For the second straight year, Norwich dominates our first team boys’ basketball all-stars. A season ago the Tornado reached the Section IV Class B finals, and placed three players among our starting five. Facing the best possible competition of any area team, Norwich excelled and its players were duly recognized for their performances.

One season later, Norwich is continuing to thrive among the best six or seven teams in all of Section IV, and a 15-win season almost seems like a step back considering the Tornado won 38 games over the previous two seasons.

This season had to be especially satisfying for Norwich coach Mark Abbott, who now has spent a quarter century manning the sidelines. He had no returning starters from last year’s team, and the returning players were little more that situational substitutes.

Jumping to the forefront this season was Norwich senior Jon Foulds, who was the lone boy in Chenango County named to the Basketball Coaches Association of New York all-Section IV team. Foulds was among the area’s scoring leaders throughout the season, and was one missed three-pointer away from completing the best scoring night in Abbott’s coaching career.

Foulds is joined on the first team by teammates Dennis Oralls and Seth Thomsen, who are just juniors and give Abbott the backbone of next year’s team.