2025 Times Girls Basketball Player of the Year: Ottawa’s Marlie Orlandi

There is no Times girls basketball comeback player of the year award. If there was, however, Ottawa senior Marlie Orlandi would have been a shoo-in this past season.

Instead, the 2025 Times Girls Basketball Player of the Year award will just have to do.

Orlandi returned to the court after missing her junior season and was simply the best player on the best team in the area. She stepped right in and led the Pirates to a 24-8 record, a tie for second-place in the Interstate 8 Conference and Ottawa’s first regional championship in 12 years.

“It felt great being back, knowing I was somewhat of the same player I was before,” said Orlandi, who rehabbed her way back from a torn ACL suffered playing summer league ball between her sophomore and junior years of high school. “I definitely feel like I could’ve played better. After having a whole year off and grinding to be back where I was, I definitely felt like I could have done more, but I still feel like I had an amazing season and did big things.”

Big things indeed.

She guided the Pirates to a Class 3A regional championship, the perennially strong program’s first since 2013, secured when Orlandi hit an overtime-opening 3-pointer against Kankakee on the Kays’ home floor.

Orlandi earned I-8 All-Conference and Times All-Area first-team honors and special mention to the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association 3A/4A All-State Team with her 14.1 points, 5 rebounds, 1.7 assists and 2.2 steals per-game averages.

She also joined Ottawa’s 1,000-point club in a late-season win over Streator, despite missing an entire year of her varsity career.

“Marlie just fills the stat book,” Ottawa coach Brent Moore said. “You’d think Marlie must be having an off-night or something like that, and then you look up and she still has 17 [points], seven [rebounds], three steals, three assists. She’s been a dominant player ever since she put a basketball in her hand.

“She has that killer mindset. Big moments, she wants the ball in her hands. She’s used to it, and she has that mentality of winning basketball games and helping get her teammates to where we need to be.”

That mindset and team leader mentality was apparent even during the season she was out.

“When she was hurt, she basically was a coach on the bench with us,” Moore said. “And when she came back for that first practice November 1 or whenever it was, it was almost a sigh of relief. Everyone started slotting in, fitting in their roles. We got to work, and everything started jelling for us as a team.”

“Being out was a struggle.” Orlandi said of her junior year. “Watching everybody else and the bigger players succeed and hit those milestones like reaching 1,000 points when ‘I knew I would have gotten that this year.’ Having to sit back watch and from the sidelines was really tough, but once I got to step on the court [in June] I felt a sigh of relief.

“I was anxious, obviously, because I didn’t know how I was going to play, how I was going to move, if [an injury] was going to happen again. But I definitely felt relieved, like a big part of me was back and I was who I used to be.”

Watching the effortlessness with which the game flows to and through her, it’s obvious Orlandi with a more selfish scoring mindset or less talented teammates could easily have been a 20-plus point-per-game scorer. She tends to favor more of a team-first approach, however, and with great teammates such as fellow Times All-Area performers Hailey Larsen, Skylar Dorsey, Ella Schmitz and Mary Stisser, it’s easy to understand why.

“Our team is one of the best I’ve ever played for, one of the most fun,” she said. “There’s no drama on this team. We share the ball, and even if one person is having a bad night, we know we can still count on them to hit a big shot. ... We just have a chemistry together, and you can really tell from watching us play that we trust each other.

“Sometimes, Mr. Moore would yell at me because I would [pass] too much. But I don’t know, I was just trying to share the ball.”

Orlandi credits her coaches, her teammates, the supportive Ottawa community and especially her family for helping her to become the basketball player she’s become.

“The biggest one is definitely my mom and my dad and my grandma and grandpa,” Orlandi said. “They’ve always supported me, got me to where I needed to be – practice, a tournament, training, lifting. They always pushed me, even when I really didn’t want to do it. I think they’ve been a huge impact on why I love the game so much and how to be the best version of myself.”

Orlandi is planning to go to a four-year university and concentrate on her education. If she does, it will mark the end of her competitive basketball career.

Thanks to hard work, dedication, undeniable talent and a great support system, however, it ended with celebrations for 1,000 points, a regional championship and The Times Player of the Year award instead of with a major injury on a forgotten Minnesota basketball court.

“It did end on a high note,” she said. “I really enjoyed this season, and I feel like if the season would’ve been just a week or two longer, we would’ve done better, bigger things. We were just getting started.”