Jake Fay and Jared Fay, pictured Saturday at the HhoganZ Basketball Tournament.
There’s only one place you would have expected the Fay brothers, Jake and Jared, to be this past weekend when there was some serious basketball being played in their hometown of Lynn.
And that was right in the middle of the All-City League playoffs and HoganZ Tournament, displaying the type of potent skills that have earned the Fays scholarships to Division 1 Fordham University.
Eighteen-year-old Jake Fay is a 6-feet-5-inch, shoot-the-lights out guard who is beginning his senior year at Brimmer and May School in Chestnut Hill. Fay lit up the Marian Gardens court for 20 points, mostly from downtown, to lead his team to an 83-82 double-overtime victory in the All-City League championship game.
“I shoot threes but I like to think of myself as an all-around player but my specialty is shooting,” said Fay, who averaged 16 points a game at Brimmer and May this past season.
Jake excelled in youth basketball in Lynn, competing for the Lynn travel and Sacred Heart CYO teams. He attended Lincoln-Thompson, Breed, and Lynn Classical for his freshman year before deciding to transfer and repeat his freshman year at Brimmer and May.
“I always played basketball in Lynn and still play hoop in Lynn,” said Fay. “I work out at Fecteau-Leary every day. I always remember where I’m from and that’s Lynn.”
Jake said he’s looking forward to playing basketball at Fordham with his brother, Jared.
“We’re going to be together for three years,” said Jake. “It should be a lot of fun.”
Jake Fay said his father, Cobbet School Principal Dr. Brian Fay, was instrumental in his development as a student-athlete.
“My father always encouraged and supported our basketball playing, but never pushed us to play,” said Jake, whose mother, Kristin, is a schoolteacher in Peabody. “Any endeavor we participated in, our parents were there to support us.”
Twenty-year-old Jared Fay, a 6-feet-3-inch guard who red-shirted this past season, said Fordham plays in the Atlantic-10 Conference with such perennial NCAA qualifiers as Xavier of Ohio, Butler, Temple, and St. Louis University.
“In the pre-season polls, the A-10 is ranked fifth in the nation in terms of overall strength,” said Jared. “It’s regarded as a major conference now.”
Jared attended Classical for two years before transferring to Brimmer and May.
“It was a tough decision to transfer but I knew the best chance for a scholarship was to go to prep school,” said Jared.
Fay averaged 14 points a game in his senior year at Brimmer and May. He is hoping to be a major contributor at Fordham as a spot-up shooter and defender.
Jared is looking forward to reuniting with his brother in the Fordham program.
“We always worked out together so it was always a dream to play at the next level together,” said Jared.
Lynn fans should look for Jared and the Fordham Rams in high-profile games this winter. Fordham plays at UConn, Mississippi, and Georgia Tech in addition to meeting St. John’s University at Madison Square Garden and traveling to Cambridge for a game against defending Ivy League champion Harvard.
“It is really exciting to have the opportunity to play Division 1 college basketball,” said Jared. “It’s always been a dream. I worked hard over the past four or five years playing four to five hours a day so the hard work pays off.”