defensively has been phenomenal. He’s a 4.0 student and I’m just happy for him because one of our goals is for them to go to school free and they were offered preferred walk ons and everybody has a choice to make on that but they took the free scholarship. Going to school for free is the goal we want for our kids. They chose to take the scholarships and I think it was a wise choice.”
Lilly, a Concord alum whose son Max is the defensive coordinator at Concord, frequents Mountain East Conference matchups on a weekly basis. As such he knows the lay of the land, making him even more confident in how his two stars will fare at the next level.
“I think they’ll be productive and made the wise choice,” Lilly said. “They’ll be playing quick. I’ll be very hard pressed to think that Harvey won’t be on every special team they have because he’s that kind of player and has a high motor. Logan is a three-year starter for us at left tackle and our blocking scheme has always allowed him to be one-on-one and he only gave up one sack all year and that was to a Division I kid from Fairmont who’s playing at Ball State. Both those guys are big-time gets for Division II schools and once again they both got full scholarships and I’m very happy for them.
Harvey, the first-team all-state defensive captain and Lootpress Defensive Player of the Year, believes he’ll be a linebacker in Institute with the fast track to learning the ins and outs of the position at the college level. He agrees with Lilly’s assessment that special teams will be an early way for him to earn playing time.
“I’m really lucky to have a position coach that’s also the special teams coach,” Harvey said. “I’m really blessed with that so I’m going to be around him a lot in Coach Price. It’s just going to have to come with the scheme and whatever they want me to do I’m willing to do it. You just have to take the opportunities when you get them and even if I start day one or play special teams I’m still a part of the team and have to find a way to fit in.”
For Harvey, who plans on studying criminal justice in hopes of entering the intelligence field, the campus felt welcoming immediately as he found a fan from the jump.
“We had a a fan that came up to me and asked me what school I was from,” Harvey said. “He started talking to me about how we had just won a state championship and they were hoping we would come down there. Just having him and his family talk to me – I don’t know the guy, I don’t know his name but somebody you don’t know coming down there and supporting you – it’s just the same way with other guys like (Oak Hill’s) Jeremiah Jackson who saw me commit after he committed and messaging me on Twitter telling me lets get this thing started and having players already on the roster telling me how happy they are for me and how excited they are to get me down there.
“They’ve got a great program down there with great facilities and classrooms as well. It’s just a really nice place.”
For Isom, proximity to home as well as fit played a key role in his decision to sign with Concord. A program with a history of success on the national level, the 6-foot-5 two-time first-team all-stater and Lootpress Offensive Lineman of the Year that blocked for back-to-back Kennedy Award winners joins a team that just missed out on the D2 playoffs last season.
A pass-heavy team, Isom knows he has his work cut out for him if he hopes to crack the starting lineup but already has an idea of where he needs to improve.
“Coach Dave Walker’s turned that program around for the better and I think it’s a good fit,” Isom said. “I need to work on my pass sets and get bigger. I’m way too light to be a college offensive lineman right now. I need to beef up about 30 or 40 pounds and I just need to work on my footwork and hands more.”
While Lilly is a proud Mountain Lion, he was careful not to influence Isom, who plans to study sports science, in his decision making process.
“He just told me to go where I feel like I got in,” Isom said. “Where I felt like I could potentially get some playing time. I feel like I can potentially, if I work hard, get a little PT my freshman year but I feel like if I work hard I can get a lot of playing time my sophomore year.”
