Mo Isom

Classroom

Isom has been a leader both on and off the field since she arrived at LSU for her freshman season in 2008. While maintaining a 3.0 cumulative grade-point average during her collegiate career, Isom has been named to the SEC Academic Honor Roll twice in 2008 and 2010. She is pursuing a degree in broadcast journalism from the Manship School of Mass Communication at LSU, while also completing a minor in communication studies. She has not only served as an intern at WAFB-TV Channel 9 in Baton Rouge, but she has also been the lead sports anchor for LSU’s on-campus television station at Tiger TV. She would like to one day pursue a career in sports journalism, possibly working at ESPN.

Character

Isom provides a great example to her fellow student-athletes about what it means to overcome adversity and life’s challenges to thrive at the collegiate level. Following her freshman season in 2008 in which she was named a Freshman All-American and All-SEC contender as one of the nation’s top young goalkeepers, her life took a sudden turn when her father, John Isom, committed suicide in January 2009. In the wake of her father’s death, she suffered another setback following her sophomore season in 2009 when she nearly lost her life in a horrific car accident while traveling home to Marrieta, Ga., for the Thanksgiving holiday in November 2009. While her car was totaled beyond recognition, Isom came away from the accident with a neck injury that kept her out of action for the spring season in 2010 as she prepared for her junior season. While displaying such character to overcome this type of personal struggle during her career, Isom was honored in 2010 with the Eye of the Tiger Award by LSU’s Tiger Athletic Foundation and the Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award between her sophomore and junior seasons. The Eye of the Tiger Award is presented by the TAF each year to the LSU student-athlete who exhibits perseverance and thrives on and off the field while overcoming adversity. The Wilma Rudolph Student-Athlete Achievement Award is presented each year by the National Association of Academic Advisors for Athletics to honor student-athletes who have overcome great personal, academic and emotional odds to achieve academic success while competing in intercollegiate athletics. It is for this reason that Isom would like to pursue opportunities in motivational speaking following her career at LSU. She is also writing a book on her life story as a way to one day inspire others.

Community

Isom has been a campus leader in community service throughout her career at LSU. Most notably, she has been invited to share her personal story of struggle and redemption in more than 50 speaking engagements in Baton Rouge, her home in the Atlanta area and across the Southeast since 2010. This includes speaking to schools, churches, youth groups and soccer clubs as she seeks to inspire others in the pursuit of excellence. Among the community service projects she has taken part include work with the Baton Rouge chapter of Habitat for Humanity in the construction of homes for the less fortunate. She also works indepedently as a volunteer at the Battered Women’s Shelter at the St. Vincent De Paul shelter in Baton Rouge. In addition, the LSU soccer team has mentored students at University Terrace Elementary School on Roosevelt Street in Baton Rouge for two years, to which Isom has been a mentor and friend to an 8-year-old second-grader named Tyler.

Competition

Isom has proven herself as one of the premier goalkeepers in the history of the Southeastern Conference. While starting 69 of 72 career games with the Tigers, she ranks No. 4 on the SEC’s career list for shutouts with 30 clean sheets in her tenure and is now tied for the No. 7 spot on the SEC’s career list with a 0.84 goals against average in nearly four seasons with the Tigers. Isom’s 30 shutouts and 43 wins are LSU records for a career. She has been instrumental in leading the Tigers to three SEC Western Division championships and three second-place finishes in the final SEC standings in her four years in Baton Rouge in 2008, 2009 and 2011. The Tigers are also poised to earn a third NCAA Tournament berth this fall with Isom leading the defense as she has posted a 13-5-1 record with eight shutouts as a senior in 2011. In 2009, Isom set LSU single-season records with 15 wins, 12 total shutouts and eight shutouts against SEC opponents. After scoring a goal on a 90-yard free kick in a 4-1 win over BYU during her freshman season in 2008, Isom was even featured on ESPN’s SportCenter with the No. 3 play in the show’s “Top 10 Plays” segment in its Aug. 26 broadcast. Among the athletic awards she has received include selections to the Soccer Buzz Freshman All-America Third Team, Soccer Buzz Central Region All-Freshman Team and SEC All-Freshman Team in 2008, as well as a pair of SEC Freshman of the Week
and a trio of SEC Defensive Player of the Week honors for her career. In addition, Isom trained with the Under-23 U.S. Women’s National Team during the 2007 and 2008 seasons.