Alexa Franklin named National Association of Christian Athletes (NACA) Player of the Year
By FRED KRONER
Alexa Franklin’s involvement in sports has been in full force for more than a decade.
The accolades and accomplishments would fill multiple scrapbook volumes for the Mahomet resident.
By the time she was 7 years old, Franklin was running in 5-kilometer races with other family members, and she now has more than 100 of those races on her resume.
By the time she was in seventh-grade, Franklin was competing with the Arthur Christian School high school program – and was the first player off the bench for the girls’ basketball team – which was allowed because ACS is not a member of the Illinois High School Association.
“Starting at a young age helped for the years ahead,” Alexa Franklin said, “as I got the feel for how a varsity team competes.
“It definitely pushed me to work harder.”
As a member of the graduating class of 2020, Franklin’s performance has continued at a high level.
Last year as a junior – and again this year as a senior – she was selected as the National Association of Christian Athletes (NACA) Player of the Year nationally. In 2019, she shared the award with her sister, Amanda.
She was also a first-team selection on the NACA All-American team as both a junior and as a senior.
“It is a great honor and always something that surprises me,” Alexa Franklin said. “I honestly am always surprised at what I receive because when I play, I play to win.
“I don’t think about who is watching me or what rewards I could receive. I am very honored they picked me.”
A point-guard, the 5-foot-9 Franklin averaged a school-record 23.2 points per game this season, helping the Crusaders to 27 wins and a third-place finish in the small-school division of the NACA national tournament.
She wound up with more than a dozen school records in basketball at Arthur Christian School, including ones for career points (2,092), season points (883) and points in a game (43).
There is much more to Alexa Franklin’s story, however, than the statistics.
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Alexa Franklin and two of her sisters, Jessica and Amanda, stepped out of their home-schooled environment during the 2017-18 school year to attend Mahomet-Seymour High School.
The Franklin trio made an immediate impact with the Bulldogs in a variety of sports, with Jessica winning a Class 2A state championship in the 300-meter hurdles while setting a school record as a senior.
The experience was a good one for the sisters.
“All the administrators, staff, teachers and coaches welcomed my sisters and me with open arms,” Alexa Franklin said. “We made good friends.”
And yet, after one year in the public-school system, the Franklins – at their request – returned to homeschooling in the fall of 2018 with Amanda entering her senior year and Alexa preparing for her junior year.
“What we missed at M-S was the family time,” Alexa Franklin said. “We were so busy with school and sports that it was hard for our family to have quality Bible studies like we had in the past.
“We also missed spending extra time with our younger siblings. When you are home-schooled, you take ownership of your education in a unique way.”
For Alexa Franklin, the third of Jason and Amelia Franklin’s eight children, that meant a time to start preparing for her future.
“When we left M-S, Amanda and I began a dual-credit program at Parkland College,” Alexa Franklin said. “It has been such a blessing.
“My year at M-S helped me prepare for that, and I will graduate from high school with almost two years of (college) course work completed.”
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Last year presented a new challenge for Amanda and Alexa Franklin. Their interest in sports was as strong as ever and they sought to return to the Arthur Christian program, which welcomes home-schooled students from around the area to its rosters.
“Amanda and I were not sure what to expect when we returned to Arthur Christian (following a one-year hiatus),” Alexa Franklin said.
They received a warm greeting.
“The ACS family welcomed us back with open arms,” Alexa Franklin said. “Greg Mast (the athletic director) allowed my dad to help beef up the girls’ basketball schedule.”
The Crusaders added nearly a dozen opponents to the play-list and they were from an assortment of IHSA schools.
“That was great,” Alexa Franklin said, “because it provided an opportunity for Amanda and me to help the other ACS girls realize that as a team we can compete against these bigger public schools, and we did.”
In Alexa’s junior year, she helped ACS finish with a school-record single-season victory total (33-7) as well as winning the championship of the NACA national tournament.
“The experience of playing against bigger schools really helped for the NACA Tournament,” said Alexa Franklin, who as a junior established school records for assists in a season (187) and three-pointers made in a season (72) while averaging 17.9 points per game.
The Franklin sisters reached a significant milestone in the same gym one year and three days apart.
Amanda Franklin reached the 2,000th point for her high school career in the NACA semifinals on March 1, 2019 at Bryan College, in Dayton, Tenn.
Alexa Franklin scored her 2,000th high school point on March 4, 2020, also at the Bryan College gymnasium in a first-round NACA tourney game.
Her second-quarter basket came after a steal by teammate Keisha Miller, which Franklin converted thanks to a left-handed layup against Columbus (Ind.) Christian.
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Alexa Franklin not only had older siblings who were role models, but also had sisters who set a high bar for athletic excellence.
Jessica Franklin followed up on her IHSA state championship in the 300-meter hurdles by running the third-fastest Division III time in the 400-meter hurdles last year as a freshman at Illinois Wesleyan University, setting conference and school records in the process.
She also posted the sixth-best Division III mark in the heptathlon in 2019 and was chosen as the school’s Female Rookie of the Year, an award that covers all women’s sports at IWU.
This year, Jessica Franklin transferred to the University of Illinois and was redshirting when the spring collegiate season was canceled at universities nationwide by the coronavirus pandemic.
Amanda Franklin was Arthur Christian School’s top varsity scorer as a seventh-, eighth-, ninth- and 10th-grader – averaging in double figures each year – before leading M-S in scoring as a junior and returning to be the top scorer at Arthur Christian as a senior.
She held 21 school records in basketball when she graduated, and in soccer, earned All-Area honors from The News-Gazette as a senior.
Alexa Franklin said she never felt pressure to meet – or exceed – those standards and, in fact, drew added motivation from her sisters.
“There were times when I felt like I needed to live up to what one of my sisters had done,” Alexa Franklin said, “but I was also very competitive, so most of the time it was more of trying to beat them at something.
“A lot of times I fell second to them. For example, Jessica is a great runner and I could never beat her, no matter how hard I tried, and Amanda was an amazing basketball player and there were times when I felt that no matter how hard I tried, I could never do as well as her.”
That didn’t mean she shied away from the challenge.
“I used both of their successes to push me to work hard,” she said, “because at the end of the day, what mattered was doing my best and working my hardest.
“My senior year, I never expected to average over 23 points or beat my sister’s overall scoring record and percentages, but thanks to her and my other sister,I pushed myself to work hard like them, because I did want to be like them, hard workers who gave it their all.”
Jason Franklin looks back with satisfaction on the achievements of his three oldest daughters.
“Not bad for homeschool girls that – when they were little, and M-S did not allow homeschool students to compete and we had never heard of ACS – we thought would never get to play organized sports.
“It’s amazing how quickly God can change things.”
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Securing a collegiate future in sports was never part of the masterplan for Alexa Franklin, who took up gymnastics by the age of 4 and participated in that endeavor for five years, subsequently adding baseball, basketball, soccer and track.
“I never wanted to play college ball until my junior year,” she said. “That year (at Arthur Christian School) we had an amazing (basketball) team, and girls who worked outside of practice, and it was reflected on the court.
“I fell more in love with basketball that year, and I loved the team environment, and I loved the harder schedule we had that year.
“It made me love challenges and love seeing what I, as well as my teammates, could accomplish. It made me realize I wanted to continue challenging myself in basketball, and when we won nationals, I definitely realized I didn’t want just one more year of basketball, so I decided I wanted to play it in college.”
She hopes that opportunity will also include her sister Amanda, who is taking a gap year before enrolling at a university. Amanda Franklin is continuing to take dual-credit courses through Parkland and coached a junior high boys’ basketball team during the winter at Arthur Christian School.
“Amanda was one of my biggest role models especially for basketball,” Alexa Franklin said, “as I was able to see all the hard work that she put into what she committed to.
“It made me realize that when you commit to something, you need to be ready and willing to work hard and give it your all. She did, and her hard work was reflected on the court.”
Alexa Franklin hopes to major in either digital media marketing or something in the video production field.
“I love being able to capture memories through video and creating stories displayed through film,” she said. “In 10 years, I could see myself working on the set, possibly at Hallmark Studios.”
Amanda Franklin is interested in something along the lines of education as her major.
Neither of the Franklins have yet committed to a college for next year.
“Still keeping my options open and waiting to see what cost ends up being for each,” Alexa Franklin said. “I see myself fitting in as a good defender and offensive player, as well as someone who is going to do what’s best for the team and always put the team first over self.”
For Alexa Franklin, her sport-of-choice shifted throughout the years.
“At first, my favorite sport was soccer, because it was outside, and I loved the fresh air and running,” she said. “Slowly, though, basketball became my favorite sport as I got into high school.
“I think part of the reason being that I was able to play basketball with my sisters. I was good at both soccer and basketball, thanks to my dad, who kept us in shape by running and weightlifting.”
The chance to compete in sports has been an important component of Alexa Franklin’s school years.
“It meant new challenges every day, that pushed me to work harder,” she said. “The opportunity to compete means so much to me because I love competing, I love the feel of adrenaline, and I love seeing teams come together, other girls encouraging each other. I love it all.”
