What do Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, Brian Jordan, Shaun White and Sacramento State’s own Mallorie Franco have in common? One sport is just not enough for them.

Franco, a freshman, is a rarity; she is a member of the women’s basketball team and a jumper on the track and field team.

But neither of those are even her favorite sport.

“Actually, volleyball is probably my favorite,” Franco said.

Aside from being blessed with superb athletic ability, Franco said the opportunity to play two sports in college is really the reason why she does what she does.

“My head coach in basketball, Jamie Craighead, said that I could do it and that I have the talent and ability to do it, so why not?” Franco said.

The native of Humboldt County played more during the basketball season than she thought she would.

“I expected to be a freshman and ride the bench,” Franco said. “But I got a lot more minutes than I thought.”

During her freshman season she averaged 2.3 points per game 1.3 rebounds per game in 8.3 minutes per game. Franco said she is really still learning the game of basketball.

“I have never been a great athlete in one sport,” Franco said. “I was recruited for basketball as an athlete and they want to make me into a basketball player.”

Part of the challenge of playing multiple sports that Franco enjoys is the chance to learn new things.

“In high school track I kind of just jumped,” Franco said. “I wanted to come here to be able to learn it. The technique, all of the technical aspects of jumping.”

Kathleen Raske, the director of track and field and cross country, has assigned Franco workouts in hopes of getting the best of her unique athletic ability.

“I have her some out to practice the high jump and get in some technical work,” Raske said. “Obviously, two-sport athletes here are very rare. She is very talented.”

Raske said she feels despite Franco’s youth, Franco has a chance to maximize her talent at Sac State.

“I think she is going to become a great high jumper,” Raske said. “But she is real young and she is still learning. I see the tools that she brings to the table and those raw tools are tremendous. She is very athletic and I think that eventually she is going to jump very high.”

One factor that Franco has working in her favor is the workouts for both basketball and high jump tend to work similar parts of the body.

“What she gets out of basketball in terms of her weight training, her agility work and her speed work can also apply to the high jump,” Raske said. “So she can come out two times a week and work for 45 minutes on technical stuff and do very well. You can’t do that as a miler, you can’t do that as a pole-vaulter, you can’t do that as a discus thrower. But the high jump is one of those events where she gets a lot of things taken care of with basketball.”

With her training and workouts taking up most of her time, Franco has little time for much else.

“Basically the only free time I have is to do homework,” Franco said. “It kind of sucks, but at the same time, I like that.”

However, despite the heavy workload, Franco said her parents have always been the ones to push her to take on more.

“My parents have always wanted me to do as much as I can,” Franco said. “They love it. They came to almost all of my basketball games. They have always been so supportive.”

After finishing a year at Sac State, Franco is starting to figure out what she wants to accomplish with her remaining time.

“I want to be the best I can be in the sports I play,” says Franco. “I came to Sac for basketball. I didn’t really know what I wanted to major in. But I wanted to be the best basketball player I could be.”

Franco admits there are difficulties in attempting to play two sports at once.

“Doing two sports is kind of hard because I know I want to be the best in both sports but it takes so much time that at this point I am only OK in both sports,” Franco said.

Franco hopes that the basketball team will be able to build on last year’s success going forward.

“We want to keep rolling,” Franco said. “The new system that (Craighead) has for us, we love it. The new freshman we have coming in, the program fits them all well.”

But she does admit that she has areas in which she needs to improve.

“It’s all mental for me,” Franco said. “I can feel what I want to do out on the court and on the track, it’s just that I stop myself mentally. It’s frustrating. My coaches see it, I see it. I think a lot of it is just being a freshman.”

Headed into her sophomore season, Franco hopes to not only improve mentally but also to step into a leadership role for the Hornets.

“After the summer I think it will be a lot better,” Franco said. “With our team being so small, leadership is forced on us but I like that role.”

Ross Coleman can be reached at [email protected]