Football is never far from Max Fransen’s heart and mind. He sees the game as a vehicle for growth.
“I love everything it does for young men,” he said.
Leslie Lambert also holds a special place for Fransen. A 17-year-old from Lexington, Lambert is Fransen’s godson. He has autism and, Fransen said, “is never going to be able to play organized football.”
“I just thought, ‘Hey, we need to put something together that gives kids with disabilities the opportunity to be around football,” Fransen said. “I love football. I wanted to share that with kids with disabilities.”
So in 2023, in his second year as head football coach at Watseka High School about 80 miles east of Bloomington-Normal, Fransen began a one-day football camp called Tackling Disabilities. It pairs campers with physical and/or intellectual disabilities with high school football players for skill stations, drills, etc.
For the first time, Fransen is bringing Tackling Disabilities to Tri-Valley High School’s football field on July 15. The free camp is from 9:30-11 a.m. and open to K-12 students from any school district.
“This isn’t just for kids in the Tri-Valley district,” said Fransen, now a Tri-Valley assistant coach under Hall of Fame head coach Josh Roop. “I want anyone and everyone to come. In Watseka, we had people traveling an hour or sometimes more to get there. It was a blessing. It was like, ‘Thank you for coming all the way out here. We love having you.’”
Though Fransen and his wife, Kate, have moved to Bloomington, Watseka will have a fourth Tackling Disabilities camp this summer. Manteno hosted its second such camp on June 16.
Leslie Lambert, son of Eric and Tricia Lambert, will experience Tackling Disabilities for the first time at the Tri-Valley camp.
“The great thing about moving to Bloomington is we’re able to see him a lot more,” Fransen said. “We’ve seen him and he’s all fired up. We got him a jersey, so he’s ready to go.”
Fransen seeks to pair each camper with a high school upperclassman and underclassman football player so there is “continuity” for campers who return the next year.
Returning campers delight in seeing a familiar face.
“They come back and they’re running to whoever their partner was the previous year,” Fransen said. “They remember, and it’s really cool to see. Not only the campers, but the athletes too, automatically find each other.”
The role of the football players varies from camper to camper. Some campers engage in the drills at the skill stations. A favorite is playing catch with their partner.
Other campers enjoy running or racing against their partner. Fransen makes sure the football players understand their responsibilities.
“I tell the kids, ‘Listen, we’re promised nine games [in a high school football season]. These kids are promised an hour and a half. So you’re going to make it the best hour and a half possible. If that means [a camper] is going to run around for an hour and a half, you’re going to run around for an hour and a half,’” Fransen said.
Fransen fell in love with football as a youth and played the game at Macon Meridian High School. Knowing he wanted to be a teacher and coach, he attended Illinois State, graduating in 2017 with his teaching degree.
While at ISU, he was a student assistant coach under head coach Brock Spack and was an assistant for one year at Illinois Wesleyan. He was a Tri-Valley assistant in 2017, then an assistant coach at Herscher from 2018-2021 and head coach at Watseka the past four years.
Roop was receptive to him bringing Tackling Disabilities to Tri-Valley this year. Fransen said it is a day of inclusion and fun for the campers and a chance to relax for their parents.
“I tell the parents, ‘We have kids who are going to be with your kids the whole time,’” Fransen said. “They get that chance to take a step back and just know their kid is being taken care of. We have a whole bunch of drills, but if little Johnny just wants to run around, we have two kids, at least, who are running with him.”
While the camp is free, donations are accepted. Proceeds go to Special Olympics. Registration is available through the Tri-Valley High School website at tri-valley3.org. Campers also can register the day of the event.
“If they show up, they can be a part of it,” Fransen said.
