Basketball
Favorite athlete: LeBron James
Favorite team: Philadelphia Eagles
Favorite memory competing in sports: Hitting a buzzer beater 3 to beat North Penn
Most embarrassing/funniest thing that has happened while competing in sports: Air-balling against CB West
Music on playlist: Country Music
Future plans: I plan on attending Temple University where I will major in secondary education
Words to live by: “Patience is a virtue.”
One goal before turning 30: To have a successful career
One thing people don’t know about me: I am color blind
By Mary Jane Souder
Evan D’Orazio, according to his coach, is just about as good as it gets when it comes to filling the role of captain.
“He’s an amazing captain,” the Central Bucks South basketball coach said. “He sees things from a coach’s perspective. He’s accountable for himself and for the team.
“He knows how to keep things light after a hard loss or a blowout, coming into practice and giving little elbow jabs at guys with what they should have been doing. You laugh at it, but you know it’s right, and he’s delivering it in such a way that you don’t get upset about it. You know he’s telling you the truth, but he’s giving a great delivery. It’s so fun.
That’s high praise indeed from Campbell, who laughs when he recalls his early memories of D’Orazio.
“What I remember most – sophomore year seeing him for the second year, he always had a great sense of humor, a fun personality,” the Titans’ coach said. “Of course, the guys love him, you just gravitate to him, but at that time as a coach when you look at that, you see the charisma that he has, and he didn’t know how to use it.
“He would pick the wrong moment to say things or do things. It wasn’t the right timing to distract the team. At the end of the season I talked to him about it, and I said, ‘I need you to work on just maturing. I don’t mean this as a personal attack, but I want you to be able to use it in the right way. I was the same type of person. I had to learn it the hard way when I was a little bit older when I was in college where the athletic director put me in my place because I would mess around at the wrong times when people were speaking, and it wasn’t the right moment.’ I walked out of that conversation feeling really good. He took it well, and he was going to work on it, and man, did he work on it.
D’Orazio, a swing player at the time, hasn’t forgotten that conversation with his coach.
“He pretty much just told me that he sees a pretty solid future for me with the program,” the Titans’ senior captain said. “He said, ‘The one thing is you’re probably going to have to mature a little bit.’
“At the time, I was still young, and I was a little bit taken aback because my whole life playing travel, then playing in-house and AAU, I was the star of the team and I could do whatever I wanted. My dad would always tell me, ‘Once you get to high school, that’s going to be different,’ and when (Campbell) said that, I was like, ‘Whoa, I really need to get myself together if I want to get to where I want to be.’ I knew if I wanted to be a starter and ultimately keep that position for the rest of my high school career I would have to mature. Like he said – I didn’t know the right time to joke around and when to turn that off and be serious.
“At the time, I really just wanted to do that because I wanted to be the guy Campbell could lean on and all of that stuff that he has been doing. I knew at that moment I had to mature if I really wanted to play. I think I have definitely matured and grown into what I am now.”
What D’Orazio is now is an exemplary leader that his teammates want to follow.
“I’ve complimented him on what a great job he’s done as a captain for us,” Campbell said. “He has tremendous leadership and he knows how to use it now, and it really helped us this season, bouncing back from tough games.
“We lost to Wissahickon by 20. We gave them the next day off and we came into practice the following day, and Evan’s doing his thing, messing with the guys. He knows when to put his foot up somebody’s butt a little bit to get them to wake up.”
*****
D’Orazio’s earliest memory of sports was playing baseball in the backyard with his father.
“I had a big red bat, and I would go out, and I would hold the bat the wrong way, and he would always tell me – ‘You’re holding it the wrong way,’ but then he was like, ‘Wait, maybe I can teach him to be a lefty,’” said D’Orazio, who is naturally right-handed. “I became a lefty batter.”
Sports were very much a part of life for the entire family.
“My dad played baseball and football when he was in high school, and my mom played field hockey,” D’Orazio said. “Football was something I never got into. I played flag and stopped after that.
“As all young kids do, I played soccer, I played basketball. Then I really started focusing on baseball and basketball. Those were my two main sports, and eventually, in middle school, I said, ‘I’m decent at this basketball thing, so I think I’m going to try and focus on just this.’ My sister (Alyssa) and I could pretty much choose our own sport, and we both pretty much chose basketball.”
D’Orazio went through the usual ranks, beginning with Lenape Valley travel and eventually AAU. When he reached high school, he played jayvee as a freshman and was swing as a sophomore. He earned a spot in the starting lineup as a junior and never left.
“He stepped in last year when we had injuries to some seniors, and he’s never given up that starting spot,” Campbell said. “What he brings to our team is just getting us into an offense and directing guys.
“He doesn’t shoot a lot, but he does pick his spots where he can shoot and make big buckets, but his energy – he gives everything he has out there. His defense is really, really good and the effort - it just spews into the other guys behind him when we run a certain zone defense. He’s out there as one of the catalysts and getting every guy up to play that defense.”
D’Orazio might not shoot a lot, but his 3-pointer at the buzzer to propel the Titans to a dramatic 49-46 win over North Penn is a memory that will be with him for a lifetime, although the wins and losses were secondary in an abbreviated COVID season that began in mid-January.
“It was definitely crazy and unprecedented,” D’Orazio said. “It was kind of weird to not have an offseason and play with the guys.
“Going into the year, I was a little nervous because we’re a young team. We started with five seniors but ended with three. It was surprising, but we all jelled together perfectly. At the end of December, we were supposed to start up practice and we got shut down for two weeks, and it hit me – this is my last year, and I may not be able to play, so it gave me a new perspective to play every game like it’s my last, every practice because we really never knew if it was going to be. It literally could have been at any time this year.”
During the quarantine, D’Orazio used the time to work on his game with his sister, Alyssa, a junior captain of the girls’ basketball team.
“We would go outside together, and my mom would come out – she can’t really shoot or pass that well, but she can do some things,” D’Orazio said. “She did her best, and we had a lot of fun with that.
“My sister and I hopped on the TikTok trend, and we were just having fun with it. We’re best friends. We do so much together. The whole thing of fighting with your siblings – we’ve never done that. We’ve always been super close with each other which is something I value and hope if I have kids one day they’ll do the same.”
During the season just completed, the Titans won six of their last eight games and earned a berth in the District One 6A Tournament, and although they fell to Methacton in a hard fought opening round game, the season was a success by any standard with D’Orazio a positive influence as captain.
“I’ve learned when to (joke) and when not to,” he said. “Sometimes I can get serious and tell the guys to stop fooling around, but that side of me doesn’t have to come out much because the guys are great.
“They always listened, and there were no issues ever. They probably see me as the funny captain, the guy who will get in your ear if you’re doing something you’re not supposed to but they can rely on me if they need some comedic relief. After a tough loss, everyone is down, and me and a couple of the other guys will say something funny because at the end of the day, it is just a game. It’s more about the bonds we’re all creating.”
Off the court, D’Orazio is actively involved in South’s Athletes Helping Athletes.
“There are those with disabilities who don’t have the luxuries we have to play sports and do the things we’re able to do,” he said. “We play basketball, we play baseball, and we have a great time with them. It’s honestly a great thing to be part of it.”
D’Orazio was also involved in Operation Eternal Gratitude, a club run by a South teacher who had served in the military.
“You do a bunch of things for soldiers overseas,” he said. “It’s a great thing when you get a note back from someone or a video back after you send them a care package.
“It was really cool sophomore year I got to speak at the Veteran’s Day assembly and introduced a veteran. That was overall just a great experience.”
Next fall, D’Orazio plans to attend Temple University and is considering following in the footstep of his parents - both educators - and major in secondary education. Whatever path he chooses, D’Orazio, according to his coach, is bound to be successful.
“He’s one of my top 10 captains of all time just because of the way he was able to handle a lot of things, keeping the team together with a couple of seniors quitting and with COVID,” Campbell said. “Even after a loss being able to keep his teammates’ spirits up.
“The family is tremendous – the mom, the dad. They’re awesome people. Evan’s special, he really is.”
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