Isaiah Masek-Kelly
By Geoff Powell Beast performer:
Isaiah (Izzy) Masek-Kelly’s rise to stardom in 2015 and selection as Male Athlete of the Year is simply the realization of his Ultimate potential. We’ve all known for years that Izzy was going to be one of the best players in the country.
I first met Izzy six years ago at
GOAT tryouts, and after impressively making the team as a 19-year-old, he has grown into the player we all hoped he would be. He started off as a quiet, passive, sometimes spaced out, goofball of a teammate and has evolved into a vocal, confident, determined beast with a frighteningly ungroomed beard, but still maintains his goofball nature. I for one am a big fan of Izzy’s game. I almost think of him as an Ultimate relic, as he plays with power and style, yet he still maintains the vintage rag tag feel of our Ultimate forefathers. (I mean the guy wears a bandana.) Teams started to take notice of Isaiah in 2014, but in 2015 he emerged as our primary weapon on offense and a dominant force on defence. He put up some gaudy numbers in the AUDL and with GOAT. He led the Rush in Goals, Assists, D’s as well as plus/minus, and GOAT in scoring. But stats alone don’t really tell the whole story. Time and time again Isaiah came up with huge, timely plays to keep us in games. No play was more
important than at CUCs in the finals when Furious was about to break to take half 8-5 when Izzy came up with a huge sky D in our endzone. We were able to walk it up to score and mount a comeback in the second half to win nationals and secure a bid to worlds. That’s just one D on the scoresheet, but that may be the biggest D in GOAT history. That D also kind of symbolizes what Izzy is to us as a teammate: he’s our “get out of jail, free” card. Several times this season we landed in jail, and each time it was Izzy who bailed us out. Izzy has always had a knack for making a big play, but he was able to string together more and more dominant stretches against the toughest matchups in 2015, which is why I think he’s grown into and met his potential. In my mind he really embodied what the Male Athlete of the Year for 2015 should be and even more so, started to show Canada and the world what a beast he really is.
Male Athlete of the Year Isaiah Masek-Kelly Photo: Kat Britten
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