A major sports injury can sometimes be a bigger hurdle mentally than physically. Myles Ellis made sure that wasn’t the case for him.
The Homewood-Flossmoor senior receiver broke his ankle in the final game of his junior season. The setback forced the three-sport athlete to miss all of the last basketball season and the first half or so of the track season.
When it came time to get back on the gridiron, Ellis had a trick to help himself get right.
“The first practice back, I put on the cleats that I broke my foot in just to get that psychology out of my head,” he said. “I wear them probably once a week. I don’t even think about it anymore. It’s just like second nature.”
Ellis will use those cleats to be a weapon for the Vikings this fall. The North Dakota State commit’s speed is easy to see, but Coach Troy McAllister insists Ellis is more than that.
“He’s really fast but he’s very elusive and agile. The top end speed is phenomenal, but you give him the ball in space and he’s going to make one or two guys miss and he’s not easy to bring down,,” McAllister said. “Myles is a great receiver. He runs good routes. He understands spacing. He catches the ball extremely well. He’s physical. He’s definitely not a gadget-type player.”
It’s the first season at H-F for McAllister and most of his staff. They came over from SouthWest Suburban Conference rival Sandburg and before that won a pair of state titles at Phillips Academy.
Ellis said the new regime holds players more accountable, and the team is responding. Coaches were doing exactly that – verbally – during an August practice when a few players were slow to come out of the locker room on time.
“They’re winners,” Ellis said. “The way they run things, they’re just a winning coaching staff. They play things by the book. It’s like ‘This is what it is and if it’s not that, there’s going to be a consequence.’”
The new offense is exciting, as well, Ellis said. Dangerous players like him will be getting the ball with room to operate. Everybody will be involved, which Ellis said is more fun.
If McAllister is to build the team he wants at H-F, he’s going to need winners. Ellis knows what it takes to win on a high level.
He was a key piece on the state runner-up track team in the spring, running a leg on the championship 400-meter relay. He played for the state championship basketball team as a sophomore, as well.
“Anytime you’ve been around a championship, you know what it feels like. You know what it takes. It teaches you a mentality that some people just don’t have or don’t ever understand,” McAllister said. “Myles has been a part of that and that’s made a real difference in how he carries himself and what he expects from himself.”
Ellis hopes to do similar things at the next level. He chose North Dakota State over interest from bigger programs because the Bison have a history of putting players in the NFL. Offensive tackle Grey Zabel was drafted in the first round by the Seattle Seahawks in the 2025 draft. He’s one of eight Bison drafted since 2020, including five in the first two rounds.
“They just had a culture that I wanted to be a part of. They pride themselves on developing young men into 23-, 24-year-old dudes,” Ellis said. “I wasn’t worried so much about the FCS versus FBS. I was like ‘Hey, they’re sending guys to the league more than some FBS schools.’”
Before he heads to the roughrider state, Ellis has one more season with the guys he grew up with, who picked him up for morning workouts while he was injured.
“I want to hold a trophy up, a state trophy. We have an excellent coaching staff. We have excellent guys. We might not have the big names H-F is used to having but we have guys willing to do what other guys aren’t,” Ellis said. “We have guys out here that want to win.”
