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USA TodayOnce homeless as a player, high school assistant now giving back WICHITA FALLS, Texas (AP) — Eight years ago, when Wichita Falls High School assistant football coach Marcus Shavers was a high school freshman in Allen, he asked his football coach a question that changed his life forever. "Could I bring a blanket and pillow and live in the school's locker room?" he asked. Shavers explained his mother was moving back to some housing projects, a place where he had once lived but vowed never to return. He didn't plan to join her.
The coach, taken aback, told Shavers they'd figure something out.
When the boy left, the coach turned to his defensive coordinator and said, "I almost think that kid was serious."
His request to bunk in the locker room was overheard by the father of another defensive lineman, Tyler Francisco. Larry Francisco ran a tax accounting firm that sat behind the school's football field. He often came outside, stood in the late afternoon sun and watched his son's practices.
"I know that boy a little bit," Francisco said. Shavers had played alongside his son as a child. "And he's serious. If the UIL would agree to it, and if it doesn't break any rules, my wife and I have an extra bedroom, and we'd be more than happy to have him live with us."
Francisco and his wife, Denise — both Wichita Falls High School alums from the Class of 1971 — ultimately gave Shavers his first tie to Wichita Falls High School, long before he created his own tie when he began his teaching and coaching career there in August.
As it turned out, the family gave Shavers a home throughout his high school years, "and he still stays with us when he comes back in town," Francisco said. "Marcus is one of our kids now."