Clarendon is home to just north of 400 people. It is a small town in Warren County, and the residents attend high school in Sheffield.
At its peak in the 1890s, the town was home to around 1,300 people, but has since continued to lose more and more residents each year. However, one resident of Clarendon has made a big splash over the last four years because of her tremendous work ethic and determination.
Pitt-Bradford graduate Jennifer Isenberg grew up in a town without a gymnasium, a place to shoot hoops, and also a town without a school. Being from Clarendon presented many challenges for her in regards to playing college basketball, but Isenberg never made any excuses for herself in her journey to Division III Pitt-Bradford.
“I did not have a car in high school, but I found ways to get to Sheffield and play ball outside rain, snow, or shine,” she said. “On top of that, the gym time we were granted was limited because Sheffield has one gym for the entire school district that is shared across numerous sports. I still found ways to get in the gym and get better any chance that I could.”
Isenberg first started playing basketball in the eighth grade after her friends on the girls basketball team at Sheffield convinced her to hang up the football pads to help their middle school basketball program.
This decision proved to be one of the more important in her life, as she became the star for the Wolverines during her high school career and became just the fifth 1,000-point scorer in Sheffield girls basketball history despite missing much of her senior year to an ACL tear.
Despite this injury during her senior season, Pitt-Bradford recruited Isenberg and stuck with her despite her knee injury.
“Coach Sean Brown was the coach who recruited me from Pitt-Bradford. He regularly called me before the injury but also after to check on me,” Isenberg said. “He even came to watch the entire Sheffield Christmas Tournament. He showed me that he really cared about me and wanted me to be a part of his program. That is what sold me on Pitt-Bradford.”
She chose to study exercise science during her undergraduate career and now has plans to pursue a doctorate of physical therapy. She is considering schools such as Pitt, Temple, Elon, and Duke.
After each of her two ACL injuries, she became interested in this field and she believes she can relate to athletes who have a road to recovery well. After her first ACL injury in her senior season of basketball, Isenberg suffered the same injury again in her freshman season which kept her out of action until her sophomore season. Having missed around two full seasons, Isenberg had some kinks and rust to get rid of when she returned to action in her sophomore season at Pitt-Bradford. However, the remainder of her college basketball career would be one to remember.
In her junior and senior seasons, Isenberg was an All-Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) selection. She averaged 14.6 points and 9.2 rebounds over her final two college seasons. Her play helped lead UPB to the AMCC playoffs in both her junior and senior seasons.
What set Isenberg apart from many forwards in the conference was her ability to shoot the long ball. When asking Isenberg about playing as a stretch forward, she was thrilled to talk about how the position is changing basketball as people know it.
“Stretch forwards change the dynamic of the game and make the game more exciting. It adds an element for opposing defenses to guard and offenses to use to score. It is untraditional in our league and I know it helped me during my college career,” she said.
Isenberg has a few key people to credit for shaping her into who she is today.
“I have to credit my parents (Beth and Shawn Isenberg) for raising my siblings and I into hardworking and respectful people,” she said. “We all regularly had chores and helped around the house to help our parents. They had nothing but trust in all of us and helped mold us into the people we are today.”
She also expressed her gratitude for all three of her college coaches and her teammates at Pitt Bradford during her career. “My teammates during my injury made me feel like such an important part of the team and also helped me learn more about the game. I could not have gotten through those times without their support and help learning what was going to be expected and required of me when I was able to return to action.”
Isenberg has taken a gap year between completion of her undergraduate career and beginning her career in physical therapy. She currently resides in North Carolina and says she misses the friendships and bonds she made at Pitt-Bradford. “I made many great friends in athletics and also from the TRIO peer mentoring program both as a mentor and mentee. I am so thankful for all of what Pitt-Bradford brought me.”
The former middle school tight end Isenberg made a very important decision as an eighth grade to put her football career on hold to play the game of basketball. It turned out to be one of the best decisions she ever made as she became a key part of the Pitt-Bradford Panthers women’s basketball team.
