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Former Pike County football star Isaac Nickson is moving off the football field and into law enforcement after graduating from the Wiregrass Law Enforcement Academy this week.

Nickson was an AHSAA All-Star football player at Pike County High School and went on to play college football at Alabama State University. Nickson and his older brother – Pike County legend Chris Nickson – both grew up dreaming of playing college football.

“It was our dream, just in the backyard and playing and trying to see who was the better player; we took that mentality to college,” Isaac Nickson said. “It was always our dream to make it to college football and being able to play under those lights, there was no better feeling than that.”

Nickson knew that there would always be life after football, though, and earned a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice at ASU. He’s also currently pursuing his Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice, as well. Nickson said it was a cousin that inspired him to pursue law enforcement.

“I knew going into college football I needed a backup plan for life after football and I felt like law enforcement was that for me,” he said. “I got into it basically because of family. My late cousin, Elijah Rouse, was a police officer with the Troy Police Department, who passed away last year. He worked in the (Department of Corrections) and started working for Troy Police. Along his career he would talk to me about the work he was doing and how he was making citizens here safer. I thought about it and he pushed me along and I realize that’s what I wanted to do.”

While football helped prepare Nickson for the academy, he said the training for law enforcement is a different animal.

“I would say it’s not that different; we were doing some similar things like running and different types of drills,” Nickson recalled. “The academy was more strict and more fundamental than even football, and football is a game. This is training for your life, so there is a big difference there and I think it made me a different person.”

Nickson will begin his career as a sheriff’s deputy with the Pike County Sheriff’s Department as a patrolman. While he’s thinking about his future he said that he wants to concentrate on being the best patrolman he can to start his career.

“My goal right now is to be the best patrolman I can be,” he emphasized. “I just want to show my face to the community and let everyone know I’m here for the people and for the safety of the people. I want to get that aspect down and the fundamentals of policing down first before I think about moving up.”