FlippJ

End of 3rd, Franklin leads 28-3.

Anyone who knows anything about Franklin athletics understands the time and effort Kurt (Coach) Jones put into helping the program succeed. He spent countless hours with football and baseball players helping prepare them to be at their best on game day. We moved here a year ago and my son joined the football team the Friday before practices started. That day Coach Jones took my son into the coaches office and began looking at video with him trying to get him up to speed with the offense. He put together video and sent it home with my son to study every couple of days and stayed after practices discussing the offense with him. Other than some garbage time at the end of a few games my son didn't see much varsity action last season yet Coach Jones still treated him like he was important to the program. My son has since decided to focus his time on baseball which was an extremely difficult decision, but his final season was a good season thanks in large part to the efforts of Kurt Jones. I haven't quite gotten over my son's decision to move on from football yet, but it did get a little easier when we learned Kurt had accepted a great opportunity at Independence High School. From a selfish standpoint we were disappointed to see him go but the decision was a no brainer. Thanks for everything Coach, and good luck! Sincerely, Jason, Stacey, and Brandon (Flippen)

Final Score... Franklin - 41 Independence - 20

4th quarter... Franklin - 35 Independence - 6 Not sure how they scored but they missed the extra point.

Still in 3rd quarter... Franklin - 35 Independence - 0 Junior RB Keylo Lee breaks long run for TD.

Start of 3rd quarter... Franklin - 28 Independence - 0 Junior RB Keylo Lee takes opening kickoff back for a TD.

Halftime... Franklin - 21 Independence - 0

Still in the 2nd quarter... Franklin - 21 Independence - 0 Junior RB Alex Ford broke loose for a long run and Junior RB Keylo Lee finished off the drive with a TD run.

After 1 quarter... Franklin - 14 Independence - 0 Franklin opened the scoring with a defensive touchdown and scored again on a long TD pass.

The best way to strengthen an arm is to throw, throw, and throw some more. I'm specifically talking about playing catch here not pitching in games. Weighted baseballs can help but you have to be careful with them because if your arm action (i.e. how you use your arms) is poor you can hurt yourself. I suppose that can also be said about pitching. Another thing you can do is throw to a glove or into a net with radar and video feedback. To throw hard you have to try to throw hard and pushing your body to the limits can increase your ability to do so. Here's a clip of a guy who has had a very successful career and could really bring it... The clip is in slow motion but you should still be able to get a feel for the kind of "intent" he had to throw the crap out of the baseball. I hope this helps! Good luck! /smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":)" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

For Franklin... Colton Robertson started on the mound but left in the 2nd after tweaking his hip or his leg. I don't know how serious the injury is but I'm guessing he'll be fine. Tyler Harris relieved Robertson and pitched through the 5th inning. Michael Patton pitched the 6th and Aaron Brown pitched the 7th.

I can't disagree with the comments about the Manning camp, but my son has been there two years in a row and has come away a better QB both times. How much you get out of it really depends on what you're at the camp for, how good you really are, and which coaches you get paired up with. For younger players I'd suggest finding a camp that emphasizes footwork and reading defenses. Besides learning a more sophisticated playbook, these are the two areas that hold young quarterbacks back the most in my opinion. It isn't always glaring at the high school level but the higher up you go the more important your feet and your head become.

Here are a few to consider... Darin Slack Quarterback Academy Bishop-Dullaghan Football Camps Manning Passing Academy

Blaming the officials or anything else for that matter isn't going to do anybody any good. Were there some bad calls? Sure there were, but good teams make their own luck and are able to overcome those things. Franklin just wasn't good enough to do this. As for the future, I think the outlook for Franklin is very bright. They're losing a lot of talented players, but they still have some talent coming back as franktownrebs mentioned. Keylo Lee and Michael Constantine are returning sophomores who saw quite a bit of varsity action this season, especially Lee, but there are a lot of other talented sophomores working hard and hoping for their opportunity to show what they can do. These players played a big role in the success of the JV team leading them to a 4-0 record beating teams by an average score of 34-9. All while getting limited reps at practice during the week because they weren't varsity regulars. A few of these players took it upon themselves to get better and spent time outside of the team environment to work on their skills and improve their game and it showed in their play as the season went on. It's like I always tell my son... If you aren't getting better you're getting worse, and doing nothing is still doing something. In todays world, where most kids do just enough to get by, these boys are a breath of fresh air. They are also part of the future and that's very encouraging to know.

They aren't in the playoffs anymore, but you can see video footage of the Franklin Rebels at their website... FranklinFootball.com