As basketball teams across the state ready for their season to begin, Isaac Essien has a lot to be thankful for.
The senior at Mountain Vista is one of the state’s top point guards. He averaged 14.3 points and 7.0 assists last season as Mountain Vista made a second-round playoff push. He will be instrumental again this winter for the No. 9 rated Golden Eagles, who open their season against Liberty in the Rock Canyon Tournament on Wednesday.
But Essien is not your typical well-to-do Highlands Ranch kid. You won’t catch him cruising around in a fancy car, subwoofers bumping, nor will you ever see him taking a play off. Because Essien knows that what he’s accomplished on the court that has earned him the one scholarship offer he’s received so far, from Chadron State College, has only been achieved due to an unwavering focus.
From the time he entered high school, Essien hasn’t lived with his biological parents. Instead he’s shuffled around from one host family to another, to his aunt’s house, and most recently, a stay with teammate Miles Hughes and his family. The transient nature of his personal life is rooted in his close bond with his 16-year-old sister, Lesha Essien, a talented track athlete who’s currently a junior at DSST Cole High School.
When Essien was approaching high school, it became clear to him that it was a struggle for his parents—on just his dad’s income as a warehouse worker—to support both him and his sister in their athletic pursuits. After talking with his parents, he made the choice to move from Denver to Highlands Ranch, where he’s been a varsity player for Mountain Vista since he was a freshman.
“When I moved out, she got into track a lot more, and now she’s really good,” Isaac Essien said. “She’s been to the Junior Olympics for track two years in a row now. I wanted my family to focus more resources on her than they did on me, and I think it’s paying off.”
And while an uncertain personal life such as Essien’s would cause many high schoolers to make excuses and slide backwards, the senior has embraced the challenges.
“I think it’s all affected my basketball career in a positive way, because I’ve had to get used to change and I’ve had to stay focused throughout all the changes that have happened in my life,” said Essien, who works part-time during the season to help support himself. “It’s also kept me motivated to reach that goal of a college scholarship, getting a good job and eventually being able to take care of my own family in the future.”
Others who have witnessed Essien’s metamorphosis from a freshman guard with potential into Mountain Vista’s bonafide star, such as Elite Speed Sports Performance’s Nick Vinson, note that Essien views every obstacle as an opportunity to improve. Vinson has been training Essien for more than a year and said that even with the success that last season’s performance brought him, the senior remains as humble—and as hungry—as ever.
“We talked about official visits one day and I told him programs would fly him out to see the school and meet the coaches,” Vinson explained. “With a big-eyed smile he just said, ‘Wow, I’ve never been on a plane before.’ So I feel like every day he gets up with the intent to make his first plane ride sooner rather than later.”
Other key players for Mountain Vista this season include senior power forward Jake Belknapp, junior strong forward Miles Hughes, junior guard Connor Staib and junior guard Garrett Sweeney on a team with the depth and experience to easily surpass its 2015-16 postseason showing.
It will be up to Essien to lead the charge.
