Wild Ride from Football to Basketball

Isaiah Needham, a man of many words, has had a wild journey from starting left tackle for O'Dea football to student team manager for University of Portland basketball team.

His football career started when he was a young kid playing for the Interlay Eagles Junior Football Team. Growing up he participated in sports such as football, basketball, and baseball. But it was obvious he was built for football. Standing at around 6’2 in elementary school it was clear that football is what he is going to strive in.

Knowing that he could be a solid football player at his height and weight in just elementary school it was an easy choice and where he was going to attend high school. O’Dea has been the top football program in the state for a long time and Needham wanted to be a part of it.

“Knowing I was going to be able to attend O’Dea and play football there was the best feeling ever.”

He played all 4 years at O’Dea, starting half the season his junior and senior year. As a sophomore he won a state championship with a 38-11 win over Rainier Beach. This was one of his highlights of his high school career.

“I felt like I was on top of the world after winning that state title.”

After the sophomore state title win, football started to slow down for him. He only played a certain number of minutes or went in when someone went down with an injury, and this was all the way until senior year. He had just enough film to earn himself some offers to go play college football at schools such as Carroll College, Simon Fraser, Colorado School of Mines, and Rocky Mountain College.

It was a hard decision to make whether he should go play football at the next level or go to a school with a program for his major. He thought about it long and hard but eventually decided to take his talents to the classroom at the University of Portland where he was going to pursue being a nurse by attending the nursing program. Needham made this decision without looking back.

“It was a very hard decision to make, but in my mind, I didn’t think playing football was my thing anymore.”

Going into college he did not know what to expect, the first few months or so he was going through college like a normal student until… He decided he still had deep love for all sports and wanted to do something with his life surrounding sports.

Unfortunately, University of Portland does not have a football team, so he had to think of different ways to get involved with sports. So, one day he started a conversation with one of the basketball coaches and asked if he could be a part of the team. The basketball coach puts him in touch with the head coach and they hit it off.

“Coach Legans is my guy. He's always there for me and hooked me up with a sweet job!”

Needham starts working for the basketball team as the student team manager. He helped rebound for the players, give them rides, brings them water during games, and just make sure the team has what they need to strive. He is a very hard worker when it comes to something he is dedicated to, and this basketball job turned into his life. He wakes up every weekday morning around 6:00am and heads over to the facility to check on the players, rebound for any that are in there, and make sure everything is set for when practice starts around 7:30am. He loves what he does and hopes to keep doing this for a living once he is out of college.

He does not regret the decision to not go and play college football. Even though not being able to play a college sport is hard, he still loves to have fun with the basketball team and have that brotherhood environment around sports just like he had back at O’Dea.