Watseka Warriors new head football coach looking forward to season

He is also inviting any of the students who might be wanting to be part of the Watseka Warriors family to attend practices next week.

“If any kid is sitting there on the fence and thinking ‘man, what’s this new coach like’, I just ask them to give me a chance and come out,” he said.

A 2012 graduate of Dwight High School, Fransen played football in Macon at Meridian High School before his family moved to Dwight mid-year his senior year.

He then went on to Illinois State University and was a student coach there for three years. “That was a really cool experience,” he said, noting that the team went to a national championship in January of 2015.

He worked at Bloomington High School, then Illinois Wesleyan, Tri Valley and Herscher. Along the way each of the coaches he worked under taught him different aspects of coaching and working with the athletes.

“I’ve always had a passion for football,” he said.

“I knew Watseka was a proud football community,” he said. “We have a staff that is phenomenal and administrators that are on board with what we are doing. I realized right off the back we have a good core group of kids who want this program to go in the right direction.”

He said the last week of summer practice he was able to talk to the athletes one on one. “We talked about family and growing together as a team,” he said. “I talked about team goals. I asked them to write one word that would define the Warriors 2022 season and overwhelmingly words like family and together kept coming up.”

He said he feels the team is going in the right direction. “It’s exciting to see that growth from the kids and I’m glad I can be a part of it.”

Fransen said he has a Leadership Council filled with athletes from freshman to senior. “They had to apply for it,” he said. “I’m really trying to build a team of leaders who left each other up.”

When practices start Aug. 8 the team will meet from 6-8 p.m.

The first game for the Warriors is Georgetown Ridge Farm at Watseka on Aug. 26.

Those who would like to contact Fransen can do so by emailing him at max.fransen@watsekschools.org. There is a Watseka Warriors Football Facebook page through which people can also contact him.