By Andrew Legare
Star-Gazette

Enock Francois will have a Bring Your Students to Work Day when he competes in the United States Olympic Team Trials in freestyle wrestling.

They won't actually be in Iowa City with Francois in April, but the support of hundreds of Spencer-Van Etten Middle School students, and the school district as a whole, has helped bring Francois closer to his dream of qualifying for this year's Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

“They’re all pulling for him, all the kids,” said Eric Knolles, the school's principal. “He’s got 300 tiny voices: ‘Enock! Enock! Enock!’"

Francois, 29, is hoping to make Rio the next stop on a worldwide journey that has put him in the middle of a coup d'état in Haiti, seen him fight raging forest fires in the western part of the United States, and pitted him against top-level wrestlers from around the globe.

Most notable, however, is the work he has done helping children. Francois is in his second year as a sixth-grade special-education teacher at the Spencer school. Much as he is pushing himself to reach his full potential, he is doing everything in his power to make sure his students do the same.

“He tries to motivate his kids to do their best, and he does not accept less than that from himself or from them,” Knolles said. "He demands the best out of each kid. He wants the best for them and from them."

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