Izzy Moore’s basketball journey to Aberdeen wasn’t a straight road, but it’s been a path worth the taking.

While the senior standout is capping a memorable career at NSU this season, it was her father, Keith, that fueled her desire to play basketball in the first place. Keith was a standout point guard for the Wolves in the late 80s, and was inducted in the Northern State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009.

“When I was younger, my dad would always have (basketball) on the TV and we’d always be watching games together. That was kind of our thing growing up,” Moore said. “I had also always heard stories about my dad from people that I had met and stuff from his past. I knew he played, and I always looked up to my dad growing up so when I came to the age, it was an easy decision to play and do what I had always heard him do and watch throughout the years.”

Knowing the exploits of her father, Moore had high standards to live up to and even try to exceed.

“People would ask me, ‘Are you going to be better than your dad?’ And of course my answer was always yes, but just because I’m competitive,” said Moore. “He’s always been a supporter to me really, or just someone I can always go to for basketball.”

Moore has always been a supporter of his daughters. Whether coaching them, or watching from the sideline, he helped improve their games where he could.

“He coached me a couple times when I was younger on random elementary teams and then he coached one of my AAU teams. But I wouldn’t say even when he wasn’t coaching, he definitely wasn’t hands off,” Moore said. “He was very hands on. Never coaching from the stands, but after games, very vocal on things I did well and things I could work on. And he was very hands-on in my career the whole time.”

As Moore began to narrow down her choices for college, she knew she wanted to stay close to home initially. After being verbally committed to the University of Sioux Falls for two years, she decided to flip and go with Augustana for her first couple years of college.

“I chose Augie because it was close to home, like solely. I had always heard good things about Augie academically and I had watched games here and there, but I was originally committed to USF,” Moore said. “Last minute, I just kind of got cold feet and I knew KB (Katie Bourk). KB was actually my dad’s stat person when he was a high school basketball coach at Sully Buttes when I was like 2 or 3. So we know KB and we go far back with her and I knew she was at Augie.”

After three seasons with the Vikings, Moore entered the transfer portal with one school in mind in particular.

“Even before I got in the portal, I knew that if I was going somewhere, it was probably going to be Northern, just because Lucy was going to be a freshman on the team and I had always wanted to go to Northern. I grew up loving Northern,” Izzy said. “It was my thing to come here and spend two years where my dad went, spend two years with my sister and I had known (NSU Coach Paula Krueger), too. She had obviously recruited me initially, but also just as a family friend. I knew her and I knew I’d like it here, so it was an easy choice for me.”

And now Bourk is an assistant at NSU.

On top of all of her connections to Aberdeen, Wolves basketball isn’t a hard thing to sell.

“I had always heard that it was a basketball community, a basketball school and that people loved Northern basketball in the town and it was well supported,” said Moore. “I guess that was another reason why I wanted to come here. Augie was great, but their crowds are nothing like Northern’s.”

And she has experienced the connection to Wolves basketball firsthand throughout the city of Aberdeen.

“Just seeing people out at the grocery stores and the professors at the school,” Moore said. “And right now, I’m student teaching and some of the kids will mention the games from the weekend.”

During her first season with the Wolves, Moore made a name for herself coming off the bench and making an impact any time she was on the floor. She finished the 24-25 season averaging 8.1 points and 3.8 rebounds a game.

“It was a good year to start enjoying basketball again, be around girls that I loved, and our team last year was super fun to be a part of,” Moore said. “It was good and knowing my role off the bench and just trying to bring that energy off the bench was fun, too.”

This season, Moore has stepped into a bigger role and is making the most of her opportunity. She has earned a pair of Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference North Division Player of the Week awards, while ranking seventh in the NSIC in scoring at 17.7 ppg, 8th in steals per game, and 10th in rebounds per game.

“I knew when everybody went in the portal last year that we would need to have someone that could score, so obviously, that’s what I focused on in the off-season. It’s been kind of redeeming to have a season that I’m having,” Moore said. “You always think you know what you’re capable of, but then to see it actually happen has just been super fun and redeeming like I said. Just knowing you were that player that you thought you were all along and also just being a leader on the court is super fun, too.”

Moore will graduate in the spring with degrees in English and Secondary Education with plans of teaching, watching her younger sisters play basketball, and traveling.

Looking back at her time at Northern so far, the senior will always remember the atmosphere and the fanfare at the annual I Hate Winter weekends.

“Definitely I Hate Winter last year when we beat Mankato. That was super fun and then we got to get in the hot tubs last year with that team. I’ll never forget that,” Moore said. “I had never been in an atmosphere like that, playing basketball and I think there were a couple just big plays where it was just so loud in there.”

As she starts to wrap up her collegiate career, she hopes to leave behind her passion and intensity of the game as an example for others, like her father did for her.

“I think just passion and fire and grit, just persevering through hard times and just always having that fire and never letting that get dimmed or put out,” Moore said. “Just working as hard as I possibly could, every single game is something I want to leave behind. And it’s OK to play with emotion. It’s OK to get fired up. It’s good to get fired up.”