At Eastern Oregon University in La Grande, McKinley played with former competition but enjoyed the experience to meet different players.

“I met a lot of cool people from around the state,” McKinley said. “It was fun to meet different athletes I’ve played against. I really enjoyed the whole experience.”

Although McKinley was the quarterback for Country Christian, he played wide receiver and running back for the West team.

“There were a couple people besides Brody (Wilkins) of Mohawk and he threw to their people a lot,” said Country Christian athletic director Greg Collard. “I just think Isaac probably was as good as any of them on field. Brody was very good. He played quite a bit and did so well on defense. He was on the kickoff and return teams which was significant. And James Theissen from Triangle Lake, Isaac thought he threw some elbows over at Pendleton and might be kind of a mean dirty player but he was a great Christian young man. The kids get to hang out with some of the people they competed against and that was the best part of it. The fact that there was some camaraderie, the team developed friendships which could last a lifetime.”

McKinley follows in the footsteps of Kory Woods, a Country Christian graduate who also qualified for the 8-man classic and the 1A All Star basketball series two years prior.

“Isaac played very well,” Collard said. “He started almost the whole game on offense as receiver. They put him at quarterback for only a couple plays and both of those were hand offs to half backs. The first time they threw to Isaac, the ball was overthrown. The ball was parallel to ground. It was a phenomenal play but an incomplete pass.”

McKinley caught the 54-yard touchdown pass from Wilkins in the third quarter for a 22-2 lead over the East.

“That was my favorite play,” McKinley said. “It was pretty nice having lots of good athletes on the team so it was easy to rotate and fix. We had daily doubles the whole week until Saturday...I thought it would be a closer game but we really stuck it to them I guess.”

McKinley had 2 carries for 1 yard and scored 2 touchdowns. The West tallied 36 carries for 148 yards, passing for 111 yards for 324 yards total on offense. The East totaled 32 yards rushing, 32 carries for 115 yards and 113 yards passing for 228 total yards on offense.