For some reason certain dates, people, times, and experiences stand out in the crowd of my memories. I’m sure the same is true for you too. It was just a few days ago that I was thinking about August 2011 and my first days on the job at Lutheran East, the students I worked with, and the impact that we made on one another. Those memories came back clearer for me during a recent conversation with Ta-Rel Franklin who joined the long blue line of Lutheran East alumni when he graduated with the class of 2012. As someone who cares about Lutheran East, I think you’ll be encouraged to learn more about Ta-Rel because in a lot of ways he is Lutheran East.
Ta-Rel attended Lutheran East for his junior and senior years after transferring in from VASJ. However, the impact Lutheran East had on him makes it feel like he was here for all four of those important high school years. Ta-Rel says that, “Lutheran East will always be part of of me” because of the ways that our staff “embraced” him, never making him feel out of place but instead supported him through the “tight knit family culture” that is lived out at Lutheran East. The impact that our Lutheran East family has had on Ta-Rel has extended far beyond his school days and is in the forefront of his mind as a basketball coach at Bluffton University.
Before committing to be the head assistant of the men’s basketball team for the Bluffton Beavers, Ta-Rel was a student athlete at Alderson Broaddus University in Philippi, WV. It was clear from my conversation with Ta-Rel that he believes that student athletes are in fact students first. He put that belief into practice in his own life having graduated from Alderson Broaddus in four years with a degree in Business Marketing and is currently pursuing his MBA at Bluffton. The art and discipline of practicing what he preaches is making an impact at Bluffton and with the student athletes that he recruits. This philosophy wasn’t a surprise to me because I’ve always known Ta-Rel to be both a talented student and athlete. It’s encouraging to hear about how for Ta-Rel, the “bigger goal” of academic achievement along with honesty and integrity have become the key tenets of his philosophy as a DIII basketball coach.
There’s always more to say, always more to write, but I’d like to end with a story that really encapsulates what Lutheran East has meant to Ta-Rel. One of the highlights of the Bluffton Beavers’ 13-12 season was an overtime win against Transylvania University. A big win is a certainly memorable, but it just so happened that Lutheran East Principal, Chris Steinmann, and teacher, Dave Jabs, made the drive to Bluffton to see that early February game in person. I think that’s what Te-Rel meant when he talked about being part of the Lutheran East family when he was a student and now as an alumnus. It’s a memory that will stand out for him when the rest of the 13 and 12 season is forgotten. Lutheran East - making an impact for today and tomorrow!