Issiah Goff has had an abundance of basketball mentors in his life.
John Barbee, Goff’s head coach from 2012 to 2016 at River Ridge High School, taught him the X’s and O’s of the game. Because of Barbee, Goff knows the game like the back of his hand.
Patrick Williams, an assistant under Barbee and eventual head coach at Ridge with Goff on his staff, was the motivational type. He wanted his players to let out their frustrations with school or with girls or whatever teenage boys may be dealing with on the basketball court.
Derrick Pringle, who coached Goff through his local non-profit DAP Hoops and now leads The Evergreen State College’s women’s basketball program, instilled in Goff three traits that make up the organization’s acronym: discipline, attitude and progression.
But before any of them entered Goff’s life, there was John Smith Jr., a product of Lacey just like Goff. One day, when Goff, born with the surname Scott, was 13 years old, he visited a local park to play basketball when he saw what he described as “a bunch of grown-ups that were crazy good at basketball.” Smith’s talent shone as bright as any that day.
The teenage Goff witnessed highlight-reel dunks from the group that would’ve sent an NBA crowd into a frenzy. He shied away from taking the court until the grown-ups were in between games. Smith, who was 21 years old at the time, approached Goff with a friendly demeanor.
“He came right up to me and took me under his wing,” Goff said of Smith. “He was like, ‘What’s your name, little man?’ He got my phone number and started texting me every single place where there would be runs at. He was at LA Fitness every day.”
Smith pulled out all of the stops to make sure Goff had opportunities to hoop and stay out of trouble. When Goff had to leave the gym early to bike home in time for dinner, Smith started buying him food so that he could work out longer with him. Smith paid for Goff’s LA Fitness membership. Even after Goff finished playing basketball after high school, the two remained close friends, and Smith helped Goff find job openings.
“I might not have been his best friend in his eyes, but in my eyes, he was my big brother,” Goff said. “He would do all types of stuff just to have me come hoop and probably to keep me out of trouble.”
Smith, a Timberline High School product who played basketball at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology in Canada, was killed in a random shooting Oct. 10, 2021, outside a Calgary night club. He was 31 years old. Investigators of the case said Smith was protecting a female friend from two men making unwanted sexual advances and physical contact, and Smith was shot and killed by Jesse Michael Martinez, who was sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2023 for the fatal shooting.
Goff vowed to follow in Smith’s footsteps and honor his legacy by giving back to future generations of basketball players. He founded the Infinite Society of Basketball in 2025, focusing on training and development while offering AAU opportunities with Team Infinite, all at an affordable price.
“We try to keep our prices as low as possible so that the main focus is basketball and not money,” Goff said. “Parents shouldn’t have to be choosing, ‘Are we gonna pay rent this month, or are we gonna have our kid play basketball?’ We just try to make it as affordable as possible and make it about the kids. It’s not about the money with us.
“We’re the community’s big bros. That’s what AAU should be.”
Goff, a 2016 River Ridge graduate, brings plenty of coaching and basketball knowledge to his Thurston County-based program. His childhood dream was to play high school basketball, earn a Division I scholarship, and reach the NBA, but above all, he wanted to come back to his hometown and coach River Ridge “as soon as I could.”
“I’ve always had coaching on my mind,” Goff said.
After helping the River Ridge Hawks reach back-to-back 2A state tournaments in 2015 and 2016, he started his coaching career in his backyard as an assistant coach at River Ridge just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Goff trained players at LA Fitness for years and privately around Thurston County, and he worked as an assistant coach at Capital High School last winter. He also spent time coaching with West Academy, another local AAU program.
Goff’s departure from competitive basketball after high school was abrupt, but it inspired how he directs his AAU program and its prices. Back then, he was forced to make a choice between helping his single mother and his two newborn siblings by getting a job, or continuing playing basketball through the expensive AAU route.
“I grew up with a single mom. Very poor. Going into my senior year, we weren’t homeless, but we were living house to house. There was no way I was playing AAU. I feel like kids shouldn’t have to make decisions like that,” he said. “Now that I have the chance to be an AAU coach and director, I can tell the other coaches that I feel like I have to take all the stuff that my coaches taught me and put it into these kids.”
Goff has also pursued a career in music under the rap name INFINITiii, which he named his basketball training program after. The Infinite Society of Basketball started in 2025 when Goff was training a group of 15 young athletes in a local apartment complex gymnasium, and the hoopers recommended that he consider building an AAU program.
Those 15 kids in a small gym turned into 68 athletes showing up to a tryout at a public school gym. Today, Team Infinite is made up of 34 athletes across three teams: 17-and-under, 16-and-under, and 13-and-under. About 90% of the program is centered on training and development, while the other 10% is focused on organized basketball and AAU tournaments, according to Goff. Team Infinite’s squads won two tournament championships in its first four months and recently competed in the Battle in Seattle tournament, one of the Pacific Northwest’s premier tournaments.
Goff is assisted by a handful of coaches with a variety of experience, including former professional basketball player Bronson Damen and Tumwater Fire Lieutenant Jarrod Simmons. Former River Ridge teammates LaBrandon Price and Kobe Key also help coach.
Together, Goff and the coaching staff have established trust with the student athletes and their parents in a short amount of time. After two-hour practices, Goff and the coaches join some of the athletes in hours-long scrimmages at the nearby LA Fitness.
“Everybody that’s in there wants to get yelled at and cussed out. They love it, and their parents love it too,” Goff said. “Any time I freak out on them in a game, their parents are like, ‘You’re doing a great job.’ I was so nervous that they were gonna cuss me out. All the parents sit in there and watch practice. They know us. That’s why they understand. I meet up with them and have lunch with them.”
The coaches’ philosophy of hard work is paying off for the athletes participating in the Infinite Society of Basketball. River Ridge junior Jashon Spencer said “hard work and integrity really get you places,” while Timberline junior Malik Bryant said he’s embraced the high-paced action of AAU as the coaches have "pushed me to my limits many, many times and helped me be more confident.”
Mekhi Agront, a 2026 Capital High School graduate, competes for Team Infinite while preparing to play college basketball, as three schools are interested in the guard. Agront met Goff while playing for Capital and described him as a “very impactful coach.”
“He provides a lot of lessons to learn within basketball and even outside of basketball,” Agront said of Goff. “The biggest lesson I’ve learned is sacrifice. You’re gonna work hard, and it’s not gonna be perfect. But you’re building toward those perfect reps, and every no is a closer step to yes.”
Goff’s hopes and dreams for the program are to not only build strong basketball players but to build strong adults by helping them achieve their goals. He believes everything in his life has led him to this obligation to serve in a “big brother” role as Smith once did for him. To Goff, small impacts make big waves, which is why he’ll never forget Smith’s friendship and unconditional support.
“I’m there to be a big bro for them. What I’m doing is bigger than just basketball,” Goff said. “It’s just become my life. I am the program. That’s my life’s duty right there. It feels so good waking up every day and being a part of basketball again. I feel like I am John and the kids are just a bunch of little mes.”
To learn more about the Infinite Society of Basketball, visit @infinitesocietyofbasketball on Instagram.
