In the summer of 2014, 13-year-old Justyn Ross tried to weasel his way out of playing football. A soon-to-be high school freshman, Justyn refused to spend the entire summer training to play with the varsity, where coaches moved him because of his insane athletic ability. He missed his friends, all of whom were on the junior varsity squad, and he didn’t like football anyway—he was a basketball guy, with dreams of playing in college.
“He quit every day,” says Charay Franklin, Ross’s mother.
No one wanted Ross to quit football. Franklin even confiscated his cell phone to encourage him to rejoin the team, and his position coach at Central (Ala.