School: Wissahickon
Wrestling, Baseball
Favorite athlete: Brad Lidge
Favorite team: Phillies
Favorite memory competing in sports: “In 2006 when we won the last three matches in a row to beat Methacton 31-30.”
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: “When playing soccer, there was a breakaway, and I tripped on my shoestrings and did a forward roll and didn’t score.”
Music on iPod: “Mostly Classic rock and some rap”
Future plans: “I plan to go to college and enjoy the next four years of my life.”
Favorite quote: “Ninety percent of the game is half mental” Yogi Berra
One goal before turning 30: “Finish school and be coaching a wrestling team”
One thing people don’t know about me: “My favorite snack is Peanut Butter Kandy Kakes.”
Taylor Franko has always had wrestling in his blood.
“I remember when I was really young – we’re talking first grade or so, and my dad would let me wear the too-small shirts he had for Abington wrestling with coach Franko on them,” said the Wissahickon senior, whose father Jeff Franko is the varsity coach at Abington. “I would sit on the bench, and I was the water boy for the day for Saturday matches.
“I have been around wrestling for a long time.”
Long enough to develop a passion for it and also some serious skills.
This past winter, Franko became only the fifth wrestler in Wissahickon history to earn 100 wins. He accomplished that feat in the third-fourth place match at districts.
“I think everyone dreams of trying to get 100 wins from the minute they walk into the wrestling room,” he said. “I knew it was something I really wanted to do, and that was a huge push for my entire senior year.”
Franko gave glimpses of greatness when he won 19 matches as a freshman – the same number Steve Pyle, the winningest wrestler in Wissahickon history, accumulated when he was in ninth grade.
“We run the circle in the gym, and we have a banner with all the names on it,” the senior captain said. “It was pointed out to me by some of the other guys – ‘You can get your name up on that banner.’
“That really was motivation for the next three years – I can do this, I can do this.”
Franko has done it by being a study in consistency on the mat.
“A recurring theme that comes up all the time – anyone he is expected to beat, he never loses to,” Trojan coach Jim Swiggard said. “They could catch him in a headlock in the match, and they’re still not going to beat him. He won’t let them.”
Franko entered his senior season wrestling at 171. He closed it at 160, but during the season, Swiggard occasionally bumped him up to wrestle at 189.
“He beat several regional qualifiers at 189,” the Trojans’ coach said. “He was weighing 160 the last time we bumped him, but if he’s expected to beat someone, he knows he’s better than they are, and he won’t lose.”
Franko grew up wrestling for the Abington Bulldogs youth program.
“I always wanted to go out for it,” he said. “One of my favorite things to do was going to my dad’s practices.”
He also began playing soccer and baseball competitively when he was six years old, but wrestling was always his top priority.
“Wrestling really picked up in middle school when I started doing MAWA Tournaments and things that were more upper level wrestling,” Franko said. “I knew I wanted to be a four-year varsity wrestler my whole life.
“I went after it, and my dad helped me out.”
If it seems as though there might have been pressure associated with being the son of a wrestling coach, guess again.
“It’s kind of like a bonus to have a coach at home,” Taylor said. “My dad always helped me out, he was always there to try and point me in the right direction.
“He really didn’t put as much pressure on me as I put on myself. I wanted to be the best because my dad was a coach.”
Under his dad’s tutelage, Franko developed into one of Wissahickon’s all-time greats.
“He helped me out a lot,” Taylor said. “A lot of times what he was telling me I needed to do was the exact same thing my coaches were telling me.”
Franko opted to give up soccer last fall, but he is the catcher for the Trojans’ baseball team this spring. Staying with baseball made for a heavy schedule last summer when Franko was playing at the senior legion level. He continued to wrestle on open nights and participated in MAWA Tournaments. He also found time to wrestle in Council Rock’s summer duals.
“I kept busy,” he said.
In each of the last two wrestling seasons, Franko finished third at districts and second at sectionals. He won one match at regionals as a junior and was 2-2 as a senior.
“He has made good strides as far as getting out of districts,” Swiggard said.
Ask Swiggard what makes Franko so effective, and it all comes down to the basics of the sport.
“I just think he has the knack,” the Trojans’ coach said. “He stays in position. To take him down, you need to hit something good and keep moving.
“He doesn’t have a huge repertoire, but the things he does, he does well, and he stays aggressive, which is a good thing.”
As for next year, Franko has visits planned to George Mason and Bloomsburg, and he plans to discuss the possibility of continuing his wrestling career at the collegiate level with the respective coaches.
Franko plans to major in secondary education with his sights set on one day teaching American History and, of course, coaching wrestling.
Wrestling was a part of Franko’s identity as a youngster, and it remains an important part of it today.
