CHICAGO (March 16, 2022) — In its 37th year of honoring the nation’s best high school athletes, Gatorade today announced Fletcher Loyer of Homestead High School is the 2021-22 Gatorade Indiana Boys Basketball Player of the Year. Loyer is the second Gatorade Indiana Boys Basketball Player of the Year to be chosen from Homestead High School.

The award, which recognizes not only outstanding athletic excellence, but also high standards of academic achievement and exemplary character demonstrated on and off the court, distinguishes Loyer as Indiana’s best high school boys basketball player. Now a finalist for the prestigious Gatorade National Boys Basketball Player of the Year award to be announced in March, Loyer joins an elite alumni association of state award-winners in 12 sports, including Jayson Tatum (2015-16, Chaminade College Preparatory School, Mo.), Karl-Anthony Towns (2012-13 & 2013-14, St. Joseph High School, N.J.), Jabari Parker (2011-12, Simeon Career Academy, Ill.) and Dwight Howard (2003-04, Southwest Atlanta Christian Academy, Ga.).

The 6-foot-4, 170-pound senior guard had led the Spartans to a 22-5 record and a berth in the Class 4A regional semifinals at the time of his selection. Loyer averaged 26.9 points, 5.4 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 2.2 steals per game through 27 games. A 2021 Junior All-Star, he is the younger brother of Foster Loyer, the 2017-18 Gatorade Michigan Boys Basketball Player of the Year. He entered the regional semifinals with 2,136 points in his prep basketball career.

A Student Section Leader at Homestead High School, Loyer has volunteered locally as a youth basketball coach,and he has donated his time to multiple community service initiatives through his church youth group.

Phil Brackmann, head coach of Concordia Lutheran High School

“Fletcher is a competitor—that’s what makes him special. The number of times I have seen him do the little things to win basketball games—diving on the floor, taking charges, screening to get teammates open, rebounding. He plays with heart, and that is what impressed me most.”

Loyer has maintained a weighted 3.78 GPA in the classroom. He has signed a national letter of intent to play basketball on scholarship at Purdue University this fall.

The Gatorade Player of the Year program annually recognizes one winner in the District of Columbia and each of the 50 states that sanction high school football, girls volleyball, boys and girls cross country, boys and girls basketball, boys and girls soccer, baseball, softball, and boys and girls track & field, and awards one National Player of the Year in each sport.

Loyer joins recent Gatorade Indiana Boys Basketball Players of the Year Caleb Furst (2020-21, Blackhawk Christian School), Trey Kaufman (2019-20, Silver Creek High School), Trayce Jackson-Davis (2018-19, Center Grove High School), and Romeo Langford (2017-18, New Albany High School), among the state’s list of former award winners.

Through Gatorade’s “Play it Forward” platform, Loyer has the opportunity to award a $1,000 grant to a local or national organization of their choosing that helps young athletes realize the benefits of playing sports. Loyer is also eligible to submit a short video explaining why the organization they chose is deserving of one of twelve $10,000 spotlight grants, which will be announced throughout the year. To date, Gatorade Player of the Year winners’ grants have totaled more than $3.5 million across more than 1,300 organizations.

Since the program’s inception in 1985, Gatorade Player of the Year award recipients have won hundreds ofprofessional and college championships, and many have also turned into pillars in their communities, becoming coaches, business owners and educators.

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