Janus Fhurek

"Proud of yourself, Leonis?''" "''Proud of my teammates, sir."

- Janus Fhurek rages at Zare Leonis after Leonis makes a fool of him.

Janus Fhurek was a male human who served as the athletic director at the Junior Academy of Applied Sciences on the planet Lothal. With the academy's heavy focus on athletics, Fhurek was generally believed to hold more power and influence than even the Academy's headmaster. Fhurek had close connections to the Imperial Academy on Lothal and was seen as a middleman for prospective academy recruits.

When Zare Leonis became center striker on the school's grav-ball team, the AppSci SaberCats, he eventually came into conflict with Fhurek when he ordered the removal of two of the team's players, Frid Kelio and Hench Sina, prior to the championship game, due to their being Nonhuman. Fhurek's stated reason for their removal was that some individuals felt their Nonhuman status gave them an unfair advantage, but Leonis felt this was simple bias. Leonis ignored Fhurek's orders and kept the two Alien players on his team; who helped propel the team to victory during an important qualifying grav-ball tournament against the Mavericks. In retaliation, Fhurek had Kelio and Sina transferred to the Technical Institute for Agricultural Research, a less reputable institution.

On a later occasion, Zare and his hacker friend Merei Spanjaf discovered that Fhurek had made a bet that the SaberCats would win by eight points during the final grav-ball tournament match without alien help. In retaliation, Zare carefully guided his team to a victory of only six points; causing Fhurek to lose his bet. After Zare's older sister Dhara Leonis mysterious disappearance, Fhurek taunted Zare by commenting that disloyalty ran in the latter's family; prompting Zare to give him a black eye. As a result of the incident, Leonis feared that Fhurek would interfere with his application to Lothal's Imperial Academy, but Fhurek ultimately had no influence in this matter, as the Inquisitor had taken a personal interest in Leonis's application.

Personality and traits
"Obviously not. That's the problem with the Outer Rim&mdash;small-minded thugs like this athletic director [Janus Fhurek] get little kingdoms to rule, when closer to the Core Worlds they'd have to compete with more qualified people, and would wind up fixing droids or cleaning streets."

- Leo Leonis' assessment of Janus Fhurek

Janus Fhurek was a skinny Human man with a red face and a temper, who had little tolerance for dissent. Fhurek was a strong supporter of the Galactic Empire and believed that the Imperial authorities should remove undesirable alien and immigrant elements from Lothal. While Fhurek claimed that he was not personally prejudiced against Aliens, he still accepted the contention of some prejudiced Human grav-ball fans that the alien players' unique physiognomies gave them an unfair advantage over Human players. However, Zare Leonis refused to accept Fhurek's explanation and suspected that the man was biased against Aliens. Leonis' suspicions were confirmed when Fhurek unilaterally transferred the AppSci SaberCats' two alien players&mdash;Frid Kelio and Hench Sina&mdash;to another school

Fhurek was also a bully and sought every opportunity to torment Leonis, after the teenager refused to remove his two Alien teammates. After Zare's older sister Dhara mysteriously disappeared, Fhurek taunted Zare which prompted the young man to assault him. As revenge, Janus tried to sabotage Zare's admission to the Imperial Academy on Lothal but was overruled by the authorities, who were interested in Leonis' talents and skills. Zare's father Leo Leonis had a dim opinion of Fhurek and regarded him as an incompetent small-minded thug who treated AppSci as his own "little kingdom." While sharing her husband's assessment of Fhurek, she cautioned her son Leonis not to get onto the athletic director's wrong side since he could jeopardize Leonis' career opportunities.

Appearances

 * Servants of the Empire: Edge of the Galaxy