Brothers for all Franklin College seasons

The Beasley brothers have proved to be the men for all seasons, or more accurately sports, for Franklin College.

Zach, who graduated this spring, played two seasons of soccer before joining the tennis team. Isaac, who will be a senior, competes in cross-country and track and field. Nathan, a sophomore-to-be, is a goaltender on the soccer team.

“We all have different friend bases as well,” Isaac said.

Isaac said the brothers remain close despite having varied interests. And Nathan said they are all competitive.

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“We all kind of think we’re the best at what we do,” Nathan said. “I’ve been playing a lot of tennis this summer, and Zach and I have been talking smack all summer. We’re talking about who’s going to win when he gets back.”

Zach is in Taiwan until August, working with students on learning English.

All the Beasley brothers, including youngest brother Elijah, were homeschooled under the direction of their mother, Elizabeth. As the boys reached high school age, they learned a lot on their own with online courses and textbooks.

“We all learned how to study, so that definitely prepared us for college,” Nathan said.

Their father, Dr. Robert Beasley, is a Franklin College professor in computing and mathematics.

A high point for Nathan was when, as a freshman in high school, he joined his older brothers on the Southside Thunder, a home-school club soccer team.

“It was a great club,” Nathan said. “It was nice because we all played different positions. Zach played striker, Isaac played midfielder and defense and I was the goalkeeper. When they were in high school, I didn’t start, but I got some playing time. It was a great experience.”

Zach said he felt the same way.

“I cannot describe how great it was to play soccer with both of my brothers in high school,” Zach said in an email response.

Robert said they all played sports together, often playing tennis with his sons.

“Their main sport pretty much was always soccer,” he said. “They all like to weightlift, so they’re big into lifting like a lot of guys that are athletic.”

Zach pointed out Elijah, who will be high school senior this fall, was playing for the Southside Thunder’s middle school team. Elijah is still playing for theThunder.

“I was pretty blessed to be doing what I loved with the people I loved,” Zach said.

Zach decided before his junior year that continuing to play soccer would be difficult with his heavy academic school and work.

“In addition to working full time as a Resident Assistant, I had two other part-time jobs and tutored on the side,” said Zach, who will attend University of South Florida in the fall to pursue a doctorate in computer science. “I felt that I would end up stretching myself too thin and wouldn’t be able to give myself fully to soccer, my work, and my studies, and I didn’t want all three of those areas to suffer.

“I actually wasn’t planning on switching to tennis, but by the spring I was tired of not doing any sports. I had a couple of friends on the team, heard that (Grizzlies coach) Rusty (Hughes) was super nice, and knew that it was the men’s season so I decided to go for it.”

Isaac got involved in cross country and track and field when looking for physical training on campus to meet his National Guard requirement. Otherwise, Isaac would have had to attend physical training at IUPUI.

Isaac, who plans pursue being an Army officer after graduating from Franklin in May 2016, decided to stick with cross country and track even after the initial need was fulfilled.

“They’re all my brothers on the team,” said Isaac, who actually prefers middle distance events but trains with cross country team and runs a couple of meets each season.

Isaac is concentrating on building up his muscle mass.

“The Army doesn’t need a bunch of skinny guys that can run really fast,” Isaac said. “To be blunt, they need guys that can kill.”

Or at least have enough bulk to handle themselves in combat situations.

In addition to their athletic fields, they are at home on another stage, The four brothers and their father perform in a rock band, 4th Normal Form (4nfband.com), which comes from a computer science term.

“We play now and then but with us all going our separate ways with school, it’s harder to get together,” Nathan said.

Robert said he and the boys have performed in eight states and in Taiwan several times.

“We’ve played quite a number of gigs together over the years,” Robert said. “We play a lot of classical rock. In Taiwan, we do workshops and we play different styles of music to teach those young people. We play Contemporary Christian music and we lead worship in our church (Franklin Community Church) and other churches as well.”