{"id":79924,"date":"2025-12-03T16:08:29","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:08:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/79924\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T16:08:29","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T16:08:29","slug":"jordan-coach-chris-francis-reaches-300-win-milestone-the562-org","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/79924\/","title":{"rendered":"Jordan Coach Chris Francis Reaches 300-Win Milestone \u2013 The562.org"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The562\u2019s coverage of Jordan Athletics is sponsored by former LBUSD superintendent Chris Steinhauser and the Timu Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Long Beach Jordan head coach Chris Francis hit a milestone few high school coaches ever reach, earning his 300th career win after the Panthers\u2019 victory over Narbonne last Friday at the Artesia HOOPSgiving tournament.<\/p>\n<p>But for Francis, the achievement is less about the number and more about the journey; one that he never expected to take.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a humbling feeling,\u201d Francis said. \u201cI\u2019m just a kid from Fisherville, from Lake Charles, Louisiana. I never even played high school basketball. A lot of people don\u2019t know that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/static.the562.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3036-1.jpeg\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"894\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_3036-1-894x1024.jpeg\" alt=\"Screenshot\" class=\"wp-image-163834\" style=\"width:393px;height:auto\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>What he did have was a deep love for the game. That passion carried him overseas as a player and, unexpectedly, onto the sideline. His coaching career began by accident more than a decade ago, when a friend at a Compton gym needed someone  \u2013 anyone -to coach a youth team that had been left without a leader. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cMan, I don\u2019t want to mess nobody\u2019s kids up,\u201d Francis recalled telling him.<\/p>\n<p>But after some playful coaxing, Francis stepped in and never stepped out. Through stops at Millikan and now Jordan, Francis has built his coaching philosophy around purpose, not wins. He also led Jordan to a CIF title during the 2023 season. <\/p>\n<p>He quotes Mark Twain when describing his mission: \u201cThe two most important days in your life are the day you\u2019re born and the day you find out why.\u201d For Francis, that purpose is crystal clear.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI use the game to teach young men how to be men,\u201d he said. \u201cBasketball is just the vehicle. You teach respect, morals, responsibility. That\u2019s what lasts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This year\u2019s milestone came with personal emotion. Francis\u2019 longtime partner passed away two years ago in late November, \u201ceverything I do is dedicated to her.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The562\u2019s coverage of Jordan Athletics is sponsored by former LBUSD superintendent Chris Steinhauser and the Timu Foundation. Long&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":79925,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-79924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}