Saint Joseph volleyball coach retires after 20 years

Friday, Mar. 13, 2015

OGDEN — Ray Franklin, Saint Joseph Catholic High School head volleyball coach, retired when the season ended in October. He had coached at the school for 20 years. 

Franklin began his coaching career at St. Joseph in 1994 as the assistant track and field coach. In 1995 he became the physical education instructor, assistant athletic director and assistant women’s volley ball coach. 

In 1996 he was appointed athletic director, head volleyball coach and head track and field coach while teaching physical education until 2006, when he left the school to pursue other opportunities, he said. 

Even then, he remained the volleyball coach. 

During his tenure as athletic director, SJCHS athletic teams won nine state championships and 16 region championships. In 2004, Franklin was named Athletic Director of the Year for the UIAAA in the State of Utah. Also, in 2004, he received the Distinguished Service Award for UHSAA as 1A Coach of the Year.

The Jayhawks won their first 1A UHSAA State Championship title in volleyball in 2013 in four sets against the Piute Thunderbirds, and were undefeated in Region 18.

For the first four years of Franklin’s career, the team was “not very good,” he said. “I think I won 18 games and lost 78. Over the years, we continued to get better; I became a better coach and gained more experience.  I also had kids who were more interested in learning how to play volleyball.” 

Cindy White was a big part of SJCHS’ success, said Franklin. “She was the volleyball coach the first season I was at St. Joseph,” he said. “In 1995, she was pregnant with Mady White, currently a senior, and Cindy came back as my assistant coach in 2010.  I cannot express enough how valuable she has been to me as an assistant coach; she is an excellent coach and we are very much alike in the way we approach coaching.” 

White and Franklin reversed roles when “my daughter was a freshman,” said White. “Coach Franklin is one of the most passionate and energetic men I have ever met and coached with in club volleyball, and he definitely passes that on to all the players he has ever coached. He has touched so many players’ lives.” 

Not only is Franklin an “exceptional coach,” he is an “exceptional person,” White said. “He not only coaches and teaches these girls how to play volleyball, he also teaches them life lessons in the process. It is amazing to me how, even to this day, he has past players come and visit him, just to talk to him; to me that is everything as a coach.” 

Franklin didn’t expect to stay at SJCHS for as long as he did, but “the St. Joseph community has been my family for the last 20 years, and I’ve had great opportunities to teach and coach there, to be the athletic director and I’ve always had great support from the administration and the parents and other coaches,” he said. “It has been a great place to work.” 

Franklin will miss the kids, the practices, the bus rides and the crying in the locker room, he said. “It’s been fun; 18 years of coaching a lot of kids in volleyball, having their parents trust in me that I am doing the best that I can for their kids is a huge honor to have. I can’t even count how many kids I have coached and how much I have been able to learn from those kids; it’s been amazing and a lot of memories.”

As a coach, Franklin didn’t talk to the kids about winning, he said, “the basis was helping them become better individuals through their spirituality, taking care of one another, teamwork and family, and that is what I will miss about St. Joseph; we were a family.”