Senior Spotlight: Jakob Francois

Senior Jakob Francois runs cross country for Cache High School. He also runs the 800, the 1 mile and the 2 mile in long-distance track.

Francois is also in Beta club, which promotes community service, which he said enjoys being a part of.

His running career began when he was trying out different sports.

“Like when I did cross country when I did track, I always just liked running, so, and also, I love the people and the coach involved, and that kept me, that kept me in it, even though it's really hard,” Francois said.

He said his greatest accomplishment was making it to state all the years he ran cross country.

“Before, like when I was a freshman, I ran like a 22-minute 5K or something, and now I've got that down to a 17:30, and I'm very proud of that,” Francois said.

When it comes to academic achievements, he is also in the National Honor Society.

“I'm in the National Honor Society, and I've received the letter C award, which I'm pretty proud of,” Francois said. “And I mean, it's not like an award, but like, I took some AP classes, and I passed those, and I'm in concurrent enrollment, so I'm proud of that as well.”

He said he’ll miss Cache High School.

“And in cross country and track, I'll definitely miss the team,” Francois said. “They're a great group of guys.They're my best friends and the coach. I mean, I won't have him for track because he's retiring from cross country this year, but he's the best coach I've ever had. He's a great coach, and he's really, really great to hang around,”

He also participates in the Comanche Workforce summer program, which Francois said keeps him close to his culture.

“I've learned a little bit of, like, language. Not enough to, like, speak anything, but that's mostly it,” he said. “We have, like, some pictures and, like, decorations in our house from, like, the Comanches to, you know, show people, like, when they come in that we are part of the Comanche tribe.”

After graduating, Francois said he plans to go to college for four years and then go to medical school for dermatology.

“Really, I've just always liked, like, biology, anatomy, stuff like that, and, you know, just looking at the jobs,” he said. “Like, I used to have really bad acne, and whenever I went to the dermatologist, like, I was always really insecure about my acne, and, like, whenever that finally went away, I was so happy. So, like, I want to kind of do that for other people as well.”

When he’s not studying or running, Francois enjoys reading and said his favorite book series is the Hunger Games, and sometimes he plays video games.