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Blue Knights duo heading to semis

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Crestwood’s quick start dooms Tunkhannock in District 2 boys lacrosse playoffs

For James Franklin, the operative word this offseason is &#8220;growth.&#8221; Especially for a pair of District 2 alums.As the Penn State coach prepares to visit Wilkes-Barre on May 21 as part of Penn State&#8217;s Coaches Caravan, he talked to the Times Leader on Wednesday about the maturation of two starters from the area &#8212; wideout Eugene Lewis and linebacker Nyeem Wartman.In the latter case, actually, the change goes well past the realm of football. The Valley View grad announced on Sunday that he will now be known as Nyeem Wartman-White to honor his mother, Veronica White.&#8220;Since she was the one who raised me my whole life, I feel she has the right to see her last name on the child she has raised and provided for,&#8221; Wartman-White wrote on Facebook on Mother&#8217;s Day. &#8220;I want her to feel appreciated every time the announcers say my name and when the journalists write articles about me. My family is my motivation and she deserves this.&#8221;&#8220;I think it&#8217;s awesome,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;We talk all the time about being appreciative. And he&#8217;s a guy that&#8217;s growing up in so many areas. Academically, athletically and also emotionally. That&#8217;s a tremendous message that he&#8217;s sending. Not only to his mother, but to a lot of people.&#8220;We need to be appreciative of our families and our communities. It&#8217;s something you don&#8217;t get as a kid, but as you get older, you&#8217;re able to look and see what people have done for you and what they&#8217;ve sacrificed. For him to take time to honor his mom and all the hard work she&#8217;s done, and to do it so publicly, is awesome.&#8221;Though he was banged up during spring practice and was held out of the Blue-White Game, Wartman-White is projected to be the Nittany Lions&#8217; starting middle linebacker this season.He and Lewis will be entering their fourth year with the Lions as redshirt juniors this fall, continuing to raise Northeastern Pennsylvania&#8217;s profile with the program. The duo combined to make 23 starts last season.Franklin&#8217;s expectations for Lewis in 2015 were set right after the former Wyoming Valley Conference star turned in a big second half to help the Lions rally for an overtime victory in the Pinstripe Bowl. He said during the postgame that he was anxious to see the mentality and work ethic Lewis would bring to spring practice.&#8220;He&#8217;s still got room for growth &#8212; that&#8217;s the exciting thing,&#8221; Franklin said Wednesday. &#8220;He&#8217;s been a pretty good player, but can grow in a lot of different areas. Physically, mentally, emotionally. All these things.&#8220;He has the ability to be a dynamic player for us.&#8221;Lewis showed flashes of that last season, playing critical roles in comeback wins against UCF, Rutgers and Boston College &#8212; three games in which he combined for 21 catches, 364 yards and two touchdowns. In the other 10 games, he had 34 receptions for 387 yards and no scores.Franklin said he expects a year of experience in the system will help Lewis with his consistency.&#8220;He&#8217;s a smart guy,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;He&#8217;s conscientious. He wants to be a good player. This spring he was much more comfortable with what we were asking him to do and in his relationship with his position coach (Josh Gattis).&#8220;Just his comfort with the offense and his coach &#8212; knowing why we&#8217;re asking him to do things and how &#8212; all those things are going to help him.&#8221;Notes&#8226; The Wilkes-Barre stop on the Coaches Caravan will be the final one of the tour. Franklin will be joined at the F.M. Kirby Center by women&#8217;s volleyball coach Russ Rose and wrestling coach Cael Sanderson.Athletic director Sandy Barbour and quarterbacks coach Ricky Rahne, who recruits Luzerne and Lackawanna County for Penn State, are also scheduled to be in attendance.Registration can be made online at <a href="http://tlgets.me/caravan" target="_blank">tlgets.me/caravan</a> for $55 for the general public and $40 for members of the Penn State Alumni Association and Nittany Lion Club as well as one guest. The cost for children ages 6-18 is $15 and ages 5-and-under are free.Walk-ins will be admitted that evening for an extra $10 fee, pending space.&#8226; Franklin said he had not received any transfer requests at the end of the semester and he expects everyone to return for preseason camp this summer.&#8226; What is Franklin looking for from his players when they do get back to campus?&#8220;Ownership,&#8221; Franklin said. &#8220;Last year was difficult. They didn&#8217;t have the summer they wanted to have because they were still trying to figure it all out. Now they know the playbook. They know the expectations.&#8220;Now it&#8217;s up to this group of guys to take ownership of the team and get a lot of productive work out of the summer. It&#8217;s about taking control of their fate, their destiny. They may have wanted to do that last summer, but there depth issues. There were changes. Now they can do that.&#8221;

District 2 grads ‘growing up’ for Penn State, Franklin