Frankford star cornerback sitting this season out
Hoping to avoid injury, Anthony Wright-Downing is forgoing football to concentrate on basketball for his senior year.
FRANKFORD HIGH is one of the few remaining places in the city where you might find multisport stars, as most of its programs are routinely competitive and success breeds participation.
However, missing from this year's football roster is last year's starting cornerback, Anthony Wright-Downing, a skywalking athlete, who is also one of the Public League's top senior wing guard prospects at Sankofa Charter. Sankofa, whose main campus sits in the heart of East Frankford, has a cooperative sponsorship with Frankford for football. Wright-Downing who is being recruited by strong Division II schools West Chester, Holy Family and East Stroudsburg, now reluctantly serves as the Pioneers' ballboy on game days.
So why isn't one of the Pub's better DBs playing football?
"I just didn't want to get hurt," he said. "Last year, I ended the season with a partial tear in my shoulder that caused me to miss the early part of the basketball season. I really miss football, but don't want to risk any setbacks, so I'm just going to concentrate on hoops.
"Besides, my mom can still watch my brother, Qwamere [a budding star defensive end for Imhotep] play."
Wright-Downing had played both football and basketball since age 8 while growing up in between Frankford and North Philly. He now resides in Holmesburg and is planning for a monster winter on the hardwood.
City tidbits
Oh, how the mightly have fallen: Research shows that traditional Pub powers Frankford, Northeast and Washington, playfully termed the Boulevard Boys by other Pub coaches, have never before started the season all at 0-3. Even worse, their combined scores are a whopping minus-200 at 97-297. Ouch!! . . . Olney junior quarterback Kadir Chisholm has seven TD tosses in three games. In 2011, the Trojans had zero all season . . . Springside Chestnut Hill Academy has quietly impressed with a 3-0 start, as has Archbishop Ryan, which is being led by a Father Judge transfer, junior running back Samir Bullock (54-for-609, seven TDs) . . . Stop the press!! Franklin, which until recent years, rarely has had a kicker, had a good one this year. His name: Ismaila Saka and, yes, he plays soccer. . . . Finally, there were eight shutouts involving city league teams last weekend.