First-year player boosts Franklin
Senior running back Wilson has delivered
FRANKLIN – The conversation Louis Brown had with Ron Wilson during the off-season is one many football coaches in this basketball-mad city can relate.
“I’m like, Ron, you’re only 6-2,” Brown said. “What do you think about playing football?”
Franklin’s football coach wasn’t trying to douse the senior’s hoop dreams with cold water. The message, rather, was that your gifts might lie elsewhere.
Six-foot, 2-inch basketball players are a dime a dozen. A football player who is 6-2, 205 pounds and has 4.6-second speed, however, is quite a sight for a football coach … as long as he is on your team.
Otherwise, the dreams might not be as sweet. That is what teams are starting to find out about Wilson, who has gone from starring in Brown’s weighttraining class to emerging as a talent for one of the state’s top teams.
Wilson leads the Sabers with 346 yards rushing and with 54 carries has twice as many as anyone else.
“He’s got things you can’t coach,” Brown said. “He’s got some special gifts. I’m glad he’s on our team. He’s the biggest secret in our conference, I think.” Not anymore.
On Friday, Wilson shined in one of the biggest rivalry games in the area. In front of a packed house, he ran 21 times for 99 yards and four touchdowns in a
28-20 victory over previously undefeated Oak Creek.
A number of runners across the state gained more yards last week. What made Wilson’s effort special was when he got his yards and how he gained them. He was a hammer for the Sabers in the fourth quarter, getting tough yards as the team burned time off the clock.
His play was symbolic of a team that got stronger and stronger as the game wore on.
It was the perfect time for a coming-out party, an emergence that is worth noting is happening in one of the state’s deepest programs. It’s not easy to get on to the field at Franklin.
And once there, it’s not easy to perform in the spotlight of the school’s rivalry game.
“It’s amazing. … It was probably thousands of people here,” Wilson said. “It was a lot of fun playing in front of all these people.”
This might be Wilson's first year of high school football, but it is not his first exposure to the game. He grew up playing in Neighborhood Children's Sports League in Milwaukee until eighth grade.
And, though Brown didn’t give his pitch to Wilson until this past off-season, his classmates have been trying to get him to join the team since sophomore year. Now he sounds like a guy who can't get enough of
It’s amazing. … It was probably thousands of people here. It was a lot of fun playing in front of all these people
Ron Wilson Franklin football player
the game.
"Football is my first love and that is the sport I’m going to be with until the end of the day," he said. "Basketball, too, but football, I was not going to leave it alone.”
Wilson flew under the radar this long because, frankly, Franklin didn’t need him. The first three weeks of the season the Sabers won by an average of 33 points and posted two shutouts. He averaged six carries and 58 yards per game during that stretch. His workload increased in Week 4, when he carried 14 times for 74 yards in a 29-6 victory over Racine Case.
Last week his yards per carry dipped to 4.7, his lowest since Week 1, but considering the competition and the stakes, it was hands down his best performance even though it didn't start that way.
Wilson fumbled his first carry Friday, a turnover that led to an Oak Creek field goal.
Chalk that mistake up to inexperience. Not only has he not played in three years, but, according to his mother and No. 1 supporter, Rhonda White, this is the first time he has played running back. He was a defensive back previously.
“When he fumbled I noticed his head got low and I yelled from the stands, 'It’s just the beginning, clean it up',” White said. “The lady next to me said something. She didn’t know he was my son. I said it is a whole lot of football to be played, let them play.”
Wilson's play did the talking the rest of the night. His 16-yard run in the fourth quarter gave the Sabers the lead with 10 minutes to play, and with 41⁄2 minutes left he took a shovel pass from senior quarterback Matt Devinger from 10 yards out to score the dagger.
This could be just the start, considering Franklin's prospects in football this season and Wilson's prospects in basketball, where he'll have a much larger role than last season when he averaged four points per game.
"He's a dedicated to whatever he does," White said. "He plays very hard. If he's not dedicated, he don't get involved."