Athlete of the Week: Jaesik Friggle, Aurora

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The seniors on the Aurora boys basketball team may not be able to agree on who’s the best at the video game Fortnite.

“I think I’m the best one out of the three,” said senior forward Sage Welch. “But I don’t know if he’ll agree with that.”

“In Fortnite he’s terrible,” said senior forward Ryan Clark.

“Oh I’m definitely better than him,” said senior guard Jaesik Friggle.

“He’s very mouthy,” added Welch.

But everyone agrees the team’s leading rebounder, 5′ 10″ point guard, Jaesik Friggle, can really get up.

“Jaesik, he can jump,” said Welch. “He works on his vertical a lot. He’s explosive with his hops. He’s very physical too, that helps.”

“I think he probably has the same competitiveness at Fortnite as he does in basketball, said Ryan Thornhill, Aurora Head Coach. “He plays to win. He’s competitive, whether it’s a drill or a down and back. Whatever it is, Jaesik’s a competitor for sure.”

Averaging 20 points and 10 rebounds a game, he’s doing something right.

“Those guys have to box out,” said Clark. “Jaesik is coming from the three-point line sometimes.”

“Most of it is just playing basketball,” Friggle said. “We play all summer and all year round. A lot of it is genes too. My dad was the same way.”

The all-conference and all-academic senior just grabbed his 500th career rebound last week. It’s something his head coach knew was possible from the moment he first saw Jaesik play.

“You know when I was thinking of coming to Aurora and saw some footage of him playing as a freshman that really stood out about him,” Thornhill said. “To me, here’s this scrawny freshman from Aurora who’s all over the court competing with seniors for rebounds.”

The team’s record has improved ever since then. From three wins each his freshman and sophomore years to winning 11 of their first 14 games so far this year, including a seven-game winning streak. One of the keys has been generating extra possessions from all those rebounds.

“Sometimes we’ll be missing shots and out of nowhere Jaesik will jump up and get a rebound and put it back up,” said Welch. “It just gives us all a bunch of energy for plays to come.”

It’s got the Houn’ Dawgs thinking of bringing home hardware this season, and their head coach hoping Jaesik’s play inspires future Houn’ Dawgs to feel the same.

“We try to make him really visible to our younger kids,” said Thornhill. “We’re hoping that we have a Jaesik Friggle every year. We are hoping a new Jaesik emerges next year. And then the year after that, and the year after that. For as long as I’m here, hopefully, we’ll have a Jaesik Friggle player that plays with the same attitude that he plays with.”

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