On and Off the Court, Franklin's Ellis Bros. Have Each Other's Back

Imagine as a high school student athlete, if you simply didn’t understand the material for an upcoming exam and had someone you could count on to help break it down for you. Or, imagine if you had trouble motivating yourself to gear up for a practice and there was someone constantly by your side to add fuel to your fire and get you going.

Well, Franklin sophomores Reggie and Marquis Ellis don’t have to imagine—they have each other.

Separated in age by a mere 15 months (Reggie maintaining his sophomore status due to a transfer snafu from St. Frances Academy) the Ellis brothers are rarely seen apart. In addition to sharing the same classes in school, both underclassmen played large roles on the Indians’ state finalist football squad—Marquis at wide receiver, Reggie as a running back and kick returner—and have contributed to the varsity basketball team as well. 

Basketball coach Kieran O’Connell can’t conceal his wide grin when reminded that the tandem has two more years remaining at Franklin.

“It’s great. There’s no question those two are major bright spots,” O’Connell said. “I was definitely ecstatic when I heard they were coming back to Franklin after we lost them to St. Frances.”

And with good reason. Despite their youth, Reggie and Marquis already possess the type of work ethic that the majority of high school athletes simply don’t have. A good portion of that desire to hone their given natural abilities while polishing their learned skills comes from the fact that they are always pushing one another.

Simply put, it’s tough to quit when you’ve got someone in your ear driving you to get better.

“It is very helpful because there are a couple days where I don’t feel like going and working. He’s there to pick me up,” Marquis said. “I feel as though if I didn’t have Reggie I wouldn’t be doing as well as I do in school or on the court.”

Reggie spoke to the fact that he and Marquis encourage each in every sport they play, whether it be football, basketball or baseball, admitting that if he’s doing something wrong he welcomes his younger brother pointing out the mistake. Their closeness as brothers—and even more so as friends—coupled with their proximity in age allows the duo to get the most out of their time training together.

“It’s real good because if you got somebody that’s way younger than you, then it’s really kind of difficult because the things they’ve learned are different than yours,” Reggie said. “We’ve learned basically the same things and can coach each other on it.”

And, the collective effort working together is not limited to just sports, but also in their studies where, Reggie said, grades come first in the Ellis house.

“We both help each other on our schoolwork, homework whatever we need help on,” Reggie said. “If he doesn’t understand something and I do, I got him. If I don’t understand something, he helps me. We have the same classes together so it’s really easy for us to help each other out.”

 Yet, despite the similarities in how hard they work, Reggie and Marquis are polar opposites when it comes to how they carry themselves. Both exude confidence, but in different ways.

Marquis is likely to be found in the Franklin hallways talking up a storm and cracking his classmates up while doing it—brash and outgoing, but in a good way. Then, usually not far behind, there’s Reggie, much more quiet and prone to keeping to himself, yet self-assured nonetheless.

It’s those differences that make the Ellis brothers such reliable partners in crime. Each knows that they are their own person, so rather than battle to see who can stand out more in sports or academics they compete with each other and strive to make the other better.

That goal has made its mark with coaches and teammates that bear witness to what Reggie and Marquis have accomplished less than halfway in to their Franklin careers and what they can bring come their junior and senior years at the school in the future.

“They are going to bring a lot of success,” said junior Cyril Nwuroso, a teammate of the Ellis brothers in football and basketball. “They [already] brought a lot of talent a lot of hard work. When people see that they’re like ‘Hey if it works for them let me try and see if it works for me.’ We’ve had a lot of that for football and now we’re trying to get the same thing for basketball.

“Even though they may be very young, their talents don’t show that at all. Marquis’ potential is very high and the same goes for Reggie.”