AURORA | For the second time in program history, the Regis Jesuit boys basketball team has Colorado’s Gatorade Player of the Year.
Senior Eric Fiedler captured this year’s award — which has been given out annually by Gatorade since 1985 — and joins an exclusive class with the Raiders that includes only Bud Thomas, who won the award in back-to-back years in 2009 and 2010.
A four-year varsity player under coach Ken Shaw at Regis Jesuit, the 6-foot-8 Fiedler agreed to sign with Colorado State prior to the season and came in just shy of Josh Perkins on the all-time program scoring list. He surpassed that quickly during a season in which he averaged 29.9 points, which ranked second in Class 6A.
Fiedler — the co-Continental League Player of the Year along with Chaparral’s Luke Howery — also averaged 10.4 rebounds per game to help the Raiders to a 15-10 record in a season that ended with a 60-43 Class 6A Sweet 16 road loss at No. 2 Ralston Valley.
“Eric was a very talented player and we certainly rode him hard and relied on him for a lot,” said Shaw, whose 19-year tenure on the bench recently came to an end. “He got double- and triple-teamed frequently this season and still produced what he did.”
Added ThunderRidge coach Joe Ortiz in the Player of the Year announcement sent from Gatorade: “Eric is an explosive basketball player. He plays the game with great confidence and aggressiveness. He’s very skilled and can beat you from out to 25 feet or down in the post. Combine all of that with his size and strength and you have a dominant high school basketball player.”
A key reserve as a freshman on a talented Regis Jesuit team in the 2022-23 season in which the Raiders made it to the 6A Great 8, Fiedler took a big step forward as a sophomore (upping his scoring average from 3.8 points to 19.0 points per game) and made the All-Continental League first team, then repeated the feat for his junior and senior seasons.
For his career, Fiedler finished with a scoring average of 19.3 points per game (with a total of 1,909 points scored in 99 games).
Fiedler becomes the fifth boys basketball player all-time to earn the Colorado award from Gatorade, which began recognizing the top performer in each state in a variety of sports back in 1985-86, and he is the first since Smoky Hill graduate Kenny Foster won it in 2019. Colbey Ross of Eaglecrest won the award twice in 2016 and 2017 after Thomas took it in 2009 and 2010 and Eaglecrest’s Ben Baum won it first back in 1993.
All-time, 40 different Aurora area boys and girls athletes have won Gatorade Player of the Year awards in a total of 10 sports.
Courtney Oakes is Aurora Sentinel Sports Editor. Reach him at sports@sentinelcolorado.com. Twitter/X: @aurorasports. IG: Sentinel Prep Sports