Sports
Raven Record-Holder, a Reluctant Runner?
Alonso senior Franklin Mosely is great in the 400m. He currently holds the school record. However, his journey to becoming one of the four fastest quarter-mile runners in the state was not a typical one.
"I always liked running. I just never thought I’d be this competitive,” Franklin Mosely said.
Mosely’s sport of choice would have been basketball. He’d grown up playing basketball with his friends and was fast and could dribble and shoot.
“Only I realized I was not gonna be 6 foot 2,” he said.
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Franklin began to explore other sports.
A four year player on The Alonso Ravens football team but he goes back a bit further than high school. He played flag football for a recreational league as a fourth-grader. That’s actually where he met his current track coach Roger Mills.
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“My flag football team would always beat his(Mills’) sons’ team and I think it must have got his attention,” Mosely said.
It was Mills that encouraged Mosely to join Tampa Bay Youth Football League and start playing organized footbal. Football stayed with Mosely through where he began running 200m races 4x100m and 4x200m relays. The bamboo shoots of a track career were popping up.
Mosely came to Alonso in ninth grade and started right up with the football team, but nagging injuries kept him from playing full seasons.
He wasn’t tall enough to be great at basketball. He could never quite get the opportunity he was great at football.
He discovered he was pretty great at the 400m but even that didn’t happen right away.
He spent a lot of time training for and running the 200m.
“But I just wasn’t up to speed,” Mosley said.
At districts his sophomore year, he was put on the boys 4x400m relay team and he ran a 51.60 second spilt.
“That’s when I knew, I wanted the 400,” he said.