Young Athlete Balances Grief for Sister With Determination on Field

The faint smell of smoke hangs in the air--traces of wildfires in the mountains to the west--and wisps form a fuzzy halo around the football stadium lights.

As the West Rowan Falcons prepare to take the field in a high-stakes game against Central Cabarrus--a victory will give them their first conference championship--senior linebacker James Francis carries more on his shoulders than just his shoulder pads. Sadness hovers around him like the smoke in the air.

He’s still searching for some balance between a young athlete’s natural euphoria and the grief of a brother whose beloved sister has fallen victim to terrorism.

Lakeina Monique Francis was one of 17 sailors killed when a bomb ripped open the hull of the USS Cole while the Navy destroyer was in port in Yemen.

“Football helps relieve the frustration,” James says. “When we play football, I’m thinking about football. When I get home after a game, that’s when I start thinking about other stuff.”

Months ago, James couldn’t have found Yemen on a map. He imagined his sister’s life in generalities, picturing her just sailing around the world from port to port. He never worried about her safety.

Everything changed Oct. 12.

He first heard his sister was missing and presumed dead as he, his father, Ronald, and his younger brother, David, drove home from David’s junior varsity football game that Thursday. His mother, Sandra, paged them. They learned the news by cell phone.

“It was a quiet ride to the house,” James says.

Lakeina, 19 and out of high school just a year, had left the family only three weeks earlier to join the Cole, following in the footsteps of her father, who spent 22 years in the Navy. She was supposed to serve six months at sea.

“We were real close, like best friends,” James says. “When you move around so much, you don’t have too many friends. So it was me, my sister and my brother.”

They had talked on the phone only two days earlier, and James heard her excitement as she told of seeing dolphins and whales for the first time.

As the house filled with military officers, police and family members, the phone rang constantly, but it was never the voice he wanted to hear. Instead, it was military officers offering the latest information on the search for Lakeina’s body or reporters requesting interviews.

James, an even-keeled youth who turned 18 last month, describes the night, with understatement, as “stressful.”

“I started thinking a lot of things,” he says. “. . . That they couldn’t find the body because it was ripped apart. Or that she got knocked out through the hole in the ship and the water took her out into the harbor. You always prepare for the worst.”

In the turmoil, another thought nagged: The Falcons were supposed to play state-ranked conference foe Concord High in 24 hours.

Head coach Scott Young planned his roster without James. But at school the next day, James said he wanted to play. That night he made 18 tackles, two quarterback sacks and a fumble recovery. He also ran in the final 2-point conversion as the Falcons cruised to a 17-3 victory.

Teammates hoisted James on their shoulders and carried him off the field.

“It was highly emotional for the entire team,” Young says. “James had the guttiest performance I’ve ever seen out of a high school athlete. Me personally, I don’t know if I could’ve played that night.”

The performance earned him player-of-the-week honors from area television stations. His own attention again was elsewhere: The next morning, he took a college placement exam.

“He’s a Francis,” his father says. “We endure a lot of things.”

The Falcons’ defeat of Concord gave them three straight victories against the conference’s top teams.

“This has been the toughest season I’ve ever been a part of,” says starting quarterback Jared Barnette. “We knew deep down inside that he would be hurting, and all of us were hurting. That’s one of our brothers. Every one of these players are like brothers. We care for him so much.”

The next week, the Francis family attended the memorial service for the Cole victims in Norfolk, Va. One day later, the Navy announced it had recovered the last bodies from the Cole’s hull. The family buried Lakeina on Oct. 28.

The cycle of highs and lows turned again: James learned the week of the funeral that he had been selected to play in the Shrine Bowl, an honor bestowed on the top senior football players in North and South Carolina.

“All the awards and recognition he’s gotten are rightly deserved,” Young says. “They’re not out of pity.”

James says he spends plenty of time walking alone on his family’s property in rural Woodleaf, reflecting on memories of his sister while trying to move on.

He says he doesn’t cry anymore: “I have no more tears to cry.”

Instead, the 6-foot-1, 190-pound linebacker has channeled his hurt into football.

James finished the 11-game season with 143 tackles, four sacks and an interception return for a touchdown.

He added six more tackles in the Falcons’ first playoff game Nov. 10 as West Rowan bested Franklin High, 34-13. A week later, West Rowan moved on to the state semifinals by defeating High Point Andrews, 36-19, and James made eight tackles.

As the clock ticked down in the fourth quarter of the Nov. 3 season finale against Central Cabarrus, the West Rowan sideline was lit with smiles. The Falcons had rallied from a 7-0 halftime deficit to lead 28-13.

James had done his part, making 12 tackles in his first game since his sister’s funeral--on the same day the 200 survivors of the Cole attack returned to home port.

A well-earned smile broke across James’ face as the clock reached 00:00. The Falcons had won the Class 3-A South Piedmont Conference crown. James raised his helmet high and joined his teammates on the field to shake hands with their opponents.

His smile never wavered. He shook hands with his father, hugged teammates and laughed heartily.

Even as the celebration went on, the smoke--and the memories--hung in the air.

“What we do is try to tell him he has to go on and keep his sister’s spirit in his heart,” Ronald Francis says. “She would want him to do the best he can. He has to take one day at a time, and we’ll get through it.”