Kowboys linebacker elevated his game after move inside

By Rick Pedone
Sports Editor

When you talk about impact players, Akim Francis fits the bill.

Osceola High’s senior linebacker led the Kowboys in tackles (121), but more importantly, he was the heart of a very good Kowboys defense.

“He matured so much as a player and a person over the past year,” Kowboys defensive coordinator Scott Spencer said. “We are so proud of his accomplishments, and we believe he will stay on the course and have a very successful football career after he leaves OHS.”

Francis may do that, but it will help if he, like Dracula, avoids garlic. The herb does to him what opposing linemen, running backs and receivers usually can’t do: it sends him off the field.

“He seems to have an allergic reaction to it. It’s happened a couple of times to where he’s had to have the trainers give him something for it,” Kowboys Coach Doug Nichols said.

Francis, the Osceola News-Gazette Defensive Player of the Year, ended his high school career by making nine tackles during the team’s 20-7 regional playoff loss at Lakeland.

“We had a bad quarter (when Lakeland scored three touchdowns in the last six minutes of the first half), but other than that we played pretty well,” Francis, 6-1, 210, said. “They had a good receiver (Riquan Southward) and the quarterback (Raheeme Dumas) was good, but I thought we did a pretty good job against them.”

Francis played against Lakeland with a sore shoulder that was dislocated against Ridge Community the previous week, forcing him from the second half of that game.

Francis changed a few games by making impact plays, Spencer said.

He blocked a punt that was returned for a TD against Bishop Moore, and then he returned an interception for a touchdown in that same game.

He pressured St. Cloud quarterback Phillip Steinmetz repeatedly in the 41-27 win at Kowboys field that largely decided the district championship.

“He had some big plays on pressures off blitzes,” Spencer said.

Francis said he thought he played his best game at Palm Bay, a 10-0 Kowboys loss, and Spencer agreed.

“He made a couple of big hits on the goal line that kept them out of the end zone,” Spencer said. “He had an outstanding game against East Ridge that helped contain their outstanding running game.”

Francis said he enjoyed playing against the strongest teams on Osceola’s schedule.

“Palm Bay was pretty good, they had some good backs,” he said. “It was a tough game.”

Before the season, Spencer decided that Francis could help the team more by moving from outside linebacker, where he played as a junior, to the inside.

“I didn’t like it at first,” Francis said. “But, after I played there a while, I started to like it. I like hitting.”

Spencer said that was the plan.

“We moved him inside to take advantage of his physical style of play, and he certainly took advantage of the move and had several big plays this year,” Spencer said.

Osceola running back Stafon McCray, the county’s rushing leader, knows how good Francis is because he scrimmaged against him for a couple of seasons.

“Akim? Yeah, he’s real good,” McCray said. “We go at it every practice. He’s a great leader, he’s one of the guys were losing and we’re going to miss him.”

Francis said he wants to play next season in college.

“Probably I’d like to go outside of Florida, experience another part of the country,” he said.

Preferably a place that doesn’t harvest a lot of garlic.

Also worthy of mention for defensive player of the year is St. Cloud senior linebacker Jeff Spelman,   who capped an outstanding career by leading the Bulldogs into the regional playoffs, where the team nearly upended Lakeland in the first round.

Spelman led the county with 137 tackles and caused four fumbles. He recovered eight fumbles.

“You really can’t replace a kid like that. He played great for us every year he was here. Our linebackers were the soul of our team, that’s going to be a tough group to replace,” St. Cloud’s interim football coach Chad Ansbaugh said.

Former Osceola assistant Brad Lennox was recently selected as the Bulldogs’ football coach for 2012.