A while back, I asked my grandson Jonathan, a freshman at Mississippi State University, whom he would suggest as a subject for this column. He suggested Coach Michael Franklin, whom he had chosen to be his Star Teacher when he graduated last spring, but at the time other people came to my attention also. The other day, I asked my granddaughter Kayla, who is now a junior at the University of Southern Mississippi, the same question. She strongly recommended Coach Franklin. This time I followed through, and I am glad I did.
Michael Franklin grew up in Pontotoc, Mississippi, after his birth August 8,1983, to parents Rodney and Patricia Franklin from the Pontotoc area. He has one sibling, his brother Robby, who lives with his wife and daughter in Nashville. Michael’s father worked for Auto Zone and his mother was a housewife.
His grandparents were, as he said, “Old school.” They and his parents taught him, “You treat people the way you want to be treated.” His paternal grandfather Quitman Franklin passed away when Mike was four, then all three of the other grandparents—Syble Franklin, Barry and Melba Caldwell, died in 2009. I gleaned from my talk with Coach Franklin that he treasures the way he was brought up, as he mentioned that his Uncle Billy Caldwell, his mother’s brother, is still a link to that older generation of wise mentors.
The Franklins attended West Heights Baptist Church, where he said his pastor, Rev. Dan Robertson, was a great preacher. His granddaddy was a deacon, and Michael and his brother Robby played their horns—trumpet and trombone— in a little music group at church. His aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Jimmy Franklin, shared some music tapes with him when he was ten, then took him to a Carman concert in the fall of 1993 in Tupelo. He went down at the invitation, because he said, “Everything changed. It just spoke to me. Church, my parents’ and grandparents’ teachings—it just all made sense then. It was lifechanging.”
Michael went all the way through Pontotoc City Schools, playing the trumpet in the band from the sixth grade through college. He played baseball and kept book for the basketball team. He told me, speaking of his musical and athletic interests, “I’m probably one of the weirdest or rarest coaches because I understand both the athletic and musical sides.” As he excelled in band, which resulted in band scholarships all through college, he learned from his head basketball coach, Mr. Jon Ginn. He taught the team to be excellent in everything they did and would often quote Proverbs 14:23, “All hard work brings a profit, but mere words lead to poverty.”
Coach Franklin also said of his high school years, “I had to work hard. Math was my weak subject.” That last comment about math led right into his college years, when a tennis coach who taught college algebra influenced him greatly, consequently influencing students at Newton County High School. Michael graduated high school in 2001, and entered Itawamba Community College in Fulton, Mississippi.
As a freshman, he had great difficulty with college algebra, when his teacher, Ms. Linda Partlow, advised him to withdraw from the course and take it over. When he did, she tutored him and put him in a study group; but her main contribution to his success was telling him, “You can do this!” When he thanked her, she just replied, “All I did was paying forward what people have done for me. And you’ll do the same.”
At the University of Mississippi, in December 2004, he got a job as a manager with the baseball team. He had been out of sports for a while, but this pulled him into the sphere of influence of some coaches with good character and high standards. Michael declared, “Leadership, the way I coach and teach, a lot comes from the coaches I worked under at Ole Miss.”
He respected Head Coach Mike Bianco, who was one of those he respected and learned the most from. “He taught me how to lead a program and do it the right way.” The assistant head coach, Dan McDonnell introduced Michael to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, as he was, as Michael said, “a fine Christian man.” He frequently recommends books for Mike to read that encourage his walk with Christ.
Another assistant at Ole Miss was Stuart Lake. These three are still some with whom Coach Franklin remains in contact. As a support staff manager, Michael tells of how he and the other managers were treated as being important and equals to the team. Coach Lake gave t-shirts to his hitters, and to the managers as well. He said, “It was their system. Be good to people and always do things the right way 100% of the time.” He continued, telling of the “system” that he said came from Coach Skip Bertman, former legendary Head Baseball Coach at Louisiana State University, where Coach Bianco had played. “That culture has now spread to other places, including Newton County. It has made me better all around.”
Young Mike Franklin met a Philadelphia native, Jamie Tingle, daughter of Mike and Linda Tingle, when she, a huge baseball fan, attended all the games at Ole Miss while they were students there. He confessed, when I asked how they got together, “Courage. I got the courage up to ask her out on a date.” They were engaged by September of 2007, Jamie graduated spring of 2007, and Mike, a December graduate, graduated in the spring of 2008. They were married December 15, 2007.
They both now teach at Newton County High School in Decatur. Jamie has been at Newton County for the past four years, teaching biology, physics, and forensics; whereas Mike has taught ten years just at NCHS, from 2009. Jamie’s mom, Linda Tingle, taught in Newton County schools for 31 years before retiring, while her father, Mike, ran the bus shop until last year.
Mike teaches “state-tested” U.S. History, six classes per day. But my grandchildren were impacted most from his work as a cross-country coach. When I recounted what they had told me about how he coached them, he replied, “I coached them the way I wanted to be coached.” That coaching was always with a very positive, encouraging attitude.
Michael and Jamie Franklin had their first child, Cooper, in September 2010, and Carter came along in September of 2011. Cooper, a third grader at Newton County Elementary School, loves sports, being on the farm and going around with his papaw Mike Tingle, while Carter, in the second grade, loves animals, art, music, and coloring with both his grandmothers.
The Franklins live in Philadelphia and attend the First United Methodist Church there, where the pastor is Rev. Chris Young. Jamie grew up Presbyterian, and Mike was Baptist, but they just found a church home for their family. He said, “The kids—they’ve just taken off. They love it!”
It was such a pleasure to visit with young Coach Franklin and write this chronicle of his life. I am thankful to be able to showcase him and his wife, two more, good Christian teachers in Newton County.
