Not all that long ago, it was considered a goal and an honor to be a three-letterman in high school. These days, it’s looked upon as insanity as it has been beaten into parents and kids’ heads that the athlete must focus on one-sport year-round if he or she ever hopes to make it to college.
Robbinsville resident Luke Franzoni has fractured that theory at Princeton Day School.
Franzoni captained the Panthers’ soccer, basketball and baseball teams this year and it has hardly hurt his stock. In fact, he has received a scholarship to play baseball with Big East power Xavier in the fall.
PDS coach Brian Dudeck, who is also Franzoni’s uncle, feels his nephew’s versatility helped his cause on the diamond, rather than hurt it.
“It’s a shame there’s so much focus on one sport,” Dudeck said. “We’re getting away from some of the things that make someone so special as an athlete. You look at a kid like him and how many do you see? Not many. If you’re a better athlete you’re gonna be a better ballplayer. You look at the kids in Mercer that are better ballplayers, they are kids that play multiple sports a majority of time.”
Franzoni hails from an uber-athletic family, so playing different sports is in-bred with him. And he loves it.
“I think playing all three in high school has been awesome,” he said. “I love to compete, and each sport has a different type of energy to it. I think that three sports makes me better in each of them. It has helped to give me a different kind of tenacity and aggressiveness that maybe you can’t just get from playing solely baseball. I think soccer and basketball has also helped with my fitness and stamina.”
Whatever the reasons, bonuses or factors are, Franzoni became one of Mercer County’s top middle infielders during his career.
Franzoni’s father was an outstanding soccer and baseball player at the Hun School and was obviously a huge supporter of Luke and his brother, Paul. As a youngster in Ewing, Franzoni looked up to his sibling – who is older by one year — while playing T-ball in Moody Park at age 5. The family moved to Robbinsville later that summer and Franzoni played in the Robbinsville Little League until age 12.
“It almost seems like I’ve been playing baseball ever since I was born,” he said.
Franzoni also played travel ball with the Hamilton A’s, where Dudeck was his coach. He moved on to play with the New Jersey Diamondjacks in Flemington, “who really helped with recruiting and showcasing myself for college.”
His career at Princeton Day School was a steady rise. Franzoni hit .222 as a freshman, .316 as a sophomore, .431 as a junior and .538 this season. His RBI total went from 3 to 16 to 18 to 25 and his runs scored increased from 2 to 10 to 28 to 29. He finished with a .415 career average, 24 doubles, five triples and 17 home runs as he blasted six round-trippers last year and 10 this season. As a pitcher this year, he went 3-3 with a 4.20 ERA.
Those glittering offensive stats were not due to talent alone.
“I think he’s got a great work ethic,” Dudeck said. “That’s the difference between him and a lot of kids. It just so happens we had guys in our program before him that kind of showed him the way. Hopefully we hand that down throughout the program and it keeps going.”
Two of those kids were Paul and the Franzonis’ cousin, BJ Dudeck (Brian’s son). Both former Panthers are playing Division I baseball, with Paul at NJIT and Dudeck at LaSalle. While Luke plays three sports, most of his focus has been on baseball and his family has been there to help.
“Throughout the entire summer and spring, it’s all baseball,” Franzoni said. “BJ, me and Paul constantly motivate one another. The summer usually consists of morning workouts, a thing we call the ‘meat shack’, consisting of flipping tires and pushing cars, and then baseball work after that.”
Franzoni considers Paul one of his biggest role models and his biggest supporter.
“It’s tough not getting to be in the same dugout and play together anymore, but I know that he’s always got my back,” Franzoni said. “It’s awesome to get to have a brother and best friend that shares the same passion as me because we’re always on the same page. We love to get work in together, and I don’t think I can name anything we both love more than strapping up for some on field BP (batting practice) at the PDS ballpark. I couldn’t be more proud to watch him play this year for NJIT and I know he’ll do the same for me next year.”
Franzoni has similar words of praise for his cousin.
“BJ has been such a huge help with my swing and approach at the plate, and there is no one that I can attribute my success to more other than him,” Luke said. “Whether it be helping me with timing, loft, getting the right spin on the ball, etc. BJ has done it all for me and really helped to improve my swing. I have a pretty big leg kick now that I didn’t use as a freshman and sophomore, and that’s definitely helped in terms of generating power for extra base hits.”
Despite playing outfield most of his life, Franzoni played shortstop and catcher in his final two high school seasons, and was recruited as a middle infielder by Xavier. He ended up with the Musketeers after also talking to Yale, Lafayette, Rider, Dartmouth and several other schools.
“Growing up, I didn’t really know too much about Xavier other than hearing about them a little bit in the March Madness Tournaments,” Franzoni said. “Last summer though, I reached out to their new head coach because I was really intrigued by the Jesuit school with a great baseball program in the Big East conference.”
Some texts and phone conversations with Billy O’Conner led to Franzoni sending a recruiting video to the new head coach, who eventually went to watch him play in Georgia with the Diamondjacks.
“I went over to visit about a month later and everything about it felt right,” Franzoni said. “The coaching staff is full of young guys that are easy to relate to and willing to do anything for the players. The campus and facilities are awesome and I was instantly hooked on Xavier after that.”
He plans on majoring in business, which is known as one of the top fields offered at the Cincinnati-based school.
“I’m very excited to get the opportunity to pursue that,” Franzoni said. “In terms of career plans, I’m open to anything. Knowing that my major and interests may change as I branch out in college is awesome and I’m excited to see where everything takes me.”
Luke Franzoni is hitting .538 for Princeton Day School baseball. (Photo by Rich Fisher.),
