1st-year coach Ashley Franklin energizing Manual girls basketball

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- duPont Manual girls basketball is enjoying one its best seasons ever: 24-2 with one regular season game remaining before the postseason begins next week.

And they have been energized by a first-year head coach.

We should all aspire to someday achieve the level of exhilaration experienced by Ashley Franklin when she found out last May that she was the new Manual girls head basketball coach.

"When I got the call, I was like a kid in a candy store," Franklin said. "It was like Christmas Eve, and I just couldn't wait. I was very excited. I have no words. I screamed so hard I lost my voice. For two days, I was struggling. Man, I cried. It was pure joy."

That unadulterated passion screams through to her players every day.

"She's more vocal," Manual senior Jakayla Thompson said. "It's like she wants to be on the court herself. She gets after it as much as we do."

"She's always energetic," senior Sydne Tolbert added. "She's always happy, having fun, and it makes us play harder."

It's a return home for the former Ashley Butler, a wife and mother of four. She coached at Central High School for eight years, then was in Arkansas and Bowling Green with job moves for her husband, who coaches college football. She was a standout player at Manual two decades ago and played in college at St. Catherine College and Western Kentucky University.

"On the court, I'm the quiet one," Franklin said of her playing days. "When I played, I was a doer. I didn't do a lot of talking. If the ball was loose, I was on top of it. If somebody needed to take a charge, that's me. I loved defense. Yeah, I was quiet, whether you want to believe it or not."

That's not easy to believe.

When asked what has changed her into the talkative ball of energy she is as a coach with the Crimsons, Franklin had this response.

"They just excite me," she said. "I love them. It's more than just a game with these girls. I had to get to know them personally."

The more she's gotten to know them, the more she's been able to demand. An example of the personal touch happened about three-quarters of the way through a recent practice.

"I had to stop practice because I forgot to hug everybody," Franklin said. "I always ask them how their day is at the beginning of practice. 'How's your day? What's going on? Is everything OK?' Because you need to know where their mindset is coming into practice. And I always give them a hug because I don't know if they had a hug today. Maybe they had a bad day, you never know. So I make sure all the coaches, we hug each other and we hug the girls just so they know whatever kind of day you had. I still love you. It's a good day."

Manual's only two losses of the season have come against top-ranked Sacred Heart. They may get a third opportunity against the Valkyries in the 7th Region tournament. Franklin said her biggest goal is to get college scholarships for all five of her seniors. Right now, she's got three of five.