USD athlete creates foundation

By James Fleming

University of South Dakota senior Isaac (IKE) Armstead is a gifted athlete who decided to give back to his community. Armstead, from Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, has played cornerback for the Coyotes all four years. He wanted to give an educational opportunity to seniors from his alma mater so he and his family created The Armstead Foundation. The Foundation provides a $1,000 college scholarship to a Broken Arrow High School (BAHS) senior each year.

With this scholarship being somewhat new Armstead has big goals. He wants to eventually become a nonprofit (501c3) so the organization can apply for things such as grants. They want to expand the Foundation (financially, workshops etc…) and even potentially become a regional scholarship. Armstead says there’s much to do before they award the scholarship in the spring.“I wouldn’t necessarily say there’s a day to day workload, rather its cyclical. We start getting ready in the late of fall to make sure everything is ready for the upcoming May,” said Armstead. He also mentioned reaching out to donors or visiting schools is part of the preparations for the end of the school year at BAHS.

Armstead, is the second eldest of four boys. Born and raised in Tulsa found his way north to the University of South Dakota to play football with his brother Will. Armstead is looking forward to graduation with a Business Administration degree with an emphasis in Computer Science and completing his MBA.

The idea to give back to his community emerged in the spring of 2017. The Armstead brothers had the desire to give back to their community when they saw a need back home. Given their time constraint with football, school and being four states away the Armstead brothers Will (25), DJ (10), Daniel (16), and Isaac (22) decided that a scholarship would be their best way to give back.