New Trier’s Jake Fiegen is an elite shooter. Once not that, then only that, the Cornell recruit becomes more.

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When New Trier’s Jake Fiegen scored his 1,000th career point on Jan. 28, the senior guard reached a seemingly inevitable pinnacle for one of the state’s top shooters.

It hasn’t always been that way, however. In fact, shooting was mostly a foreign concept to Fiegen when he was younger.

“Growing up, I was like a hustle player and kind of a bigger guy, and I just did not shoot at all,” he said. “It wasn’t until seventh or eighth grade, when I joined an AAU team, Full Package, that I really learned how to shoot. That’s when I started to really love the game of basketball.”

There’s no doubt Fiegen can shoot now. He has put his name in the history books at a school with a storied athletic tradition. Fiegen, a Cornell recruit, joins Matt Lottich (2000) and Connor Boehm (2012) as the only New Trier players to reach 1,000 points since 2000.

“It definitely meant a lot to get to 1,000 points,” Fiegen said. “It’s a great achievement. Not a lot of people at New Trier have accomplished that, and a lot of great players have come through New Trier. So it’s a great group to be a part of. It’s kind of an accumulation of all the work put in to get there.”

Meanwhile, the Trevians (26-4) have earned the top seed in the Class 4A sectional they will host and hope they are primed for a big run to state.

The 6-foot-3 Fiegen, who is averaging 19.6 points and 5.2 rebounds, saw this success coming, even if most didn’t.

“The season has gone really well,” he said. “We had some big goals at the beginning of the year. We had a lot of seniors that left last year, so a lot of people maybe wrote us off a little bit or didn’t think we’d be as good. But we believed, and the coaches believed that we could do it.

“It means a lot to the school and the program. We have our standards, and it’s great to get those results.”

Jackson Munro, who was one of four starters to graduate and is playing at Dartmouth, has certainly been impressed from afar.

“It’s been great to see Jake and the team have so much success,” Munro said. “You think about what we lost, and for them to come back and do what they’ve done is really impressive. I’m super proud of Jake and everything he’s done for the team this year.”

For Fiegen, that starts with being the leader his team needs.

“I think it’s very important,” he said. “I think a lot of teams’ atmosphere is kind of built around their best player and how they approach the game. I think it definitely rubs off on the other guys. I want that toughness and that willingness to work hard to be what rubs off on my teammates.”

New Trier coach Scott Fricke, who recently earned his 300th win with the Trevians, has seen Fiegen develop into a superstar.

“He’s got a winning mentality,” Fricke said. “If there’s a 50-50 ball, he’s going to get it. If there’s a rebound at the end of the game, he’s going to come up with it. He’s just a winner. Since he’s been on varsity, our record is 68-10.

“He’s going to be a three-time all-conference player, and you don’t see that very often. He’s got a lot of accolades, and he’s just had an incredible career here.”

Fiegen has haunted opponents with his ability to knock down 3-pointer after 3-pointer throughout his New Trier career.

Many who have played against him would likely be shocked to know Fiegen’s smooth shot was nowhere to be seen before junior high and didn’t really take form until high school.

“When I joined Full Package, I met coach Dmitry Pirshin,” Fiegen said. “He’s a great teacher with shots and shot form. Instead of rebuilding and changing my shot, he was able to kind of create it from scratch because I never really shot much before.

“It was tough at the beginning. I struggled with range. But I just kept working on it.”

Fiegen was a freshman when the coronavirus pandemic began to affect everyday life. Stuck at home, he shot the basketball — and shot it some more.

“It really kind of turned over COVID,” he said. “When everyone was in lockdown, I’d just shoot all day. That’s when I really started to develop into a great shooter.

“Then when you start seeing the ball go in during games and practices, that builds your confidence. Confidence is one of the biggest things you need to be a good shooter.”

Fiegen was pulled up to varsity for his sophomore season, which was pushed back and abbreviated due to the pandemic. He immediately made his mark with his shooting.

“As a sophomore, he was already an elite shooter,” Munro said.

Fiegen said getting major varsity experience as a sophomore helped jump-start his career.

“It was a weird season with COVID and everything, but it gave me a lot of confidence and reassured me that the work I was putting in was paying off,” he said. “Being a part of that varsity team meant a lot to me because, growing up, you look up to those varsity guys, and it was kind of crazy for me to be one of those guys.”

Fiegen continued to score in bunches last season and impress college recruiters. But opposing coaches started developing plans to slow him down.

“Last year, teams would try to take him out of the game because he was one of the best shooters in the state, and teams would just try to take away those 3-point looks,” Fricke said.

Munro saw it too.

“In the past, he was really just a shooter,” Munro said.

Fiegen knew he needed to diversify his game. He went to work on getting bigger and faster to make it easier to get to the basket. He worked on jump shots from inside the 3-point line.

“I’ve worked very hard to develop into a three-level scorer, and that’s helped me a lot this year,” he said. “Being able to drive to the basket and score, or drive and pull up and hit a midrange shot, it all makes it a lot harder for me to get taken out of the game with my 3-point shot.

“I can shot-fake and get to the rim or get to a spot to pull up. I’ve gotten a lot stronger in the weight room since my junior year, and that’s helped me get to the basket, it’s helped with rebounding. I’m getting to the free-throw line a lot more this year.”

All Munro can say to New Trier’s opponents is “good luck.”

“He’s worked on his athleticism,” Munro said. “He runs faster and jumps higher. He’s expanded his scoring game. You can’t just run him off the line now because he’s a great shooter. Now he can get to the rim, and his midrange game is fantastic.

“He’s become much more versatile. It’s really tough to contain him in any way now.”

Fricke said Fiegen’s development all comes back to his work ethic.

“He’s one of our hardest workers that we’ve ever had at our school,” Fricke said. “He’s just a workhorse. He does whatever it takes to get himself better.

“When I open the gym up before practice on a Saturday, regardless of how early I get there, he’s already there waiting to get in and get shots up. When your best player is your hardest worker, that’s a really good thing.”

Like his friend Munro, Fiegen has decided to head to the Ivy League after he graduates from New Trier.

He knows there is a lot more hard work ahead of him at Cornell.

“I’m going to get a great education there, which is a huge priority for me,” Fiegen said. “I like the playing style there. They shoot a lot of threes. I think I’ll fit in with their style and schemes. I think I can be very successful there.

“I think it will definitely be an adjustment from high school to college, but I’m looking forward to the challenge.”

Munro has some advice.

“You have to find a way to manage your time so that you’re not too overwhelmed with basketball and school that you have no social life, or you’re too wrapped up in basketball that schoolwork suffers,” Munro said. “You have to find that balance.

“I’m a little disappointed because I would have loved to be his teammate again, but I’m really looking forward to competing against him when he gets to Cornell. We’re just going to have to not be friends for those 40-minute games.”

Fiegen said he hopes to close out his New Trier career with a big postseason run. Then he will start getting ready for the Ivy League and those games against Munro.

“It’s going to be fun,” Fiegen said. “It might be weird at first, but it’s going to be fun competing against him, and there will be a lot of great memories.”

Steve Millar is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.