Joliet West senior named Gatorade Illinois Boys Basketball Player of the Year

Gatorade has named Joliet West High School basketball player Jeremy Fears Jr. the 2022-23 Gatorade Illinois Boys Basketball Player of the Year.

The award recognizes the honoree’s athletic excellence along with “high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court,” according to a news release from Joliet Township High School District 204.

“It’s unusual to see someone so accomplished at the age of 17,” Jeremy Kreiger, Joliet West varsity boys basketball coach, said in a Wednesday Herald-News story.

The “Jeremy Fears McDonald’s All American 2023 Sendoff” is scheduled from 3 to 5 p.m. Sunday at The Salvation Army, Joliet Corps Community Center, 300 Third Ave. in Joliet. Registration is required by Thursday at eventbrite.com.

[ Reception planned Sunday for Joliet West basketball player Jeremy Fears Jr. ]

In the classroom, Fears maintains a B average. Among other achievements, Fears has volunteered as a Tiger Tots supervisor for the child care development program at Joliet West High School, has been a member of the Black Student Union and has served as a youth basketball coach, District 204 said.

Fears said in a Wednesday Herald-News story that playing basketball also has prepared him for life.

“It [basketball] is a very rough, up and down sport,” Fears said in Wednesday’s story. “It has a lot of good and bad overall, not just in basketball but in life, too. In everything, you have to find a way to prevail. It all goes back to, ‘You can’t stop now.’ You have to fight through adversity.”

—  "in everything, you have to find a way to prevail." Jeremy Fears Jr, varsity basketball player at Joliet West High School

Fears is a 6-foot-2, 182-pound senior guard for the Joliet West varsity basketball team. He averaged 18.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game this past season, leading the Tigers (28-6) to a Class 4A sectional final, and contributed 5.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game, District 204 said.

Fears is a McDonald’s All-American Game selection and will play March 28 at the Toyota Center in Texas. He also played as a sophomore and junior at La Lumiere School in LaPorte, Indiana. In addition, ESPN.com ranked Fears as the nation’s No. 20 recruit in the class of 2023, District 204 said.

He also signed a national letter of intent to play basketball on scholarship at Michigan State University this fall.

For information, visit jths.org and playeroftheyear.gatorade.com.

At a glance

• Jeremy Fears Jr. is a 6-foot-2, 182-pound senior guard for the Joliet West High School varsity basketball team.

• Fears averaged 18.8 points and 5.6 rebounds per game this past season, leading the Tigers (28-6) to the Class 4A sectional final.

• Fears contributed 5.3 assists and 1.5 steals per game.

• Fears is a McDonald’s All-American Game selection.

• Fears is ranked the nation’s No. 20 recruit in the class of 2023 by ESPN.com.