ABILENE – Abilene ISD announced Wednesday that Hale Center High School girls’ basketball coach Alfonzo Franklin – who won 63 games over the last three seasons with the Lady Owls – has been hired to the same position at Abilene High School.
Franklin replaces Brenda Andress, who is leaving the program as the head coach after three seasons. Andress led the Lady Eagles to a 17-16 record and a berth in the Class 5A state playoffs last season, the program’s first postseason berth since the 2018-19 season.
Franklin grew up in Littlefield, Texas, graduated from Eastern New Mexico in 2011, and has spent his entire teaching and coaching career in the Texas Panhandle, working in Sudan, Littlefield, Lubbock, and Hale Center. He’s been an assistant football, basketball, volleyball, and track and field coach in those stops.
Before getting his first head coaching job at Hale Center before the 2021-22 season, Franklin spent two seasons at Lubbock Estacado High School as an assistant boys’ basketball coach for head coach Tony Wagner. Franklin has made three trips to the state playoffs at Hale Center in his first head coaching job.
“The application pool for the job was deep, but Alfonzo rose to the top,” AISD Athletics Director Jim Garfield said. “I believe the energy he’s going to bring to the program is exactly what we need to continue the momentum with that program.”
Franklin’s selection as the next AHS head coach is the culmination of an eight-year journey to a head coaching job at a bigger program.
“It’s been my goal to be a head coach at a bigger school, but that’s not why I’m excited to be at Abilene High,” Franklin said. “I believe we’ve got a team on the cusp of having big seasons. The energy and effort I will bring daily to the job will be contagious. I want the players to be proud of what we do and achieve.”
Franklin and his wife, Myesha, have five children. He will begin his duties at Abilene High this summer.
