Before the 2024-25 Hawaii high school boys basketball season tipped off, Seabury Hall coach Scott Prather and star player Bromo Dorn had a heart-to-heart conversation during a three-hour session shooting the breeze and the basketball.

A few months later, as Spartans players jumped around with glee upon winning the school’s first state championship, Prather looked back at that moment as a turning point in a relationship that to that point was not the smoothest.

“We just learned more about how similar we are,” Prather told Spectrum News after Seabury’s 49-33 win over Hawaii Prep in the HHSAA Division II final on Feb. 21. “Honestly, I’ll do anything for that young man, anything I can do to help him. He's like a little brother to me who's bigger and better, but he's like family to me, and for the rest of my life, I'm going to be grateful for the opportunity to coach him.”

Now, Maui has a Gatorade Hawaii Boys Basketball Player of the Year to call its own.

Dorn, a three-level scorer as a 6-foot-6, 185-pound guard/forward, became the first player from the Valley Isle to receive the honor when it was announced on Thursday, adding to his distinction as a consensus first-team all-state player, the HHSAA D-II tournament Most Outstanding Player and MaxPreps Hawaii Player of the Year.

The senior from Makawao scored 20 points on 8-for-18 shooting, grabbed seven rebounds and tallied two assists without a turnover and nabbed three steals in the state final, but he stuffed box scores all season.

He averaged 27.6 points, 5.3 rebounds, 2.9 steals and 2.1 assists per game, hit 81 3-pointers and has maintained a 3.79 weighted GPA, according to Gatorade.

Dorn said after the championship that he might look to stay close to home to play college ball and could announce his destination sometime in April.

The title win was a truly cathartic moment for the Spartans, who fell in overtime to Kohala in the 2024 championship game.

“Falling short last year was just the worst feeling ever. I didn’t want to feel that again,” Dorn told Spectrum News. “Coming into Seabury, it never won the state championship before, so I knew I had to get it done. I made a promise to myself, my coaches and my family; I’m going to win one before I leave.

“Just to win one for my school, you know, my coaches who’ve been coaching for super-long time and fell short a couple times — they’re just great people, and they deserve it.”

Seabury became the second Maui school to win a boys basketball state championship since the D-I/D-II classification split after Maui Prep broke through in D-II in 2022.

Prather, a 1998 Maui High graduate, yelled in jubilation as the seconds ticked down on the title and gripped his assistant coaches, emotion plain on his face.

“He meant so much to this program. I consider him the greatest basketball player that the MIL has ever produced,” Prather said. “Having a player like that in my program, he's pushed me to be a better coach. He's pushed me to be a better leader for the boys. We didn't always see eye-to-eye on things, but I always told people underneath our arguments and our whatever's, he's a good boy, he's a great player, but he's a good young man, and I always know underneath that there's a connection between us because we're so competitive, and nothing was ever personal. It was always because we wanted the best out of each other, and he made me better. I hope I made him a little better as well.”

The Gatorade award dates back to the 1985-86 season. Dorn and former Kohala guard O’shen Cazimero are the only Neighbor Island players to win it.

Saint Louis forward Pupu Sepulona received the award the last two years. Kamehameha center Nihoa Dunn became the Gatorade Hawaii Girls Player of the Year last week.

Brian McInnis covers the state’s sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at brian.mcinnis@charter.com.