While laying in his bed one afternoon, an overweight Eric Fiedler daydreamed about a goal that seemed far out of reach.
The then-6-foot-5 freshman wanted to play Division I basketball, but at 260 pounds, he lacked the stamina and the skill to make that happen. He had gotten a few minutes a game on the Regis Jesuit varsity that season, but just like on his club teams all throughout middle school, Fiedler didn’t stand out except for his height.
So decided to put in the work necessary to change his trajectory. Strict dieting, including intermittent fasting. Wake-up calls at 5:30 a.m. all summer and into the school year to hit the weight room and the court. Sprints, jogging, and incline walking on the treadmill every morning.
The result of that disciplined effort brought Fiedler more success than that hopeful freshman could've imagined that day in his bed.
It earned the Regis Jesuit star a scholarship to Colorado State, led him to finish as the Raiders' all-time scoring leader, and then came the awards: CHSAA Class 6A Player of the Year. And now, The Denver Post's Mr. Colorado Basketball.
"I knew I wasn't going to get to where I wanted to go at 260 pounds," Fiedler said. "I had to switch what I did, what I ate, how I worked out, who I worked out with, the people I surrounded myself with. I had to change my whole life around. And to see the payoff over the last couple years has been the most rewarding thing."
Sophomore jump
Fiedler was down to 235 pounds as a sophomore, and then cut to 195 pounds as a junior. As his frame stretched to 6-foot-6 and he added muscle, he played this season at about 210 pounds, turning in a dominant campaign from start to finish.
The senior averaged a double-double this season with capping a sensational high school career that started to take flight in his sophomore season. Early in that year, Fiedler posted a 34-point, 10-rebound effort in a win against Mullen that foretold the type of player he could be without all the extra weight.
Fiedler surprised himself with that performance and eventually quit baseball to focus on basketball full-time.
"That was my first 30-piece in my life, and at that point, I was blown away because I never thought I could do that," Fielder said. "After that game, I just kind of thought, 'I can really do something with this.'"
And the omens kept coming.
As a junior, the forward dropped 37 points in at the Denver Coliseum. And as a senior, his double-double in a win over ThunderRidge (career-high 46 points with 11 rebounds) underscored what Division I coaches saw in the player who also had offers from CU, Stanford, and Kansas State, among others.
"Eric carried us down the stretch of that Rangeview game," former Regis Jesuit head coach Ken Shaw said. "And when we played at ThunderRidge this year, a stellar program for a long time, he kept making big plays, and big shots, just when it looked like (the Grizzlies) were going to get back into it. He is the type of player who is impossible to stop when he's locked in."
Easy points
Fellow Regis Jesuit senior Joe Haubert, who witnessed Fielder's transformation from pudgy freshman to program all-timer, noted that sometimes, opposing defenses underestimated the forward at the beginning of games. That didn't last long, as Fielder often saw double-teams, triple-teams and junk defenses that became standard by the latter stretch of the season.
"I think some defenses were almost like, 'Can he really be that good? Let's just have one guy guard him,'" Haubert said with a laugh. "And then when he has the first, say, 12 points for us, the other coach would be like, 'OK, we probably need to double him now.'"
Regis Jesuit lost to eventual state runner-up Ralston Valley in the this season, as the Raiders didn't have the firepower around Fiedler to have the type of success they were aiming for. But it is safe to say the Raiders wouldn't have gone 15-10 and 7-3 in the league without their superstar carrying them.
Fiedler, who was the co-Continental League Player of the Year along with Chaparral's All-Colorado junior guard Luke Howery, had his scoring binges fueled by his ability to draw fouls. He shot 76% from the stripe, averaging 8.2 points per game from there, and with 196 free-throw points.
ThunderRidge head coach Joe Ortiz called Fiedler "the best high school player I've seen in several years."
"He beats you off the dribble, he can shoot mid-range, but really his biggest strength is that he'll just overpower you," Ortiz said. "He shares the ball well when he needs to. Regis would isolate him, and he'd find open shooters or he'll beat you two-on-one, too. He's a unique scorer... And when he gets to the free-throw line, that's just easy points."
Ortiz believes Fiedler has a chance to play early at CSU because he has "the whole package of skills."
"He's like a post body, playing a guard game," Ortiz said. "CSU is getting a steal with him."
