“Daddy, can I play too?”
Madison Francis had gone with her dad, Tony, and brother, Channing, to the local YMCA many times before she took up an interest in the game they were playing. She was a gymnast at a young age and would normally practice her routine on the sidelines, but her dad was quick to support his daughter’s change of interest.
From then on, it was all about basketball.
“From that point on, we were on the court,” said Madison’s father, Tony. “We trained, we got on a regimen with me and my wife, and we went to the YMCA early in the mornings when they opened. The good thing about the Y is there’s always other events, so it wasn’t all just basketball, but we put in a lot of morning and evening hours there on the courts.”
Tony, a basketball player himself with Niagara back in the day, was overjoyed to have both of his children take an interest in the game. He and his wife, Sophia, a former track standout, knew what it took to commit to a sport, but Madison showed that commitment from an early age and soon excelled.
Madison picked up the game quickly, and played with her brother in the Y league and in grade school. Around fourth or fifth grade, she realized how good she was and that confidence fueled her forward.
“I started really competing, and I realized I was better than them,” Madison said. “I challenged myself, and like, I was in sixth grade playing games against high schoolers.”
For her family, one particular summer day stands – the time Madison locked down both ends of the floor by herself.
“She was playing outdoors in a summer league, and in one game her team won 40-1, and she had all 40 points and held the other team to just one,” Tony recalled. “I couldn’t believe it at the time, but in retrospect, she was always playing against boys. She always had something to prove; she was competitive from a very young age, and I noticed that she’s got some stuff that’s a little different from the other kids. We just kept cultivating that and we made sure she was in the right position to develop and succeed.”
Stepping up
Her game developed as she grew, and by her middle school years, she was already being scouted as a future Division I prospect. She made her varsity debut with Lancaster as an eighth grader, a big change for her as a player as she learned there was more to basketball than what she could do on her own.
“I’m a shy person, but once I get to know people, I break out of my shell a little bit,” Madison said, reflecting on her time as the youngest member of the team. “Once I did that, my freshman and sophomore year, my role turned into more of a leadership role. I think coming into that at a young age came with advantages, and I really got to grow and work on that leadership as part of my game.”
“She came to us as an eighth grader, but we had seen her game before,” Lancaster head coach Jayson Jaskier said. “She played AAU with our girls, we’d seen her brother play and knew her family, but it was the Covid year so we played a modified season. But we got to know her and when she came up to the high school, it was full go.”
Madison didn’t just break out of her shell; she broke into the record books.
“At (Lancaster) she owns virtually every record,” Jaskier said. “She’s been the heart and soul of our team for five years, not just through her performances but through her personality. She’s fun to be around.”
Madison helped lead Lancaster to back-to-back state titles, posting a particularly memorable performance in the 2024 state title game, scoring 37 points with 11 rebounds, 12 steals, 4 assists and 4 blocks in the AAA championship game as a junior.
As a senior, Francis averaged 32 points, 14.8 rebounds, 4 assists, 5.1 steals and 4.5 blocks per game with a 52% conversion rate from the field. She surpassed 2,000 career points to become her school’s all-time leading scorer and led her team to another championship.
She even holds school records in track and field for the triple jump and high jump, and picked up All-Western New York recognition in volleyball.
By the end of her junior year, Madison had 34 Division I offers. The list wasn’t lacking in powerhouses with the likes of Louisville, Notre Dame and Tennessee in the mix, but one school stood out to both her and her family.
A lasting connection
Sam Purcell first met Madison and the Francis family when she was a middle schooler. Then an assistant at Louisville, he was one of many coaches who had heard about the young talent. The experience of seeing her play stuck with him, and two years later, they were reunited with the U18 Team USA on its way to Colombia for the AmeriCup.
Purcell sat next to Tony and Sophia on the flight to South America, and in that time, he won over the pair as a coach with his vision for his players and his commitment to their development.
Purcell had recently become a head coach for the first time in his career, taking the job at Mississippi State, and he worked hard to maintain the connection with Madison and her family, knowing she was a fit for the kind of player and person he wanted to build the program with.
“Education (was most important) of course, but wherever she went, we wanted to ensure that she would fall in love with the school and that the school maintained our core values,” Sophia said. “That’s what we found in Coach Sam. Hard work, resilience, teamwork, accountability.”
“For me, knowing the coach and him knowing her since she was 14, knowing his energy and vision, and then reconnecting with him on the way to Bucaramanga to play for the gold medal, that same energy was there and it was an exciting feeling,” Tony added. “Some coaches will move on, and it was a two-year period where we hadn’t connected, but from the first to the last time we sat down together, it was special for me as a dad. I knew my daughter would be in good hands.”
In her high school career, Madison learned the responsibilities of being a leader. She maintains her competitive spirit whenever she plays, but pushing her teammates is as big a part of her game as her prolific scoring.
Jaskier called Madison “the rising tide that raises all boats in the harbor,” noting her accomplishments as a teammate as well as a solo wrecking crew on the court, and said “(Bulldog fans) are getting not only an incredible player, but a great person as well.”
Madison chose the Bulldogs to help form the program’s second-highest rated recruiting class ever alongside fellow ESPNW Top 100 recruits Jaylah Lampley and Nataliyah Gray. She’ll join her teammates next week for the rest of the offseason workouts in Starkville, catching up after being away for her graduation and Team USA workouts, but she’s already gotten to know several of her fellow Bulldogs.
Making those connections was important to Madison throughout the recruiting process. From the first time she held a basketball, the game was a family connection for her. It’s remained true since her first days playing alongside her brother, and it’s one of the biggest reasons she chose Starkville as the next stop on her basketball journey.
“They gave me the time and space I needed to go through the recruiting process,” Madison said. “They never pressured me or anything, they just wanted me for me. I appreciate that the most, and once I took a visit and saw the family atmosphere, that was what I was looking for most. I wanted an extension of what my family and my parents have put into me, and they definitely exceeded my expectations.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
