KISSIMMEE, Fla. — Playing sports, you learn a lot more than just the game. You learn life skills like dealing with adversity and teamwork. For Isaiah Smith, who grew up on the court, basketball has taught those lessons.

“I love this game to the core,” said Smith.

He was a captain on his high school basketball team at Four Corners Upper School in Davenport. He was the leading scorer for the Coyotes. The court has taught him a lot.

“One of those that really brought is teamwork,” Smith said. “There are a lot of professions, things I want to do with my life that require a lot of teamwork.”

Luckily, he already knows what he wants to do with his life beyond the court. For three years, Smith has participated in an internship program at Advance Surgery Center in Orlando to help jump-start his career. He has shadowed an orthopedic surgeon during his time at the center.

“I am observing cases, learning how and what goes on in surgery and the different techniques to be an orthopedic surgeon,” Smith said.

“What he is doing now as a high school student, as far as shadowing an orthopedic surgeon, is good for him because he is going to have a better understanding what it is like in real life,” Dr. Sergio Martinez said. “The days he has been shadowing me here in the OR (operating room), we have discussions afterward. He asks questions, and I try to teach him as much as I can.”

According to Martinez, this is a unique situation to have a high school student observing surgeries.

“He certainly knows what he wants to do, and that is not something that you find often, where he is very motivated and is goal-driven,” said Martinez said.

Smith said the experiences help him.

“I’ve learned a lot from the X-rays we just seen, inside and out of every procedure that goes on in surgery and the different techniques that are used as well, so it has been good,” he said.

Not only he is observing the techniques, he is practicing them at home, including suturing on kits he bought online.

“I practice a lot of suture techniques on different silicon pads that are used to mimic human skin,” Smith said. “Ever since I started suturing, I’ve been learning a lot.”

“He always focused,” said Monika Sirju, Isaiah’s mom.

This is a skill that takes many years to master.

“I feel like I have gotten a lot more efficient rather than faster,” Smith said. “I just wanted to get an early start at a young age. I still have a long way to go.”

This passion to become a surgeon came after a family vacation when he was 9 years old.

“My mother, she had an injury to her femur when we were playing on the beach,” he said.

“It was my brothers, my dad, my boys — and they witnessed fracturing my femur,” Sirju said. “Luckily for him, and a little unfortunate for me, my misfortune became his inspiration.”

“As I was watching go through that process with the surgeons and different doctors coming in and out of the room, I caught an interest in that,” Smith said. “It fueled my passion, I guess, to go down this pathway.”

Even though he has a love for basketball, Smith said he understands the chances are low for most high school players to make it to the NBA.

“I feel like a lot of people go down the sports path and don’t really look toward other pathways, for example, pathways in medicine,” Smith said.

His focus has impressed his mother.

“Just seeing that he actually stayed on it and working toward it, is inspiring,” Sirju said.