Riley Fox, a member of West Hartford’s Conard High School Class of 2024, now attends Yale University.

By Anthony Price, Photos by Eric Nagle

Standing six-foot-six with curly red hair and pale skin, Riley Fox stands out from his high school peers. He is quick to smile in his size 13 sneakers. But don’t be fooled by his kindness. On the basketball court, he won’t hesitate to attack – opponents and their coaches still have nightmares of his scoring sprees.

The Conard High School senior is one of the most prolific scorers in Connecticut high school basketball history. He completed his basketball career 16th on the all-time scoring list with 2,162 points – more points than Donovan Clingan’s 2,142 at Bristol Central. (Clingan was drafted No. 7 overall in 2024 by the Portland Trailblazers.)

Riley is Conard’s all-time leading scorer. Not only can Riley score on the court, but he also comes up aces in the classroom – in fact, he’s earned all A’s in high school since his freshman year. He says his grade point average is a staggering 4.3, on a 4.0 scale.

What would you expect from a teenager whose favorite subject is economics? Riley credits his parents with stressing the importance of academics at a young age. They pushed him to be on time with work and to get good grades.

As if things couldn’t get any better, next season he will be lacing up his sneakers for the mid-major Yale University Bulldogs men’s basketball team, who upset Auburn in the NCAA tournament and eventually lost to San Diego State in the second round.

Relaxing, but Still Grinding

I spoke to Riley over the telephone in early April. His high school days are winding down, and he knows his life will change on June 10th, the last day of school.

Living in West Hartford, one of the top large suburbs in Connecticut, he seems to be living a dream life. But he knows nothing lasts forever. With his high school days waning like a Michael Jordan fadeaway, Riley wants to relax and soak it all in. He just wants to be a regular kid.

During our telephone calls and our photoshoot at Conard High School, Riley doesn’t sound like a 17-year-old. He comes across as mature beyond his years. His thoughts are well-formed, and he’s grateful for his success.

Prep School?

In Riley’s freshman year, he was built like a giant string bean, six-foot-three and 155 pounds. His first game was against Hull, the crosstown rival in West Hartford.

“This was big for me, being a freshman,” he says. He was overwhelmed when he came off the bench that game. Once he got into the game, he remembers getting a couple of putback buckets, and he got into the lane.

“I was doing my thing,” he says with confidence. At that moment, he realized he could “hang with these dudes.” His high school goal was to join the 1,000-point club one day. “That’d be dope,” he thought to himself. It would come sooner than he thought, at the beginning of his junior year.

The path for promising high school basketball players usually goes through prep school. And prep school “definitely came across my thoughts,” Riley says.

“You know, a lot of the time, he was getting calls from prep schools,” says Jared Leghorn, the Conard High School basketball coach, “especially his sophomore and junior year. And I always said, ‘Riley, I’ll work with you if you want to go prep and reclass. We will get you to a good spot, where you can be as successful as possible.’”

In Riley’s junior year, he committed to staying at Conard before the basketball season started. “Coach, I’m staying for four years,” Riley said, according to Leghorn. “We didn’t really talk about it anymore after that. He’s a special kid for us.”

“I’ve known Riley since he was in elementary school,” Leghorn explains. “He started going to our basketball camps in the summer. And then, at some point, we were like, “‘Oh my God, this kid is really good!’”

“He was in middle school, and he’s beating our counselors, our current players, and high schoolers in Knockout, one-on-one, like a seventh or eighth grader,” Leghorn shared his amazement.

Aidan Fox

I spoke to Aidan Fox, Riley’s younger brother, over the telephone in mid-April; it’s eight at night. He just got back from weightlifting, and his basketball workout starts in about 30 minutes. He squeezes me into his schedule with a crowbar.

He lifts weights in Bloomfield with Dominick “Turbo” Spaulding, and his basketball workout tonight will be at the Jewish Community Center in West Hartford.

“Riley is taking Aidan under his wing as far as the mental side of basketball goes, like really teaching him how to grind in the weight room, in the gym,” Leghorn says. “It’s fun to watch the light bulb start to click as he’s getting older.”

Before leaving for college, Riley wants to pass down the blueprint to Aidan, a sophomore at Conard High School. He is preparing Aidan for his junior year and has become a coach/mentor to him.

I know he’s a different person,” Riley says, “and I have a different path. Still, doing those things every single day and every single week, and just let it multiply over time and you’re going to get a lot better over a longer period of time,“ Riley says.

Riley’s been “locked in” with his brother since last summer. “I’m trying to show him everything that I did to become successful,” Riley states. He’s no longer the scrawny kid. Today he is heavier at 193 pounds, with a toned, muscular frame.

They lift weights and work on their basketball game together. “We train, weightlifting and playing basketball five to six days a week. We’ve been training together since my freshman year of high school,” Aidan says.

“It’s just been nice getting better with him,” Aidan says. At Conard, Aidan and Riley both started for the team this year. “It was pretty cool,” Aidan says.

“Last year we played together, but we didn’t get the full experience like this year. This year It felt like it went by really fast. I didn’t appreciate it as much as I should have. This could have been the last time we were playing together.”

Riley was able to go through his senior year with Aidan on the team. “That was special,” he says. He liked competing against Aidan. “There’s nothing like it, “ Riley says.

“It was really fun going to practice every day and learning from him and playing with him because we have a lot of chemistry from just playing in the backyard together,” Aidan says.

Their relationship is more than basketball. “We hang out a lot and joke around,” Aidan says. “We’re friends outside of basketball. It’s nice to have that type of relationship. We go golfing a lot. We go out and do stuff together.” They have a competitive nature off the court, especially in golf. Aidan says he’s better than Riley in golf.

“I’d say that ever since eighth grade watching him play,” Aidan says, “I was always impressed.” Now I’m used to all of his success, so it’s not as surprising. Looking at it, as a whole, and what he’s done, yeah, it’s pretty impressive.”

They lost to Windsor High School in the playoffs, ending Riley’s storied high-school career. “During the game, it just felt off. We just all had a bad game,” Aidan says. “When I got subbed out for the last time I was thinking about it. I don’t know, it just didn’t feel real.”

“But in the locker room, we all got emotional,” Riley says. “We were all talking about the season. Thanking each other and all that.”

Just like Riley experienced, some coaches have reached out to Aidan about completing his career at another high school. “Right now, I’m 100% committed to Conard,” Aidan says.

Recruiting Process

It’s mid-April, and Yale University’s men’s basketball coach, James Jones, has just completed breakfast with the rising seniors on his team. I can hear the sound of dishes clanging and chatter in the background, through the telephone.

Jones’ team won the Ivy League basketball tournament on a last-second shot, beating Brown University, and made a run in the NCAA tournament, before losing in the second round to San Diego State. It was a successful year for the team at 23-10.

Matt Kingsley, Yale’s assistant coach, knew of Riley and invited him to the Yale Elite camp when he was a rising junior. “I loved him. I thought he was really good,” Jones says. Jones would watch Riley play during his junior year.

“I got a chance to see him play a ton and really enjoyed watching him play and we offered him early. I think he is tremendous and he’s going to have a tremendous career for us here.”

When recruiting players, Jones looks for toughness. “I can’t make you tougher than you are. If the ball is on the ground, you’re either going to go get it, or you’re going to watch it. You want to try and get guys that are going to go get the ball, which is important to us.”

“Riley shoots the ball at a really high level,” Jones says. “You need shot makers on the floor to space it, especially in today’s game. And he’s one of those guys.”

Jones’ pitch to recruits like Riley is simple. “They can have the best of both worlds. They get a high-quality education—the best on the planet. Then they have an opportunity to play basketball at the highest level.” Yale has played Colorado, Auburn, North Carolina, Duke, and Kentucky. “So, we play everybody in the country.”

“You have an opportunity to play against the best and the brightest, and you have an opportunity to show who you are and improve who you are,” Jones says, ending his pitch.

A New Beginning

“It was fun to watch them, like how much joy they got out of playing with each other, especially Aidan,” Leghorn says. “Once Aidan took off in his sophomore year, it was fun to watch because Riley’s a willing passer, and especially when it’s his brother.”

“Probably the best player we will ever have in West Hartford at Conard. We knew what we had and that we’re lucky too because he could have gone and played anywhere,” Leghorn says.

Riley is thankful for Leghorn. “Especially from the start, he’s created a great relationship with me since I was young. He really believed in me from the start.”

“I also want to thank him for the opportunities that he gave me – letting a scrawny six-foot-three, 155-pound freshman come and give him the chance to play and believing in him, through everything,” Riley says. “We’ve created a relationship where he is always going to be a big part of my life.”

Riley doesn’t plan to stop working on his game and already has big plans for his freshman year at Yale: Ivy League Rookie of the Year. He knows that “making an impact every single game” is all any coach can ask for. And that’s what he plans to do at Yale.

Riley played in the Basketball Capital Pro-Am (formerly Greater Hartford Pro-Am) again this summer at the University of Saint Joseph in West Hartford. Then, he’s off to Yale University.

A version of this article first appeared in CT Hoops Magazine 001. Reprinted with permission. For more information about CT Hoops, click here.

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