Ashanti Thompson is an ASU Cronkite School of Journalism student assigned to cover Deer Valley for AZPreps365.com

DEER VALLEY -- Most individuals are still learning who they are in high school, but Izzy Darnell already knows exactly who she’s going to be. 

Born and raised here in the Valley, Izzy was born into a sports household. She has played varsity volleyball for four years at Deer Valley, and her brother, Noah Darnell,  plays baseball at the University of Hawaii at Hilo.

“He role-modeled discipline in his sports, his friends and family, and all his values I really liked and wanted to embody in myself,” Izzy said. 

Izzy(left) and her brother Noah Darnell(right). (Proto courtesy of Izzy Darnell)Darnell currently holds the school record for most career kills at 1,044, surpassing the previous record holder, former teammate Sam Gloria.

Despite her success in volleyball, that's not where her roots began. 

“I played tee ball for a year, and I actually loved that, but I switched to soccer, then dance, then gymnastics, and I finally landed on volleyball,” Izzy said. 

While sports are a major part of her life, academics are where the other half of her heart lies. When she was younger, people could see she was gifted, so she tested into a program called Renaissance, where she transferred schools to learn with other kids at her level.

“From a young age, she always had big goals. It was like an architect, lawyer, doctor, like big careers,” Izzy’s father, Kyle Darnell, said. 

Her parents always knew she would do great things, but they never imagined that handing down her brother's old box of Legos would inspire Izzy for the rest of her life. 

“It was kind of more of a ‘boy toy’ that he got when he was younger, and my brother was not a big Lego person, so I kind of got his leftover Legos,” Izzy said. “ I was just like ‘I’ll build it, oh, you don’t want to do it, I’ll finish it.’” 

These Legos went on to inspire Izzy's love of building and drive her to pursue a career in engineering. She not only has a dream, but has begun acting on her future. After doing her research on the various types of engineering, Izzy sprang into action. 

“I got to shadow a structural engineer at a firm and go out and see an ASU site in development,” Izzy said. “I got to go talk to all the engineers, ask what they thought about their fields, and see some of the projects they’re working on. That kind of solidified it, that this is really cool.” 

It came as no surprise when Izzy announced her future career path to her friends and family, specifically her mom, Trisha Darnell. She and her daughter have always been very close, and while she is nervous about her daughter graduating, she knows she's going to do amazing things wherever she goes. 

“When she was little, she decided she wanted to learn to whistle. She stayed up all night, and the next morning she was whistling,” Trisha said. “She taught herself how to whistle, and she never even told us that.”

Izzy Darnell playing with shape blocks at a younger age. (Photo courtesy of Izzy Darnelle)

Izzy is passionate about continuing her athletic and academic career together, without sacrificing one for the other. She has narrowed her choice to two academically rigorous schools: Milwaukee School of Engineering and Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology in Indiana.

Izzy found that a sense of community is what she desires the most when furthering her education. She wants a team where everyone understands the challenging projects and the heavy workload. However, that comes at the cost of leaving the only place she knows as home. 

“She has expressed, ‘I’m going to miss my mom, ’ and that's probably the hardest thing for her about leaving,” her best friend and team co-captain, Addison Olson, said. 

Leaving home and going off to college hasn’t quite set in for Izzy yet, but for the people around her, they are cherishing the time they have left. That includes her volleyball coach, Jackie Wallace, who has not only coached her since she left middle school but has also been her teacher through her time at Deer Valley. 

“When you're with somebody for four years and you see them grow from this young freshman to a senior and into the young woman that she is,” Wallace said. “I just know she's going to do great things.” 

Izzy is grateful for the box of hand-me-down toys she received and is excited to begin the next steps in the rest of her life. 

“I like the idea that I can leave something behind that lasts forever and doesn't go when I pass,” Izzy said. “It will always be legacy that my family can be like, ‘Oh, she had a hand in that.’”