Talem Franco, a top competitor in the 800 meter run in track and field and an All-Conference wide receiver in football, signs a national letter of intent to run track for BYU.
By Kenny Bristow
Yesterday afternoon, I had the pleasure of covering Talem's signing of his letter to attend BYU. While I was well aware of Talem's great speed and skills on the football field, I knew little of his track and field abilities.
It was nice to get to know him a little bit and speak to his father about his recruiting process. Talem is a modest kid, so I needed his dad to give me a lot of the information for the article. He is a great young man and will do very well in his collegiate career.
One comment I would like to make on a personal observation about Talem, before I link you to the Deseret News piece, is this kid is a leader. His work ethic and willingness to sacrifice for the better of his team may be his strongest attribute. He doesn't thump his chest or holler at his teammates... he just performs on the field.
His leadership was never more evident to me than in Wasatch's final football game of this past season, a home thrashing at the hands of Bear River. Not to look at things in a negative way, but about halfway through the second quarter I noticed Talem wincing in pain with his leg heavily wrapped. I recognized right away as he limped along the sideline and gingerly rode the stationary bike that he had a nasty quad pull. He would not be going back into this game - no matter how badly he may have wanted to.
Once that became obvious to his teammates, I noticed a little more wind fell out of the Wasp's sails. A few more shoulders dropped a little lower. One of their top warriors would not be able to carry on in the battle. No team would like to admit they rely so heavily on a single player, and maybe in this case it wasn't about having him so much as it was about not having him.
Anyway... read about Talem and his choices for the future in my post for the Deseret News online.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865573132/Running-with-the-Cougars-Wasatch-senior-Talem-Franco-signs-with-BYU.html
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