Frantz used football as career catalyst
Chalk Hill native Justin Frantz has accomplished a lot in his professional life, but football was the catalyst for everything.
Frantz was an outstanding lineman and running back at Geibel High School in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
“I was a part of some very good Geibel teams, compared to what is happening with the program now,” Frantz said. “It’s been sort of a shame to watch, some of the recent years have been pretty hard, but yeah it was a great time when I played. At that time everybody wanted to play football and the coaches were pretty successful and I really played with a great bunch of guys and I’m still good friends with everybody that I played with.”
Frantz was on Geibel squads under coach Sully Gambone that posted records of 6-3-1 in 1989, 10-1 in 1990, the lone loss was to Rochester 35-15 in the WPIAL playoffs. In 1991, the Gators were 9-3.
“We knew at that time that we had a great coaching staff,” Frantz opined. “That helped us and gave us more confidence. Don Lynn was the offensive coach and he was calling the plays usually from the booth and he was a great play caller. Of course, coach Tom Sankovich whipping us into shape, he was the defensive coach. Coach Gambone was a great guy and just pulled everything together, it was pretty special playing for those guys.”
Geibel was blessed with some outstanding talent at the time.
“We had good quarterbacking with Brian Staines, who played at Duquesne, and good receiving, with Tom Labuda who played a little at Pitt,” Frantz said. “We had a good second level of guys that probably could have played in college and we had some great underclassmen.”
Geibel played in the Tri-County South Conference and during this era notched some big wins over Greensburg Central Catholic, beating the Centurions 16-14 in 1988 and 21-8 in 1990, but the Gators big rival was Monessen.
“Beating Greensburg Central Catholic was big at the time because they were a Class AA school and we were Class A,” Frantz recalled. “It was great that we could compete with them. In the conference it was usually us and Monessen every year. We had some great games against Monessen and we beat them. We beat Monessen the year we went 10-0 in 1990 at Monessen 7-6 and that didn’t happen very often.”
Frantz played offensive line and defensive end for most of his career at Geibel and was switched to the fullback spot on offense as a senior.
“It was weird because I was always one of the fastest guys on the team,” Frantz stated. “I was also one of the biggest guys and we were always hurting for size on the line. I was an offensive lineman, my strong point was always defense. My senior year we needed somebody at fullback and I could hit and I could block and I was able to use my speed and I became an effective running back.”
Frantz would tally nine touchdowns his senior season and scored on a 27-yard run against Avella and had touchdown runs of 20 and 28 yards against Belpre High School of Ohio.
“Running in the open field was a new experience for me,” Frantz chuckled. “On defense, in the 5-2 we played, I was a stand up defensive end.”
When Frantz graduated from Geibel in 1992, the 6-2 200-pounder headed to the Ivy League at Harvard.
“I did get recruited by four or five Ivy League schools and a couple of Patriot League schools,” Frantz explained. “Coach Sankovich had a connection with assistant coach Dick Corbin at Harvard. That was the connection that got me on the radar at Harvard. My grades and SAT scores were a big reason that they liked me.”
At Harvard, Frantz was on teams that finished 9-21 from 1993-1995.
“Harvard has had a great winning percentage since then,” Frantz said. “When I got up there it was a transition period. Joe Restic was the head coach and he was just about to retire. My sophomore year was the old coaching staff and then Tim Murphy came in. It was a big transition period.”
Frantz had a nice career with the Crimson. In 1994, he played in all 10 games and started eight of them. He made a team-high 98 stops (61 primary, 37 assisted), five games with 11 or more tackles. Made a Harvard single-game record 18 tackles against Cornell (now second in the Harvard record books). He was the 122nd captain of Harvard football in his senior year in 1995 and had several games with double-figure tackles, including 10 tackles and four sacks in a 28-24 loss to Columbia.
Beating Yale 22-21 in 1995 was a career highlight for Frantz.
“That was the first time I beat Yale,” Frantz said. “I always think of that day as one of the happiest days ever. It was a great honor to be team captain that year.”
Frantz graduated cum laude with a major in physics from Harvard in 1996. After a two-year adventure in computer software development and consulting in Denver, he spent the next 10 years living in New York City, first obtaining his Ph.D. from Columbia University, then commuting to his post-doctorate at SUNY-Stony Brook on Long Island. He joined the Ohio University Physics and Astronomy faculty in 2008.
“Going to Harvard was a great choice,” Frantz said. “The name helps you and it helped get me into grad school. It was a great opportunity and the fact that I also succeeded in football there made it great.
Frantz, 39, and his wife Jennifer resided in Athens, Ohio, with their two daughters, Ava and Anna.