Editor’s note: The recounting of the 1992-1993 Norwich boys’ basketball team, and its accomplishments, was produced by Mark Abbott, a 1977 Norwich High School graduate and longtime varsity coach of the team; and Patrick Newell, Evening Sun Sports Editor and a 1985 NHS graduate. This is the eighth in a series of articles on the inaugural Norwich Sports Hall of Fame Class. Next Thursday, we look conclude our series with the 1993-1994 boys’ basketball team.

Coming off its first winning season in Mark Abbott’s six years as head coach, expectations were high for a Norwich team returning three seniors and four juniors from a 16-5 club. Couple that with the fact that the junior varsity had gone a combined 38-2 the last two years, and you can see the reason for the obvious optimism.

“We thought we had a chance to be pretty good, we had some really talented players who worked really hard, but STAC basketball in the early ‘90s was absolutely loaded,” reflected Abbott, who recently finished his 25th year as the Purple Tornado head coach. “Binghamton, Ithaca, Vestal, Seton, CV, they were all really good teams, REALLY good.”