Coach Bill Rooney has been the Head Boys Basketball Coach here at Manville High School for the last three years. Last year the team had a record of 13-12, with one of the best rosters in team history. This year the team ended the season with a record of 16-13 for the Skyland Conference and a record of 5-3 in the Mountain Division, which put them in 2nd place. When asked what the team has done to be more successful, Coach Rooney answered, “We grew together as a team. We hosted numerous team meals and were able to bond together. Our offense and defensive strategies evolved as the season went on based on personnel.” Coach Rooney was joined by Carl Imhoff and Jason Guevara on his coaching staff this year. The starters for the team included Tyler Kesolitz, Edryn Morales, Josh D’Ambrosio, and Aidan and Collin Shimp. The rest of the roster included Austin Chaya, Dylan Ramirez, Irving Rodriguez, Na’quavere Thomas, Brandon Shimp, Luke Xenophontos, Jayden Watson, Jon Gosk & Ayden Ulate.
The team has been competing at the Mike Shello Christmas Tournament, where they are the reigning defending two time champions. This type of competition and success got them ready for the state tournament, as Coach Rooney states, “The team entered the state tournament playing some of their best basketball, winning 2 of our last 3 games and the one loss came to a 19 win Spotswood team in overtime.” In their regular season the team was on fire and was able to redeem themselves against teams who they had lost to. The team earned another state playoff game for the second year in a row, which is an enormous accomplishment. The basketball team had not achieved that goal of hosting a playoff game in 20 years. Being able to host a playoff game is awesome and having the girls basketball team also secure hosting their first round game was sweet, especially with the games being back to back.
The team’s entire playoff run was unbelievable, and it’s crazy to believe that it all started by beating Florence moments before the buzzer went off. The team was able to come back from being down with 30 seconds left on the clock to advance to the next round. Rooney stated, “Big time players make big time plays in big time games,” and that was exactly what Edryn Morales did against Florence. He hit a perfect three pointer to take the lead and seal the win for the team. For the quarter and semi-finals, the team had to go on the road, where beating Brearley and Henry Hudson was electric, especially being able to do it on their home court when everyone picked us to lose. The team had lost to Brearley earlier in the season and were projected to lose to them once again; however, the team didn’t back, taking a 12 point lead. The team also beat Henry Hudson, who was projected to win, as they were the higher seed, but Manville persevered and beat them by seven points to secure their seat in the Sectional Finals. “We had a challenging schedule throughout the year, and that helped prepare us for the playoffs,” Coach Rooney said on what really impacted the team in being great.
The team knew entering the Sectional Finals was going to be an uphill battle. They went on to face College Achieve Asbury Park in the finals, which raised outrage for the community, as the team was facing a private charter school in a public school bracket, which was built to focus on basketball (the only sport at the school), allowing their national title winning coach to recruit players for the team. The team unfortunately lost in the finals with a score of 74-33; Coach Rooney expressed, “regardless of the outcome, I am super proud of all the players. They were locked in and deserve all the credit.” The team LOVED having the fan bus and wanted to give a HUGE shout out to the entire Manville community for coming to all their games, especially when they followed the team on their journey to the final game. The community expressed they were extremely proud of the boys’ determination, grit, and persistence to achieve their absolute best. The boys should be proud that they were on the scoreboard with 33 points and that they didn’t allow the other team to reach their average points per game of over 100 points.
Besides the team’s great success throughout the season, they also received plenty of spotlights from all around. Tyler Kesolitz scored his 1,000 career point against Spotswood, which makes him the 2nd male to ever do it in Manville History. The last time a male player had done so in Manville was over 50 years ago. Tyler ultimately ended his basketball career with 1,066 points, where 490 points came from this season alone, making him the person with the most points this season alongside Edyrn and Josh. In three pointers Tyler leads with 89 shots, followed by Josh with 56 shots, and Edryn with 49 shots. Edyrn leads in two pointers with 88 shots, Tyler with 78 shots, and Aidan with 44 shots. Leading in rebounds is Aidan with 146, Edryn with 140, and Tyler with 113. With such great numbers, it isn’t as surprising that Edyrn was selected as a top junior and Josh was selected as a top sophomore across the entire state. The team is like a family, and this year there was no expectation when the Shrimp brothers, Aidan (12) and twins Colin and Brandon (10), shared the court on multiple occasions. Moments like this are memorable, and it was most definitely an amazing feeling for the Shimp family. Even the Junior Varsity team had a great season, picking up wins against some tough competition. Coach Rooney bets that this team will go down as one of the best teams in the school’s history and quotes, “This senior class is arguably the winningest class in school history!” Once again, congratulations to the boys basketball team on their successful season, and we look forward to seeing the team next year.
