Franklin poised to break former Eagle Sproles’ rushing record

Source: The Star

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Andy Lundberg | Special to The Star

James Franklin, who has 5,049 rushing yards, needs just 182 rushing yards to break Darren Sproles’ career mark of 5,230.

JOHN SLEEZER | The Kansas City Star

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I t has become the soundtrack of James Franklin’s football life, the din of roaring fans and the crackle of cheering teammates filling the crisp evening air.

At certain moments, even Olathe North High School’s opponents and fans can’t help but be swept up in the enthusiasm, overcome by the sense they are all witness to something special. Such was the case last Friday against rival Olathe South.

If Franklin’s aware of it all, he doesn’t show it. He picks himself up off the ground and walks to the Olathe North huddle. The crowd never stops buzzing.

The Eagles’ senior tailback just ripped off a 31-yard run up the gut. His line opened a hole wide enough for a tank, but it was Franklin who made a linebacker whiff with a jump cut, juked hard to the right, sending another defender flying, and then spun 360 degrees off a bewildered safety before dragging two defenders another 10 yards.

“James does things you don’t think a high school kid should be able to do,” said Jake Carroll, one of Olathe North’s senior linemen. “He’s running right and the next thing you know, he’s 30 yards to the left. He’s running down the sideline, spinning, juking people, literally making them fall down. It’s fun to watch. It’s like you’re playing NFL Street out there with him. No rules apply to him.”

Franklin returns to the huddle tired and winded, but happy. Olathe North is closing in on the program’s first unbeaten regular season since 2004 and already leads rival Olathe South 21-0 midway through the second quarter.

The tumult from Franklin’s latest burst has started to subside, and the public address announcer booms the good news over the sound system: Franklin has just topped 5,000 yards rushing for his career.

The fans erupt, but down in the huddle a teammate can’t help but laugh. “Can I have your autograph?” he says to Franklin.

It’s become a fairly common joke in the Eagles’ huddle the last three seasons as Franklin has built a kind of mythology with so many spectacular runs.

“It’s amazing to see the things that he can do,” North senior lineman Oliver Venegas said. “It’s just crazy some of the things he does in a football game, but it’s awesome going into a game and knowing we’ve got the best running back on our side.”

If high school Friday nights are a circus, Olathe North is the greatest show in Johnson County with Franklin as the star attraction. Tonight, he’ll attempt to become Olathe North’s all-time leading rusher, passing a former player named Darren Sproles, who now stars for the NFL’s San Diego Chargers.

“After a big run, everybody’s all crowded around me and I can hear the fans going wild,” said Franklin, who has rushed for 1,936 yards on 217 carries — a robust 8.9-yard average and 24 touchdowns. “That puts it in my head that I need to keep performing and actually makes me try to do even better. I love hearing that, and I love the atmosphere.”

But such exposure hasn’t always suited him.

•••

Five times a day somebody asks Franklin where he’ll play college football. It only gets worse when he gets home from practice around 7 p.m., scarfs down dinner and logs on to Facebook.

“I get about a million messages popping up, ‘Hey, how’s football going? Where are you going to school?’ It gets a little frustrating, because I have no idea where I’m going to college right now,” Franklin said.

He appreciates the interest. He’s just tired of the question.

The senior running back for The Star’s top-ranked big-class team never sought celebrity status. He’s shy and unassuming by nature, but the spotlight has found him, and his teammates — brothers really — make sure to rub it in.

“We kid him all the time, sometimes when he walks into the room we all just start clapping,” said fellow Olathe North senior Jason Peete, who has played with Franklin since elementary school. “He just goes berserk. He gets mad when we do that, and you can see him blush. If we do that to him in the commons around a crowd of people or something, he just gives us a dirty glare.”

Franklin is the easy-going type, engaging and certainly not aloof with a calm to his stride and an ease to his smile. He seldom seems in a hurry away from the football field and is quick to laugh. He’s no glory hound, so he’d prefer to remain relatively anonymous.

“James is at times a little reserved and quiet,” Eagles coach Pete Flood said. “As he’s gotten older, he’s starting to become more open, but he’s a nice, polite young man. He takes things in stride and stays pretty relaxed.”

Of course, that’s becoming harder to do these days. The arrival of the state playoffs, which signals the official start of Olathe North’s chase for its eighth Kansas Class 6A state championship since 1996, is partly responsible.

But Franklin’s ascendance of the Eagles’ career rushing chart shares the blame. He’s moved into second place all-time in yards (5,049) and rushing touchdowns (62), trailing only Sproles, who racked up 5,230 yards and 75 rushing touchdowns before emerging as a Heisman Trophy candidate at Kansas State.

•••

The comparisons were inevitable: A smallish running back, leaving a trail of embarrassed defenders flailing at air with an arsenal of jukes and spin moves, leading the charge as undefeated Olathe North steams toward another state title. Sound familiar?

It’s little wonder that the closer Franklin gets to the career rushing record, the more his name is mentioned in the same breath with Sproles. After all, Sproles was the program’s original electrifying-yet-smallish back who led the Eagles to an undefeated 6A title as a senior in 2000.

That Franklin, all 5 feet 8 and 180 pounds of him, will eclipse Sproles’ 5,230-yard career total, a mark thought to be unbreakable when it was established, also seems inevitable. He needs only 182 yards.

“If he gets it, I’d just tell him congratulations and that he deserves it,” Sproles said earlier this week. “Obviously, he’s a hard worker, so I’d just encourage him to keep on working at it. That hard work will pay off.”

Sproles figured the day would come when someone topped his high school totals.

“I’m not surprised,” he said. “Records are made to be broken. Plus, North’s got a good program, so I already knew somebody would get that record some day.”

Franklin, who sat in the stands and marveled at Sproles as a child, never figured it would be him. He also has no interest in proclaiming where such a feat should rank him in the pantheon of great backs at Olathe North.

“I always tell people that I don’t want to be compared to other people, or Darren Sproles specifically,” Franklin said. “A lot of people tell me that I need to go to K-State, so I can be just like him and everything. It’s flattering, but at the same time I want to be apart from Darren Sproles and be my own person.”

He’ll leave the comparisons to others.

“Well, I can tell you Franklin is way up there,” said Olathe East’s Jeff Meyers, who has coached against both running backs. “Would I put him above Darren? The answer is no, but he’s way up there, and I don’t believe there’s a better back in the metro area right now. I’d put James up against any back on the Kansas or Missouri side. His numbers speak for themselves.”

If and when he passes Sproles, Franklin’s career totals will be practically screaming (and he’ll have gotten there in fewer games), yet — just like Sproles — fewer college coaches than one might expect appear to be listening.

“It’s really not as heated as you might think,” Flood said. “We talked on Saturday. He’s going to be able to go to college and play some football and get an education for next to nothing, but we’ll just have to see where that’s going to be.”

Franklin visited Northern Illinois last weekend and will take visits to Iowa State and Missouri later this month. He also took a trip to Kansas State last spring and already has offers from Missouri Western and Hutchinson Community College.

“He just needs to keep on doing what he’s doing right now,” Sproles said. “(The offers are) going to come along. There will be plenty of time to worry about it after the season. He doesn’t need to worry about that right now.”

That’s another thing Franklin shares with Sproles, his favorite NFL player. The most important part of the equation is Olathe North’s success.

“That record didn’t mean anything to me. What I was more worried about was winning a state title. That was the main thing on my mind,” Sproles said.

Ultimately, the same goal drives Franklin and the newest generation of Eagles, too.

“Without the state title none of this means anything, and I’m sure you could ask anybody on the team,” Carroll said. “I know James, if you ask him to choose between winning the Simone Award, breaking the record and … getting that ring, he’d choose the ring. We’ve all been working for it since second grade, and this is our last chance. I know we’re all willing to do anything we can to get it.”

James Franklin game-by-game

Date	Opponent, result	Att-Yards	TDs
Sept. 4	at Leavenworth, W 71-6	15-132	2
Sept. 11	SM Northwest, W 41-12	22-161	3
Sept. 18	at Olathe Northwest, W 40-13	34-349	4
Sept. 25	Olathe East, W 28-14	24-215	2
Oct. 2	Shawnee Mission North, W 42-0	23-205	3
Oct. 9	at Lawrence Free State, W 38-20	31-287	4
Oct. 16	at Blue Valley, W 49-35	31-251	2
Oct. 23	at Blue Valley West, W 49-8	16-157	2
Oct. 30	Olathe South, W 48-7	21-179	2