Carlin Isles has unusual motivational messages scribbled in marker on a poster hanging in his room: Carlin Isles is too small. Too weird. Not good enough. Won’t amount to anything.
Isles, a standout in rugby as well as track and field, has jotted down these messages to remind himself of all the negative things that have been said about him. Fuel to go faster, he said.
As a child growing up in foster care who was constantly getting into fights, running away from home and hardly ever having enough food on his plate, Isles promised himself it would not always be like this.