Fair Haven Dream Team Captures Mid-Monmouth Basketball Title

FAIR HAVEN, NJ — Teamwork was at the heart of the recent unprecedented, second-year-in-a-row win of the Fair Haven team in the Mid Monmouth Basketball League.

Coach Chris Grier praised the players and the borough has embraced the team, he said.

"This has been a magical run with this group of kids - and the town has embraced their success," he said.

There are signs of congratulations at the Fair Haven Fire House and Borough Hall; and recognition in their respective schools, with Knollwood School planning a ceremony in the spring to hoist the championship banner to the gym walls, celebrating the team's success for decades to come, Grier said.

He said Fair Haven had never won a boys' championship at any age level until this team won as seventh-graders last year.

"They were able to unbelievably repeat the feat this year - winning back-to-back championships and ending their decorated pre-high school careers as the best team in town history," Grier said.

The Mid Monmouth Basketball League is a town travel league that runs across 30 to 35 towns across Monmouth and Ocean counties, he said.

The league is individually grade-based, beginning in the third grade to eighth grade, Grier said in a news release. It has been running as a league for the last 40 years, with these last two wins being the first in that time for Fair Haven.

The team is comprised of 12 boys and a team manager (see the roster below).

Grier as head coach and Dennis Sullivan as assistant coach have led this group from the very beginning, when they were in third grade, Grier said.

All the boys live in Fair Haven and are all eighth-graders.

Here is the roster:

• Will Grier #33
• Danny Sullivan #9
• Brody Mauro #0
• Casey Moore #2
• Ben Padula #15
• Ben Gredell #4
• Cole Spoonire #3
• Keagan Kearns #11
• Henry Schirick #13
• Jack Kingery #14
• Jack Crossan #8
• Cole Hogan #1
• Rocco Ruscigno, team manager, an eighth-grade student at Knollwood.

Grier said league playoffs rounds 1 and 2 were held at Hoop Group in Neptune and league semifinals and finals were played at Central Jersey Basketball in Marlboro.

The championship game had 200 people in attendance, he said, with Fair Haven victorious against Marlboro.

And apart from fan support, the players supported each other.

“I really like how we grew as a team by everyone believing in each other. . . . We didn’t doubt anyone’s ability and we supported each other in every practice, every game, even if you got minutes or not," said #11 Keagan Kearns.

Ben Padula, #15, said the team "came together over the course of the season. Losing the Marlboro game (in mid-season) was tough, but it pushed us to work harder and allowed us to celebrate a championship at the end."

And what a championship game it was.

After a season of exciting play, in the end it came down to Fair Haven and Marlboro.

The championship game was back and forth for three quarters, Grier said, with Marlboro actually leading 31-29 heading to the 4th quarter.

"The boys stuck with their game plan and started to slowly pull away in the 4th. They never looked back and won the title, 56-44, becoming the most decorated team in town history, winning twice - an unthinkable achievement for a small town," Grier said.

Here are a few stats, courtesy of Coach Grier:

• Over their six years playing together, the team amassed an 81-11 all time record. In addition to the two championships, they made the Mid Monmouth final 4 all five years (losing its 6th-grade year with COVID cancelling the league).
• Last year, the team rolled to a 12-0 regular season mark and ran through four playoff wins to grab the title.

This year, was a little different, Grier said. The team went 10-2, which included the mid-season loss to Marlboro (by 35 points) and a double overtime loss to Holmdel.

As the playoffs started the boys "found their groove," he said, beating Middletown South and then Tinton Falls to set up a semifinal matchup with Neptune. In the Neptune game, "the boys found themselves up against the wall - down 28-22 with 1:40 left in the game," Grier said.

Here were some of the highlights of that game, including what Grier said was a "miraculous" moment when, with seven seconds left, a 3-pointer hit the front rim, bounced to the backboard and just dropped in, ensuring the win against Neptune.

Here's more of the recap of the Neptune game from Grier: "Brody Mauro hit two free throws to make it 28-24; Ben Padula was able to get a steal and Danny Sullivan was able to rebound a missed shot to put it back to cut the lead to 28-26 with one minute to go. On the next possession, the boys battled - defending and looking to cause another turnover - which they were able to, leading to a timeout and setting up a play in the huddle. Out of the timeout, Casey Moore took the ball right and then back left and hit Will Grier coming off a perfectly executed double screen. Grier shot a 3- pointer with seven seconds left for the win, which hit the front rim, bounced up and hit the top of the backboard and then miraculously dropped through the hoops giving the boys an incredible 29-28 win."

Sounds as exciting - and tough - as the final itself, where the boys "matched back up with Marlboro and looked to avenge the early season loss," Grier said.

He noted how Fair Haven's smaller population compared with the towns it competes against evoke for him the movie "Hoosiers," and the small town of Hickory, Indiana.

But while Fair Haven is not exactly Hickory, that small-town pride is every bit as present.

For instance, the boys have known each other for years, Grier said. Eight of the 12 have been playing together since the third grade. Three more joined last year and one this year.

"The kids have always worked hard, grasped the game with a strong basketball IQ, bought into playing hard on the defensive end and most importantly cared always about the team concept in 'playing for Fair Haven' much more then playing for any individual accolades," Grier said.

And they also listened to their coaches, Grier said:

"They challenged each other, cheered for each other and bought into everything Dennis Sullivan and I preached for six years in terms of hard work, defensive intensity and - beyond all else - represented a team better than anyone could have ever imagined. This is a special group of boys that will go down as legends in Fair Haven and will not soon be forgotten in all that they accomplished together.”