By Pat Welter

“Set…hit…..hit,” the sounds of the sled reverberate loudly. Southern High School football practice begins with a bang.

“There it is right there,” Norris McCleary says from the back of the sled. “Do it again.”

McCleary is Southern’s defensive coordinator and one of several reasons why Southern’s defensive line is one of the best in the state.

“We’ve had a lot of kids,” McCleary said. “We’ve had national sack leader, couple edge guys, couple inside guys.”

McCleary played defensive line at ECU as well as four years in the NFL. He also coached under John Blake and Butch Davis at UNC. In the last few years alone Southern has produced players like Jaybron Harvey, now a redshirt freshman at UNC, and AJ Mebane, a redshirt freshman at Appalachian State.

“The addition of coach McCleary has been a huge asset to us,” Southern head coach Darius Robinson said. “John Blake was a friend of mine and a friend of McCleary’s.”

Southern’s latest defensive line prospect might be their best yet.

“He’s one of the best I’ve ever had,” McCleary said. “It’s a joy coaching him.”

Listed at 6’4 273 lbs Isaiah Campbell is 247 sports number two ranked player in North Carolina and a top fifty player in the nation.

“He wants to be great at everything,” McCleary said. “I used to make a comment he goes hard to the water. Everything he’s trying to do he’s trying to be great.”

“Isaiah is not a selfish person, he wants everybody to reap the benefits,” Robinson said. “He spreads energy to let the young people who are here, his teammates understand that if I can do it, you can do it.”

As big and powerful a player as Campbell is, he’s equally thoughtful.

“Football just has life lessons,” Campbell said while looking out onto the Southern Football field from the stands before a Monday practice. “It helped me try to become a great man.”

Campbell speaks like he’s experienced a lot because he has. He grew up in Greene County, North Carolina and dreamed of being a basketball player, just like his dad Chris Campbell.

“All I’ve been taught, handle that rock, dribble it,” Campbell said. “Freshman, sophomore year I was working every day on drills. I was like ‘man I’m going to do it’ working late at night, always had a hard work mentality.”

Chris Campbell played guard and forward at UNC Pembroke from 2005-2007.

“Isaiah played a lot of basketball when he was younger,” Chris said. “I taught him a lot and introduced him into the sport.”

Isaiah first tried church league flag football in kindergarten, then played tackle in middle school, but the COVID-19 pandemic took out his eighth grade year. At Greene Central High School he joined the team again.

“His freshman year he had given his commitment to the coach,” Isaiah’s mom Crystal said. “He went out there, North Carolina hot summer heat and he said ‘momma, I’m going back to basketball we have [air conditioning] and it’s not outside.”

Isaiah tried to give up football, but “quit” isn’t in the Campbell family vocabulary.

“I think I just need to focus on one sport and I just want to do basketball,” Chris remembered Isaiah telling him. “I’m like ‘no, you just need to finish football, finish the season and let’s just see where it takes you.”

“North Carolina we the hoop state,” Isaiah said, ” I wanted to be a basketball player. I wanted to go to UNC to play some basketball. That was my dream, but I found love for football and I just blossomed.”

After Isaiah’s sophomore season at Greene Central he was listed as a 4-star prospect by recruiting services.

“I was so happy, I was like ‘what?'” Isaiah remembered. “I only played a couple games my freshman year and my sophomore film came out and I was a 4 star. I found out and was like ‘there’s still work to be done.'”

By that point Isaiah was training with former NFL and UNC defensive lineman Andre Purvis in Durham. They family was making the two hour drive every weekend, meanwhile Crystal was finishing her clinical for a Doctor of Nursing practice degree at UNC Wilmington which required working at Duke Regional Hospital.

“I was like Chris, is there a way we can make our life simpler, is there an opportunity to move?” Crystal said. “There was one school that had an opening for a counselor and that was Southern Durham.”

Chris went from school counselor at Greene Central to the same job at Southern and Isaiah enrolled for his junior year.

“Coming here man I just embraced it,” Isaiah said. “I came to Durham and I loved Durham. I loved the people and everything in Durham. I think it just grew on me.  Playing my two years here I’m like I love every single aspect about it.  From the big “S” on the hill that we run down on.  To the Southern culture of Southern football.  I’m a better person, a better player and I thank the Lord for that.”

The same support and community feel that Isaiah enjoyed about Southern is what attracted him to commit to play football at Clemson.

“I didn’t want to go to a football factory where it was just football for me, I wanted to be a whole person,” Isaiah said.

Isaiah had offers from schools like Georgia, Florida, Auburn, Alabama to name a few. Miami head coach Mario Cristobal even flew to a Southern practice in a helicopter. The final decision came down to UNC, Tennessee and Clemson.

“I can be a dude on the football field, but I wanted to explore who I am,” Isaiah said. “With Clemson I could do that. That’s why I chose Clemson because great d-line, great people and great academics too. Dabo Swiney said ‘if one thing you’re going to do you’re going to graduate.’ That’s a big thing for me.  You don’t see or hear that.  First thing he said when I was down there was ‘you’re going to graduate’.  I’ve been to some recruiting things, they don’t start conversations like that.”

For Isaiah college wasn’t just a football decision, it was a life decision.

“Football is not about the name for me now, it’s really about the love of the game,” Isaiah said. “It’s about the love of me being a better person.”

Source: wralsportsfan.com