West Cook News

For Fenwick Friar football fans, the class of 2022 was long-anticipated.

But few anticipated Conor and Martin Paris.

“I was always the smallest," said Martin, minutes-older than his twin brother, Conor. "But I had a lot of heart. I would play with a lot of toughness to make up for it."

The Paris twins worked out in a gym they built in their grandparents garage. | Marty Paris

At 5'3, 115, varsity coaches weren't as quick to notice the Paris twins their freshman year. Fellow classmates and blue chip college recruits Kaden Cobb (Ball State), Max Reese (Eastern Michigan), Eian Pugh (Illinois) and Jimmy Liston (Purdue) were already over six feet.

By the time they were seniors, Conor (now 6'0, 205) and Martin (6'0, 180), who led Fenwick's championship defense at middle linebacker and free safety, respectively, were impossible to miss. 

The road to their transformation started improbably on March 21, 2020, the day Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker suddenly shut down high school sports in Illinois. 

Pritzker also closed gyms-- leaving high school athletes not only without a spring sports seasons, but also without anywhere to workout.

"We got a pick-up truck, rushed to the store in and bought the last weight rack available," said Marty Paris, the twins father. "The only place they could find to set it up was in their grandparents garage (in River Forest). It became a place of workout salvation for the boys."

With nothing else to do, Conor and Martin cobbled together enough weights from friends and neighbors to make the garage resemble a functioning gym, and they started pumping iron.

“We really just got after it,” Martin said. 

As COVID-19 restrictions lingered, through the spring and into the summer and into the fall again, as the 2020 football season was cancelled, the Paris twins kept lifting. With no Friday Night Lights, the two became gym rats.

“I know a couple of guys that actually went over to other states to play their senior seasons. Obviously, it was frustrating. I was seeing a lot of others playing. So did everyone else on our team,” Martin said. “So I tried to look at it through a different lens. I tried to to push myself every day regardless."

Conor went from 153 pounds to 199 pounds over nine months, with his body fat changing from 11 percent to 14 percent. He gained 37 pounds of muscle and nine pounds of fat, his bench press increasing from 175 pounds to 300 pounds. Conor could bench 225 pounds 15 times.

Martin went from 138 pounds to 175 pounds, with his body fat remaining unchanged at eight percent. He gained 37 pounds of muscle.

“That was obviously the biggest gain of growth as a football player I've ever had in my life," said Martin. "I gained size and weight too. Compounded, it really helped me.”

When Gov. Pritzker decided to allow Illinois high schools to play a spring 2021 season, the Paris twins were ready. But they first had to re-introduce themselves.

Conor, who last played as a 140-something pound sophomore cornerback, asked his new varsity coaches at their first spring morning practice if he could play middle linebacker.

"The coach initially told him he was too small and was a cornerback," said their dad, Marty Paris. "But a few hours later, he saw Conor lifting in the (Fenwick) weight room. He told him -- ok, middle linebacker will be fine."

The the Paris twins had gone from lean sophomore defensive backs to the strongest all-around players on the team, as measured by bench press, deadlift and squat.

In a shortened six-game spring season, Conor started for the Friars at middle linebacker, and Martin at cornerback and safety. The team finished 3-2, after starting 0-2.

Then it was back to their grandparents' garage, to prepare for fall 2021 season that, after a year of adversity, they would will into a fairy tale.

“You have to think 'how can I get better each day,' said Martin. "If you do that, like I did and like every other kid our Fenwick team did, it'll work out for you.”