By Heidi Glaus
St. Louis (KSDK) - BJ Francis has been doing things a little differently since the day he was born. He's never actually used his birth name, so it only makes sense he'd take an another path less traveled.
"My plan was to play football, water polo and tennis and that's so normal so I decided to give this a try," said Francis.
He had never even heard of rowing, but his body was built for it.
"When we're recruiting we look for people who are just natural athletes, lean, tall, muscular," explained his coach, Andrew Black.
Francis was also coachable, and now three years into it he's trying out for the United States Junior National Team.
"It's actually pretty awesome that I get to do this because 31 guys out of everyone in the country and then after the selection only 20 of them," Francis pointed out.
His coach is confident he's got what it takes.
"He's really one of, probably one of the five best rowers in the country," said Black.
So now only time will tell, but if he makes it, the Olympics could be down the road.
"That is actually a far reaching goal of mine, unfortunately I've got to go to college and do all of this other stuff but I'm going to talk to my coach at worlds and tell him I want to do this for a long time and see where it goes from there," Francis added.
He's on the right track, it just so happens this is yet another path not often traveled.
KSDK