VERMONT SPORTS HALL OF FAME

Photo Courtesy UVM Athletic Communications

Basketball

Burke Hollow

Inducted 2025

A talented guard from West Burke, Tony Orciari was one of the top scorers in four years at St. Johnsbury Academy and at the University of Vermont, scoring over 1,700 career points in both high school and college. 

In high school he led the Hilltoppers to three straight trips to the Vermont D-I final four at Patrick Gym from 1995 to 1997, twice to the finals and a state championship in 1997. He was the first two-time winner, in 1996 and 1997, of Mr. Basketball by the Burlington Free Press, and those two seasons he also was the Vermont Gatorade Player of the Year. He tallied 1,722 points (23.6 ppg) for St. Johnsbury.

Highly recruited including offers from ACC schools, Orciari stayed in state to play for Tom Brennan at UVM where like high school, he made an immediate impact. He was the 1998 America East Rookie of the Year, beating out future NBA star Speedy Claxton of Hofstra. He was the second Catamount ever to earn all-conference honors all four seasons. He was named to the first team as a junior and a senior, and that year also was second team All-New England. He finished with 1743 career points (16.0 ppg), then second all-time at UVM, and was the second America East player to make over 300 three-pointers, draining a then-UVM record 305. 

He was passed in UVM career scoring by fellow St. Johnsbury alum and VSHOF inductee Taylor Coppenrath. Both were coached in high school by another inductee, Layne Higgs. 

Orciari is a member of the VPA and UVM Athletic Hall of Fames, and in 1999, he was named to the Barre Times Argus/Rutland Herald ‘Dream Dozen’, as one of the state’s 12 top players from 1960 to 1999.

He currently resides in Keene, N.H. where he coaches his son and daughter in AAU basketball.