Faith through the Struggle, for DVC football alumni Franklin Uesi

Sasan Sayyar

Franklin Uesi taking a break from play during a stoppage in the game.

Alaina Limbrick, Guest writer
December 13, 2016

We live in a city rich in football success with many local names to represent. One name that is even closer to home and who has been having career success is Franklin Uesi. Uesi, a former Diablo Valley College defensive lineman, has been having a game changing year thus far.
One of many Diablo Valley recruits this past spring, Uesi was picked up by The University of Texas at San Antonio to play division 1 football. Along with scoring a scholarship, Uesi graduated and obtained an AA in Humanities. Though Franklin has had many successes during his career so far, things have not always come easy.
I took a quick trip to Texas, to see Franklin and the UTSA football team take on North Texas, UTSA came out on top 31-17.  After the game Franklin sat down for an emotional and motivating interview about his past and present struggles and how they lead to his current success.
Franklin began his football career playing for College Park high school his senior year. Before football, Franklin’s sport of choice was rugby. 
Though Usei excelled on the field in both sports, in the classroom was a different story. He was not eligible to graduate on to college after finding out his senior year that he was 5 credits shy. Uesi explained that during his high school years there were troubles at home that contributed to his decline in school, “Sometimes I would come home and the lights might be off for a few days, or there wouldn’t be food to eat or water” said Uesi. Uesi, one of many children in his home, further explained how he would survive in tough times, “I would ask to spend the night at my friends’ houses, I would be able to eat and take a shower, that’s basically how I would make it through those times, I’m thankful for the friends I have”.
When things began to become rougher in his high school years Uesi also went into detail on a close encounter to end his life due to home struggles. “I had reached a point to where I was asking God is this how my life will turn out? Is this all that it will be? And at that moment I didn’t want to live and contemplated suicide, this was my lowest point in high school,” said Uesi. Instead of letting his circumstances around him pull him down, he decided to do everything possible he could to graduate. After finding out his fate academically, he continued on with school and took the necessary night course to graduate.
Senior year, while approaching the end of his football season, he found out due to his grades he wouldn’t be able to play for an upper division school, even though he was successful on the field. With unfortunate news hitting him again, he decided to continue on playing the season and it ended up paying off. Things soon got better after he caught the eye of Diablo Valley football coach Vince Bordelon.
Bordelon found Uesi and wanted to bring him onto the DVC football team if he was open, Uesi explained why he committed to DVC, “Coach Bordelon told me he would train me, he saw something in me and told me if I wanted to go to the league to follow him and that’s what I did” said Uesi. When asked about his beginning experience and transition preparing for college level football at DVC, he did not hesitate to explain the coaches’ impact, “Coach V also explained it would be a lot of hard work coming from high school football to college football, he trained me on and off season before and after I had night school in high school due to me making up credits to graduate” said Uesi.
With the daily school and home troubles, he decided to not let it hinder him, but  he wanted to obtain success on the field even more to better his future. 
When asked did he feel prepared for division 1 after playing for DVC he explained, “Coach Darr and Coach V helped me be prepared. Coach Darr helped me realize that being a student comes before being an athlete, and Coach V helped me become a man and taught me many things not just on the field — they both became big figures in my life”. Uesi credited the coaches for his success and being able to continue on to division 1.
With new levels come new struggles, Franklin began to explain how he has adjusted to moving to a new team, saying, “ It’s been an adjustment, learning to trust the man next to you on your team, you’re only as strong as your weakest person.”
Not only has he had to adjust to a new team, but a new state. He explained how the experience has been in a new state and the things he misses back home in California, “I miss my family, they are the ones I think about before games all the time, my sibling created a group chat for the games they cannot make and they send encouraging messages, my mom also created a Facebook just to post about my football season to keep my family posted, I can’t wait to come home to spend time with them, I get home sick a lot”.
Ending the interview, he was asked what inspired him to keep going and he said, “My faith had brought me this far, from almost not graduating high school, to almost missing the opportunity to play college football, and wanting to end my life due to family circumstances, I kept my faith through it all and I just want to inspire young people who come behind me.”
He made it clear his plans for the future and last upcoming senior college season, “I plan to play next year at UTSA, and I plan to make it to the professional league after and make my family proud and be able to provide,” said Uesi.