Robby General // Story Breanna Daugherty // Photography Ryan Shank // Videography 

Robby General // Story
Breanna Daugherty // Photography
Ryan Shank // Videography

After practice on Thanksgiving Day last year, Ball State men’s basketball head coach James Whitford pulled each player and coach into a huddle.

He instructed each one of them to go around and share what they were thankful for. Many of the responses were team-related, as the Cardinals were off to one of their hottest starts in recent memory.

But then-junior forward Franko House had something else on his mind. He was thinking about his long-time girlfriend Morgan Jantzi, and the news he learned a few weeks before.

She was pregnant.

As each man on the court spoke, it was soon associate head coach Jason Grunkemeyer’s turn to address the team. He had recently discovered that his wife was pregnant with their third child.

“At that point, obviously I knew my wife was pregnant, but we hadn’t said anything to anybody yet and we were at the point where we were going to start telling people,” Grunkemeyer said. “I said, ‘I’m thankful for my family, and we’re getting to ready to have another baby.’”

Assistant coach Brian Thornton was in a similar position and chimed in with news of his own wife’s pregnancy.

While everyone on the floor cheered, House could only think about his future. No one knew just how much the two-year starter’s life was going to change.

“I was too nervous, I wasn’t going to come out and say it there,” House said. “In the back of my head I’m thinking, ‘Man, I’m about to have a baby too and they don’t know.’”

The initial shock

The only person who knew of Morgan Jantzi’s pregnancy during the first 10 weeks was her mother, Michelle Jantzi.

Around Halloween in 2015, Morgan Jantzi began to feel sick in the mornings and eventually decided to go with House to buy a pregnancy test.

The test confirmed the couple’s feeling — they were going to have a baby.

“We were just so scared and nervous, and I didn’t even know what to do,” Morgan Jantzi said. “I didn’t know what doctor’s office to contact. I didn’t know anything about it.”

It was mid-November when the couple decided they needed to let somebody know. So they set up a dinner with Michelle Jantzi.

As they sat down, they were choking on their words, not knowing exactly what to say or how to say it.

Eventually the words came out and there were endless questions running through Michelle Jantzi’s mind. She knew all too well how hard the future was going to be for the couple.

“When they first told me, I was scared for them,” Michelle Jantzi said. “I kept thinking, ‘How is this going to work? How are they going to be able to finish college? How will Franko’s coaches take it? How will his teammates take it?’ That lasted for just a little bit, maybe a day or two, and then I saw how excited they were, and after that it was really exciting.”

For the next couple of weeks, everything remained the same. House continued his season and the couple began planning the next steps with Michelle Jantzi alongside for guidance.

At the 10-week mark, both House and Morgan Jantzi went to IU Health Ball Memorial Hospital for their first doctor’s appointment.

“That’s when we went in and heard the heartbeat for the first time,” Morgan Jantzi said. “Then we were really excited. So we were like, ‘OK, let’s go tell the rest of our family.’”

Being a few hours away from their hometown of Elkhart, the couple informed the rest of their families over the phone.

The screams and sheer excitement helped ease some of the early tension, turning the nerves into enthusiasm.

But even with support from both sides of the family, House knew there was still one more family to tell — the Ball State men’s basketball team.

He first approached Thornton, his position coach, and a man he considers a big brother. After practice one day, House pulled him aside and said, “Hey, we need to talk.”

“I’ll never forget it. We sat in the end zone of the gym and he told me that Morgan was pregnant,” Thornton said. “I hugged him and said, ‘Hey man, it’s going to change your life.’”

Moving forward

Carter has certainly added an extra dimension to House’s life, but as he finishes his last season at Ball State, the goal remains the same — to play professional basketball.

“Hopefully I can play overseas, that would be my first goal, just to get a chance to continue playing basketball and doing something that I love,” House said.

With the way he’s played up to this point in his career, his coaches said he’s put himself in the right position to continue playing.

“I think he’s going to have a chance to play basketball after college, I certainly do,” Whitford said. “He’s doing everything he can to give him the best chance possible, but he’s not one-dimensional in the sense that if that didn’t happen.”

This season, House became the 29th player in Ball State’s history to reach 1,000 career points. In the first seven games of his senior season, he played some of his best collegiate basketball, averaging more points and more rebounds than any other year.

Still, professional basketball is one of the hardest industries to get into, which is why House has put his academics and family life first. If playing basketball doesn’t work out, though, coaching is another avenue that interests him.

For now, he remains focused on this season. No matter what happens, it’s going to be hard for Ball State to replace someone like House.

“I love him. He’s a little brother to me,” Thornton said. “I’m just really proud at how far he’s come and how he’s embraced this responsibility that he has.”

While much of House’s future remains uncertain, one thing remains for sure: wherever he goes, Morgan Jantzi and Carter will be there.

House and Morgan Jantzi will be married on June 10, 2017, nearly one year after the birth of their first son.

This Thanksgiving, House wasn’t with the team — he was with Morgan Jantzi and Carter at home, celebrating the holiday for the first time together as a family in Muncie.

Away from the gym, House took time to text Thornton and Grunkemeyer, sharing with them what he was thankful for — to have coaches there for him through it all.