Watseka football continues to Tackle Disabilities with 3rd annual camp

As he worked as an intern on the Illinois State Universty coaching staff and then served as an assistant at Herscher prior to his current role, Watseka football coach Max Fransen noticed both how much of an effort both schools made to interact with students with mental and physical disabilities and also how much those interactions meant to his autistic godson, Leslie Lambert.

“I just saw the impact the athletes had on him,” Fransen said. “Whenever he met someone, he never forgot them. I had a quarterback at Herscher, Brock Wenzelman, and to this day, he asks, ‘How’s Brock?’ Seeing the impact it has, I had to bring this to everyone.”

Fransen, now entering his fourth season as the Warriors’ head coach, and the school held their third annual Tackling Disabilities football camp Saturday evening. Scattered storms forced the camp inside, where 15 or so campers were guided through a handful of stations by members of the Watseka football program and coaching staff and given time at the end to go back and repeat their favorite stations, play catch or just soak in the vibes with the player they were partnered with.

Camper Evan Hudson, who will be starting his freshman year at Watseka next month, confirmed through Warriors assistant Andrew Swanson that tackling and performing touchdown dances – which ranged from the gritty dance to legendary tight end Rob Gronkowski’s signature spike – were his favorite parts of camp. For Watseka senior Austin Morris, it was simply being able to take part in something that meant so much to fellow youth in his community.

“It means a lot,” Morris said. “I like to come out here and give it my all. It means something to me in a generation where it doesn’t always.”

For Fransen, the best part is simply seeing the smiles on the faces of the campers. And now in year three, some of those faces are becoming quite familiar.

“What’s really cool is seeing the kids that have come back,” Fransen said. “I think all but one of the kids here today had been here for at least one year, and four of them have been here for three years. I first posted it in March, and that first day I got six people that signed up, all people that had been here before.”

The camp is one of the last times members of the football program will spend together before the IHSA dead period ahead of the first official day of practice Monday, Aug. 11. After marrying his wife, Kate, in June, this summer has gone by quicker than most for Fransen, but he said it’s been quite a fruitful July as the program has slightly changed its identity in a fashion that’s “nothing drastic, just enough to make it exciting for the boys.

“We’ve been super proud of the way the kids have come out and taken to everything,” Fransen said. “They’ve really soaked everything up. We have a really solid core group of starters. We need more depth and more kids to come out, but the kids that have come out every day have gotten better. It really shows whenever you show up and commit to getting better.”

One of the kids who has shown up every day is Morris, who is making the offensive move from running back to quarterback. As one of the seniors who were freshmen when Fransen took over, Morris said his class has a special connection with Fransen, giving them a little extra motivation to get him his first playoff appearance as a coach after a second straight 3-6 finish a year ago.

“In my opinion, coming out there and winning would mean so much to me because I’ve been with him for four years, his first four years [with one group] of seniors,” Morris said, “It would mean a ton to go win it and bring some love to the community to hopefully get some more players out.”

As he took part in camp Saturday, Hudson got a special look at how the team is shaping up by seeing how well players and coaches led their drills. And out of their nine regular-season games, Hudson has a good idea of how many of those the Warriors will win.

“Nine,” he said with a smile.

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Jackson Dickte, left, catches a pass from David Barwegen during Watseka's Tackling Disabilities football camp Saturday, July 26, 2025. (Mason Schweizer)