By Christopher Tremblay

Four years ago, the Norwood boys basketball team made a historic run through the Division 2 State Basketball Tournament as the seven seed. Unfortunately, the Mustangs luck ran out in the Championship game against number one seed Malden Catholic. 

 

Over the past two years, Norwood has compiled a 27-13 regular season record but has not had any luck in the tournament. Two years ago, Leominster sent them home in the Round of 16, and last year Oliver Ames didn’t let them get out of the preliminary round.  

This winter, senior captains Brian Dearborn and Patrick Connell are hoping that they can help guide the team during their final season with another deep tournament run like the team accomplished under Coach Kristen McDonnell when they were just coming into the high school. 

While they are now playing on the same team for the high school, the two go way back and have been friends since elementary school. Both captains have been playing the sport since a very young age but came onto the varsity high school team in different ways. Dearborn, who is also the captain of the football and baseball teams at Norwood, was also a big hockey player growing up but by the time he reached high school, he had to make a decision on which sport he would suit up for during the winter season. 

“With both hockey and basketball being played at the same time I had to choose,” Dearborn said. “Basketball was more exciting and I felt that I was much better at it than hockey. I also had a lot of friends playing basketball.”

On the other side, Connell played the sport year-round growing up and now plays for the Mustang baseball team as well, but he originally didn’t go to Norwood High School.

“I transferred to Norwood from Xaverian my sophomore year,” Connell said. “I had seen how well the basketball team did going to the State Championship game and wanted to be a part of it. It was only a part of my decision to come to Norwood, but it was not the biggest reason. I just never felt like myself at Xaverian and I had a lot of friends in Norwood.”

As three-year players on the team, both athletes plan on taking their captaincy very seriously and are hoping that they can not only make a difference on what the team does on the court, but what they can teach the younger players off the court. 

“I was excited to be named a captain, it was something that I had been dreaming about since I got on the team,” Connell said. “I want to win and bring this team together while helping them work as a team. You can’t win alone; it takes the five guys on the court and you all have to be on the same page to be successful.”

Dearborn noted that Norwood graduated eight seniors from last year’s squad and will only have three seniors on this years team. As one of those few returning seniors, he is hoping that as a captain he will be able to lead by example and show the younger guys what it is like to win. 

Although Norwood graduated Tri-Valley League (TVL) MVP Matt Mahoney, he strongly believes that this team can be successful if they all work together on the court. Off the court, Dearborn added that the team is made up of all good friends who also do things together. 

“A lot of people are not giving us credit,” Dearborn said. “They don’t think that we are that good, but I believe in this team and we do have a shot at the TVL if we work together while being good teammates.”

Connell, the team’s forward, is hoping that he can be the best leader that he possibly can when his name is called upon. He feels that passing is his number one trait but can also put the ball in the basket when needed; he just needs to step up his rebounding to be a complete player.

“Norwood is an undersized team and rebounding has been tough,” Connell said. “I definitely know that I needed to work on that aspect of my game if we were going to have any type of success this year. I’m hoping that we can win the TVL again like we did during my sophomore year, it was a great experience.

Both athletes praised Head Coach Chris Fraioli in the work he has done with the team over their three years on the varsity team. 

“Coach Fraioli has done a great job with morale and ideas,” Dearborn said. “Here at Norwood, we pride ourselves on playing defense and he has influenced all of us. Myself, I look to guard the oppositions best player.”

In addition to coaching Connell on the high school level, Fraioli began coaching the now senior when he was in eighth grade when he was on his AAU team. 

As their final season begins to get underway, the two captains are looking to take this team as far as they can go this season under their guidance. 

“I know that we can do this if we continue to practice and play hard on game day,” Connell said. “Both the starters and those off the bench need to give 100% and we will be able to come together and play as a team.”