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Francois leveraged humility, hard work and resilience to join Northeastern’s NCAA team and fulfill his dream of playing college basketball.
Nate Francois quit basketball for two years in high school. That should have been the end of his career in the sport. Instead a new door led him on a serpentine and uncertain path.
It began unexpectedly at Northeastern University, where he redefined himself by leading the nation in scoring — as a club player.
In two attempts Francois failed to earn a walk-on role with the Huskies’ NCAA team. Along the way he served as a student manager for the team, which was the most humbling step in his transformation.
This past September, at the start of his senior year, Francois was invited to the men’s basketball offices by Patrick Isberg, director of basketball operations. By now he knew everyone in the program and they knew him. The entire team was waiting to celebrate with him as coach Bill Coen informed Francois that he would be part of the Huskies’ roster as a walk-on.
“It’s crazy because this year I didn’t try out for the team,” says Francois, a 6-foot-1 guard who has appeared in three games for the Huskies (8-5) this season with the ultimate dream of advancing to March Madness. “All the guys were super happy. It came out of nowhere.”
In fact, Coen says, Francois had been investing in his ascension to Division 1 basketball for years — ever since a falling out with his high school coach in Francois’s freshman year.
“I was a little hard-headed,” Francois says. “I had a little anger problem so I ended up getting kicked off the team because we kept butting heads.”
If he could go back in time, Francois says, he would advise his younger self to “be patient.”
“One of the greatest things about this game is how it teaches you about life,” Coen says. “The guys that think it’s just about wins and losses, I think they miss the bigger picture. And the guys that embrace the feedback that the game gives you and address those feedbacks, those are the big winners.
“The game taught Nate a lesson. He used that lesson and he leveraged it. The basketball gods reward that type of mindset. And that’s what has landed him on our roster.”
His two years without organized basketball were “some really dark times in my life,” says Francois, who returned to the court for his senior year of high school in Boston.
Francois, who will graduate this spring in finance, had hoped to play Division 2 or 3 basketball. Instead he enrolled at Northeastern on an academic scholarship that kept him close to his Boston home.
“I’m a mama’s boy and my mom wanted me to come to Northeastern for academics — she’s my closest friend,” Francois says. “I definitely wanted to play basketball for the next four years. But Northeastern sets me up for long after basketball.”
Club basketball helped fulfill his desire. Francois often acted like a coach on the floor while leading his Northeastern team (37-2) to a No. 1 ranking. The team fell short of winning the national championship even as Francois was named Club Basketball Tournament MVP while averaging 34 points per game.
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Francois was living two distant lives — one as a club star, the other as a student manager doing menial chores at Husky practices and games. Francois took on that role to insert himself into Coen’s program. He wanted the coaches and players to recognize his devotion to the game.
“It was a big shock to my pride,” Francois says. “All my friends growing up are playing Division 1 or Division 2 basketball. I didn’t want nobody to know I was doing it.”
“The managers are really the most special among us,” Coen says. “They do things without reward, fanfare or glory. They do it willingly and without pay. They are team-first and the only reward is they get to be a part of it. And when you have that type of mindset that Nate demonstrated, you know that’s going to carry over as a player as well. His ability to humble himself to that level showed that he wanted something more.”
Francois used his season as manager to see firsthand how hard he would need to work in order to make the team. After the Husky practices he would stay in the gym to work on his game.
“Coen, he never really said anything, but he always took a peek in the gym to see what I was working on,” Francois says.
Francois is often asked how it feels to be in uniform playing Division 1 basketball.
“As a competitor I’m like, what am I going to contribute to a win?” he says. “There was a game this year against Vermont, we weren’t playing that well and coach threw me in out of nowhere. I went out there and I fouled. I wasn’t ready for the moment. And I’m mad at myself about that all the time. I should have been more ready for the moment. I should have made sure I was super locked in.
“I got subbed out and only played 17 seconds that game. My friends back home were like, ‘He should have left you in longer, let you get in the flow.’ But I had that opportunity. I didn’t make the most of it. That’s how I think about it, that’s my whole mindset every time before a basketball game. Make the most of it.”
Francois plans to apply the lessons of his journey to a career in finance long after his basketball career is done.
“Hopefully my biggest thing will be to show kids there’s other ways out of the community besides playing basketball,” he says. “You can go to school and get an education and still find a way to make your dream come true. My goal really is to be an inspiration to the community. This is so much bigger than me.”