McKinley Franklin: A good deal for the Hurricanes
INVERNESS, Fla. — From 2015 to 2019, the Citrus High School football team had one major challenge: they had changed their head coach three times in four years.
Because of this challenge, the Hurricanes could not fly their black and Vegas gold the way they wanted to. To solve this problem, they had to turn to one of their very own, Coach Mckinley Franklin.
Coach Franklin played for the Hurricanes as a center during his high school days and graduated in 1994. He became an assistant coach with the Hurricanes immediately after graduating for two seasons before leaving to coach in Pop Warner. After a short spell there, he coached at a juvenile facility in Tennessee.
He joined Lecanto as an assistant coach in 2015 before returning to the Hurricanes. He was the defensive and offensive coach with the Hurricanes before Robert O鈥橞rien stepped down. This was a trying time for the team because the team was not prepared for another change of coach for the third time in four years.
In addition to O鈥橞rien leaving, some key players were either injured or transferred. Some of the players that Coach Franklin will be without include three-year starting quarterback Connor Bishop, All-Chronicle Defensive Player of the Year Geoff Banning, defensive POY finalist Jacob Freier, offensive POY finalist T.J. Weems, All-Chronicle defensive back Mikey Gatto, All-Chronicle offensive linemen Danny Haeser, Joseph Bartoli and Jacob Bartoli.
As if this was not enough of a problem, offensive Player of the Year Zaire Wilcox transferred to Lecanto to complete his high school education. He led the county with 16 touchdowns and 976 rushing yards last fall. Tanner Short, Jose Rodriguez and Ramius Diaz also transferred to Lecanto.
Franklin practically had to rebuild the team.
鈥淚鈥檓 tasked with building a program for our school that will make the community proud. That鈥檚 what me and my staff are doing,鈥� Coach Franklin on what he wants to achieve with the Club.
In his first game as interim coach, Franklin led the Hurricanes to a 20-14 victory. His rebuilding strategy paid off, as he led the Hurricanes to 9-2 in the regular season and 5-1 in the District 5A-8 in his first season. He also led the Hurricanes to their first playoff appearance since 2013 and was subsequently named the official head coach of the Hurricanes.
Not much could be done in the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19. But in the 2021-22 season, hope was high. Just as Franklin was on transit building the team, they hit a pothole. Antonio Hicks, one of the team鈥檚 best players, collapsed during training. The 16-year-old later died at the Citrus Memorial Hospital.
鈥淗e was a quality young man. Life will go on, but it will never be the same without Antonio Hicks,鈥� Zeb Bishop, the Hurricane defensive line coach, .
Even with the condition the Citrus High School football team was in when Franklin took over and everything that happened afterward, the Hurricanes are still strong, and Coach Franklin is still instilling the Hurricane spirit. He may not be where he wants to be with the Hurricanes right now, but the Hurricanes are not where they used to be. They are better now.
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