The long-lasting bond of friendship between Breisly Franco and Xavier Reyes innocently started when the two played baseball against each other in the Kearny Pony League in sixth grade.
“The first time I met him, I was pitching,” Franco said. “It was pretty hysterical.”
“I felt a family environment right away,” Reyes said. “Our friendship just grew from that. It was like having a big brother. I knew he always had my back.”
Since that time, Franco and Reyes go together like ham goes with cheese on a sandwich or A-Rod goes with J-Lo to fancy fashion events.
How close are the two Kearny High School seniors? Well, they’re both headed to Rutgers-Newark in the fall and be part of the Scarlet Raiders’ track and field team.
They also competed in a lot of the same events this season for the Kardinals.
In fact, at the recent Hudson County Track Coaches Association championships held at Secaucus High School, the two faced off against each other in the finals of the 110-meter hurdles.
In the race, Franco won the county championship with a time of 15.01 seconds. Battling a bruised right heel that occurred attempting to do the triple jump, Reyes was right behind in second in 15.10 seconds.
There they were, the long-time buddies running 1-2 in the county championship meet.
When the two competitors crossed the finish line, they looked for each other. The race ended and county champ Franco wanted to share it with his best friend.
“No doubt, this was part of him,” Franco said of the championship. “It means a lot to me that he was right there.”
And the two friends gave each other a bear hug. It was a Kodak moment to remember.
“We always push each other to be the best, push each other to the limit,” Reyes said. “It helps the team get better as well. I think we make each other get better. Everyone wants to do something special their senior year. When we compete against each other and show good sportsmanship, it sets a good example for the rest of the team.”
Later in the day, Reyes won the county championship in the long jump, measuring a school record 20 feet, nine and ¼ inches. And he did it with the injured heel.
“I wanted to be healthy out there,” Reyes said. “It’s a little bittersweet. But I’m more than happy he got it.”
“I know he wasn’t healthy,” Franco said. “If he was healthy, it wouldn’t have been a contest.”
But the performance meant that both Reyes and Franco had captured a county championship in the same meet. Not bad for the buddies.
“The best part of it all was that we each got one,” Reyes said. “That means a lot.”
“They can never take it away,” Franco said. “I’ll be a county champion forever.”
And for their efforts, Franco and Reyes have been selected as The Observer Co-Athletes of the Week for the past week.
“It means a lot that we’re both succeeding,” Reyes said. “If we have each other’s back, then that’s the first step.”
“The championship stays within the family,” Franco said. “We both have a championship memory forever.”
Kearny head track and field coach Al Perez likes the way the two feed off each other.
“The two of them have been the foundation of our team for the last couple of years,” Perez said. “They set the tone for everyone else with their work ethic.”
Perez was asked if he knew that both of his athletes would come away with a county championship.
“They had that focus,” Perez said. “You could see the look in their eyes that they had focus. It was nice to see that. They took their experience in track and carried it over to other parts of their lives. Their friendship is like no other. And they go back and forth as competitors. I’d say it’s a 50/50 split. Sometimes Breisly wins and sometimes Xavier wins. And even after competing against each other, they hug after the race. It’s a great thing to see.”
But like any other set of competitors, there are the tough times.
“No doubt, it can get nasty sometimes,” Reyes said. “The goal is always to win. If he beats me, I treat it like anyone else beating me. I’m not happy. If you’re not first, you’re last.”
Perez believes that the friends’ seriousness on the track rubs off on the others.
“They have a no-nonsense approach,” Perez said. “They don’t take it from anyone. We really haven’t had any issues at all because of it. These guys really set the tone.”
Perez was glad that each of the close friends got to take home a gold medal in their final local meet.
“It was great to see both of them do it,” Perez said. “It was great especially for Xavier, because he didn’t practice all week. I almost didn’t let him compete. I wanted to do what was best for the kid. On Tuesday, I said to my assistant coach, ‘No way is going to compete.’”
So Perez had a plan inside his brain.
“If Xavier showed me enough on Wednesday during the workouts, then we’d give him a shot,” Perez said. “He basically talked us into letting him compete and he ended up winning the thing. He was really hobbling around.”
But now the friends will head off to college nearby together, extending their track career together.
“He really helped to take me over the top,” Reyes said. “We both came out with a county championship. It means a lot to me. This one really means a lot. It’s our last county meet, the last time we compete together in Hudson County. We’ve helped each other a lot over the years.”
“We’re never alone,” Franco said. “And we’ll be doing that for the next four years. We will be pushing each other and making each other better every day.”
And now, it’s on to Rutgers-Newark together.
“I know he always has my back and I have his,” Reyes said. “It’s like having a big brother on the team.”
“It’s been great coaching them and watching them grow,” Perez said. “They’ve gotten better every year.”
All the way to becoming county champs – together.
A week later, Franco was second and Reyes third in the 110-meter hurdles, with Franco running a time of 15.21 seconds and Reyes 15.27 seconds. Reyes was third in the long jump with a jump of 20 feet, six and ½ inches.
“We paved the way so that others could possibly win county championships in the future,” Franco said. “We hope there are more county champs in the future. We hope they follow our lead.”
Sure hope so.
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Jim Hague | Observer Sports Writer
Sports Writer Jim Hague was with The Observer for 20+ years — and his name is one of the most recognizable in all of sports journalism. The St. Peter’s Prep and Marquette alum kicked off his journalism career post Marquette at the Daily Record, where he remained until 1985. Following shorts stints at two other newspapers, in September 1986, he joined the now-closed Hudson Dispatch, where he remained until 1991, when its doors were finally shut.
It was during his tenure at The Dispatch that Hague’s name and reputation as one of country’s hardest-working sports reporters grew. He won several New Jersey Press Association and North Jersey Press Club Awards in that timeframe.
In 1991, he became a columnist for The Hudson Reporter chain of newspapers — and he remains with them to this day.
In addition to his work at The Observer and The Hudson Reporter, Hague is also an Associated Press stringer, where he covers Seton Hall University men’s basketball, New York Red Bulls soccer and occasionally, New Jersey Devils hockey.
He’s also doing work at The Morristown Daily Record, the very newspaper where his journalism career began.
During his career, he also worked for Dorf Feature Services, which provided material for the Star-Ledger. While there, he covered the New York Knicks and the New Jersey Nets.
Hague is also known for his announcing work — and he’s done PA work for Rutgers Newark and NJIT.
Hague is the author of the book “Braddock: The Rise of the Cinderella Man.”