No local boys basketball team has a big three quite like Norwich.
Seth Thomsen was already honored on these pages a month ago, and the other two-thirds of that terrific triad – Dennis Oralls and Kyle Edwards – join Thomsen today as Smith Ford Supercenter/Evening Sun Athletes of the Week.
Norwich’s lineup is far from typical. It’s guard-oriented, and those who play the forward position are mostly, well, just well-disguised guards.
Oralls, a 6-foot-3 senior, is the tallest member of the undersized Tornado roster, and a third-year varsity member. Oralls put together perhaps the finest back-to-back games of his career in victories over Oneonta and Chenango Valley last week.
He displayed an all-around offensive game against the ‘Jackets hitting three-pointers, driving to the basket, and sticking mid-range jumpers that are low on the flash meter, but cruelly effective against the opposition. And in end-of-game situations, Oralls is the best free throw shooter on the team. “Dennis is just an unbelievable weapon to have for us at the end of a game,” said Norwich coach Tom Collier. “He’s a guy that hits 80 to 90 percent of his free throws, and he closes out games.”