The teams rarely changed. Neither did the outcome.
The driveway of the Orbon house in New Hyde Park was filled with shouts, arguments and more than a few stray elbows connecting with a sibling’s jaw.
It would be oldest kid Paul and baby sister Ava playing hoops against middle brothers Luke and Eric, and the competition was intense.
Ava was, of course, the only girl and the youngest, but the next time she backed down from a challenge would be the first. The boys would go at her hard, not giving an inch, and she’d get knocked down and come back for more.
“Oh, I bullied her on the court for sure,” Luke Orbon recalled. “We all played to win, and we never took the foot off the gas to really make her work for any points she was able to ever score on us.
“And every time we beat her,” Luke said, “she got up and wanted to play again. Every time.”
“My brothers prepared me very well,” Ava said. “They threw everything at me.”
Those childhood battles against brothers are practically a prerequisite for young female players, and Ava Orbon emerged from them tougher and ready to excel against kids her own age.
Since starting in fourth grade at Notre Dame in New Hyde Park, Orbon has excelled. A varsity starter at guard for the Gladiators since she was a freshman, the senior is averaging 17 points per game this season, along with 8.5 rebounds.
An all-county selection the last three years, Orbon pumped in 14.6 points and grabbed six rebounds per game last season, improving her three-point shooting percentage and becoming a floor general for coach Mike Bello.
“She’s one of the best shooters in high school I’ve ever seen,” Bello said. “She’s gotten better and better and has such fearlessness as a player. No matter what defenses try, she comes back at them.”
The 5-foot-7 Orbon, who is closing in on 1,000 points for her career, loved basketball and softball as a kid. Paul remembers her striking him out once or twice in the backyard.
“I don’t think she could do that anymore,” Paul laughed. He and Luke both played collegiate baseball at St. John’s University. “But it was pretty clear from an early age she had the skill set to play a lot of sports.”
After beginning her competitive hoops career at Notre Dame, Orbon played competitively for Rising Stars on Long Island and developed her all-around game. By 8th grade, she thought she was ready for the varsity, but Bello felt a year on JV would be beneficial.
“It was the Covid season and so there wasn’t going to be a full schedule, and I thought she would really help out playing point guard (on JV),” Bello said.
“It was the best thing for me, definitely, to get the experience and learn about the high school game,” Orbon said.
Since freshman year, she’s directed the Gladiators’ attack and attracted the attention of college scouts. Interested in pursuing a career in nursing, she decided to attend Mount St. Mary’s, a Division III school in Newburgh.
“I really love helping people; my Mom is a nurse practitioner and I love watching medical shows and seeing what they do,” Orbon said. “And when I went up to visit (Mount St. Mary’s), I just loved the coach and the girls on the team. It felt like the perfect fit right away.”
For now, Orbon is looking to lead New Hyde Park past the first round of the playoffs, where they lost last year in Class AA, and continue to develop her all-around game; behind Orbon and Maeve Downing, the Gladiators have started 3-1 in Conference 2-AA.
“We have a great connection on our team and definitely want to win it all in my last year,” Orbon said. “We play off each other well and I think we can make it pretty far.”
If they do, her brothers will be leading the biggest cheers.
“To be able to watch her and the player she has become is amazing,” Luke Orbon said. “She deserves everything she gets because she has worked so hard.”
