Spring Stars: Empire's Isabel Cordova leads by words, example

The Star is profiling Southern Arizona high school athletes whose seasons were cut short by the coronavirus pandemic. Each high school was asked to nominate an exceptional spring sport athlete who exemplifies greatness on and off the field, court or track.

Isabel Cordova has never met a track and field event she couldn’t conquer.

The 18-year-old Andrada Polytechnic High School senior is a member of Empire High School’s track team, competing in javelin, discus, 100-meter hurdles, long jump, triple jump, shot put and in the 4x100 meter relay.

And she doesn’t just compete, she wins — which is perhaps surprising given the sheer volume of events. Last year, she took second place in the state for javelin (her favorite event) with a distance of nearly 115 feet.

“Isabel comes to practices and meets with a positive attitude and consistently puts in the work for her many events, and knows the results will take care of themselves,” said Empire’s track and field coach, Heather Frushour. “She is a leader not by words alone, but by example in how she approaches her events and training as well as helping others to do the same.”

Track wasn’t the original plan for Cordova, who played little league baseball in elementary school. After a few seasons, her parents wanted to move her into softball, but couldn’t find a team in their area. Not wanting to cut sports out of their daughter’s life, they found a club track team. Given Cordova’s competitive drive and love of running, it was a natural fit.

“After the first day of practice, I fell in love with the sport,” Cordova said. “There were so many events to choose from and the thing that grabbed my attention is that I was not limited to doing one event.”

Cordova has also tried distance and mid-distance running, sprinting, jumping, throwing, hurdling and the heptathlon.

“I really like the variety of disciplines to choose from because they all require different training,” Cordova said.

But she’s not all about track, despite the seven-days-a-week practice schedule that being a club athlete requires.

“My high school coaches have always said, ‘student first, athlete second,’” Cordova said, adding that part of the motivation to do well in school stemmed from the fact that her involvement in track depended on it.

Her hard work paid off on on all accounts. With an unweighted 4.0 high school GPA under her belt, she’s headed to Northern Arizona University in the fall, where she’ll study public health and try to walk on to the track team.

“I’m definitely looking forward to the pine trees,” Cordova said.

Cordova is also looking forward to the days when she can hang out with her friends again and hit up Dutch Bros. for coffee, or just do nothing together. The coronavirus shutdown canceled her track season and has cut into the final few months of high school and graduation.

“I’m missing getting to see all of my teammates and getting to compete in all of those exciting meets we were looking forward to,” Cordova said, adding that she’s also missing the structure of practice and getting instructions from her coaches.

To make up for the loss, she’s taken to the social media accounts of her favorite athletes, many of whom have been posting at-home workouts.

“I either adapt them to something that’s more appealing for me or use my prior knowledge to make them my own,” Cordova said, adding that she’s enjoying Samantha Briggs’ “grueling” Crossfit sessions, as well as workouts from Tia-Clair Toomey and Annie Thorisdottir.

While Cordova admits that adjusting to the new reality hasn’t been easy, she’s reached the acceptance phase.

“It’s a little tough when you remember about it because you think about the opportunities you thought you had,” she said. “But I’m very thankful I had the opportunities I had before, and everything that went on before the season ended.”

And to think it almost didn’t happen. Had there been a softball team closer to her family home, Cordova could have missed what she considers some of her favorite high school memories.

Cordova said that of the many events she competes in, javelin is her favorite because the training is “much more complex than one may think at first glance.”

Which seems like the perfect metaphor for Cordova herself.