Pleasant Valley’s soccer star, Isaac Ward, made a decision on Nov. 29 that he will take his talents to Northern Michigan University.

Ward has been on PV’s varsity soccer team since his freshman year in high school. He is a first team all conference player and represented the state of Iowa at the nationals tournament where his team got fourth place.

Northern Michigan is over 7.5 hours away from home, but that is exactly what Ward wanted. “I chose NMU in order for me to start a new chapter of my life away from Iowa. I always wanted to go out of state for college in order to be further from home and Iowa,” Ward explained.

It was a late decision for Ward because he would go back and forth on whether or not he wanted to play college soccer. Ward stated, “I didn’t know if I wanted to play soccer at the next level until my senior year, but then I knew I couldn’t give up the game.”

The Wildcats compete in the NCAA’s division II Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic conference. The men’s soccer team at NMU is coached by David Poggi. He has been the coach since 2015 and he lead the Wildcats to their first GLIAC tournament appearance.

“I am extremely happy that someone from Bettendorf is going to a good school for soccer. He is a great player that makes himself and others around him better. I think it’s his ability to change the game and bring the momentum back to our team that makes him a stand out player. He will do great things at the next level,” teammate Reece Spangler said.

It was a unique situation for Ward’s recruiting process because he knew the assistant coach at NMU from high school soccer. “The coach at NMU used to be the Davenport West coach so he had seen me play a lot when we played them. I became really good friends with him and he was the coach that really pushed for me to become a Wildcat. I am very thankful that he reached out to me and wanted me as a player for their program,” Ward stated.