Once Low in Ratings, Franklin Moving to Top of Its Own Chart

In the colorfully painted, blue-and-yellow basketball team room at Franklin High, the hard times endured by Panther squads of the past are recorded in black and white.

A poster-sized, hand-printed chart that hangs on the wall details two decades of futility, keeping Franklin players from feeling too comfortable amid the cushiness of the room.

Grabbing a snack from the refrigerator, changing the tune on the stereo or plopping down on the roomy couch to watch television is impossible without being reminded that:

* Franklin has enjoyed only three winning seasons in league play since 1970.

* The last time Franklin made a playoff appearance was in 1978.

* The school’s record in league games over the last 10 years is 26-85.

* From the 1985-86 season to 1987-88 the Panthers were 4-26 in league campaigns.

“I look at those records and wish we could do better and make up for all those years,” says senior guard Alfonso Pule. “When I came here as a sophomore, nobody really cared.

“I knew it was a chance for us to turn it around and I think we’re doing a pretty good job.”

Indeed, Franklin began the week 13-5 overall, 5-2 in the Northern Conference of the City Section and in the hunt for a playoff appearance and a 20-win season.

After years of being overshadowed by Franklin’s highly successful football team, the basketball program is gaining attention.

Most people credit second-year Coach Robin Cardona, a 1977 Franklin alumnus who was an assistant football coach at the school from 1983-1988 when the Panthers won three of their four City championships.

“Coach Cardona is like a father, a brother and a friend,” Pule says. “He talks to us and communicates. We know most of his family and everyone does things together. We’re into it.”

Cardona, 30, knows something about building from scratch. In 1979, he suffered a broken neck while playing football at Chapman College and was paralyzed from the neck down for three weeks. He gradually regained the use of his arms and legs and went on to graduate from Whittier College.

Cardona returned to Franklin in 1983 as a student teacher and replaced Chuck Donaghho as basketball coach before last season.

“My first love is basketball,” says Cardona, who in high school played football, basketball and baseball and participated in track.

Many of Cardona’s motivational techniques, however, are borrowed from his football experience. Franklin’s football teams, often undersized, are characterized by their discipline and execution.

“In football, we started winning and beating teams we weren’t supposed to because of teamwork,” Cardona says. “We’re trying to establish that in basketball and I think it’s working.”

Talented players, of course, make things easier, and Franklin has several. Pule is averaging 17 points and senior forward Juwan Smith averages 16 points and eight rebounds.

But there can be no discounting the pride that Cardona and his assistants, Paul Arreola and Robert Cardona, have instilled in the program.

Last season, coaches and players converted the visitors’ dressing area into the Panther team room.

The staff also produced a schedule-poster that featured a photograph of tuxedo-clad Franklin players over the slogan “A Touch of Class.”

The Panthers, with a junior-dominated team, finished 14-10 overall and 8-6 in conference.

This season, the poster included a photo of the players perched on a bulldozer and donning hard hats with the slogan “The Rebuilding is Over.”

But for all the strides that the Panthers have made the past two seasons, Cardona will not be able to claim truth in advertising until the Panthers return to the 3-A playoffs.

Last season, Franklin and Eagle Rock tied for second place in the Northern League behind Wilson. In a one-game playoff to determine which would advance to the City postseason tournament, Eagle Rock won by a point.

Franklin players are eager to avenge that defeat and leave their mark on the team chart--and the program.

“We made ourselves known a little bit last year,” Smith says. “We got people to say, ‘Oh, there’s a Franklin basketball team.

“This year, we’re ready to let them know we’re for real.”