“It felt great,” said Seabury Hall’s Bromo Dorn after a basketball game involving a poster dunk on a tall Molokai High School center. “Obviously what was more important was just getting the win, but it felt good, mostly because he dunked right before and the crowd was going crazy so dunking right after that felt really good.”
On Jan. 20, Bromo Dorn, a junior point guard, and the rest of the Spartan Boys Basketball team, had celebrated a 58-41 win over the Molokai Farmers. In the spur of the third quarter, Dorn drove down the lane with his final strides leading to a roaring dunk on Molokai’s 6-foot, 6 inch center, Jericho Adolpho.
Despite a loss to Kohala from Hawaii Island and Corona from California during the preseason, Dorn and the Spartans have maintained another perfect season, remaining undefeated throughout all of their Division II Maui Interscholastic League games.
After winning their final home game last week against Maui Prep that concluded the Spartans’ season with a 10-0 record, the boys hope to defend their championship crown and achieve their 13th consecutive MIL title when they play Molokai (8-2) on Friday.
Dorn is an upperclassman and with this season being his third year on the varsity team, he has appreciated all of the friendships he has created with his fellow teammates.
“It’s been a lot of fun playing with this group of guys, they’re all my close friends and spending everyday with them and traveling is a lot of fun,” he said.
As the HEIDE & COOK Boys Basketball State Championship tournament is just weeks away on Feb. 22-24 on Oahu, the boys hope to make a run for the DII title this year.
“If we’re not just talking about winning states– [we plan on] just going out there and playing our hardest and doing everything we can to win,” said Dorn.
Last season, the Spartans fell short with a first-round loss by one point to Oahu’s Hawaii Baptist Academy.
Reflecting on this disappointing loss, Dorn said that he and his fellow teammates can’t underestimate any team and plan to “use that fire from losing last year to play better this year” and hope to finish their season on a high.
Head Coach of the Spartans, Scott Prather, has similar aspirations for the team as they head into the postseason.
“Our goal from the start of the season until now has remained the same…to win a State Championship,” said Prather.
To prepare themselves to compete against the rigorous teams they will face at states, Prather says that “We have been very fortunate to be able to play a lot of games outside of just the MIL schedule, both on Maui and on Oahu vs quality opponents and those experiences and challenges have helped to create a stronger bond amongst the boys”.
Now onto the girls basketball team at Seabury Hall. The team of eight saw many successes and feats in their MIL season where they finished third in the standings among six teams behind Lanai and Molokai, respectively. Playing a total of 11 DII league games over their 2024 season, the girls have proved themselves to be a persistent and determined group of girls.
Although the season didn’t end how they anticipated, the girls are going to take this opportunity to learn from their mistakes and apply them to their 2025 season. Spartans senior Ruby Kofron stated that over this season, the girls’ “court chemistry has improved,” and she predicts that the team will continue to progress.
Kofron recalled their small team being their “biggest challenge.” With only eight girls, not having a big team has proved to be detrimental when a player gets injured or has to miss a game.
Apart from players missing games, team injuries had a significant effect on their performance as “it’s difficult playing and worrying about if you get hurt and there’s no one available to go in for you,” said Kofron.
Similar to the boys team, Kofron said that one of the most valuable lessons gained from playing on a cohesive team is the bonds she was able to make with her teammates. As a senior, Kofron reminisced on how this past season was different from her previous in that she was able to look amongst her younger teammates and see how they’ve improved over the season.
“It’s so much fun to be an upperclassmen and watch the new freshmen girls learn how to play,” she said.
While the season did not end how the Spartans girls were expecting, they will continue to work hard and come back for the 2025 season ready.
