Schools

Dawgs Hit the Heights

By Lauree Padgett for Haddonfield Today

Part 5 of 5: The Last Dance With Camden?

On Monday, March 10, thanks to Beth Cerrato, who had also gotten me a hard-to-come-by ticket, I was on a school bus filled with the team’s family members heading to Woodrow Wilson for another showdown between Haddonfield and Camden. Unlike the previous three years, the game was not decided on a last-second shot. Although they never gave up and kept hustling and diving for loose balls all the way through to the final minute of the last quarter, this year’s Camden team proved too much for the Dawgs. As Camden handed them only their fifth loss out of 30 games, the Dawgs saw their season come to an end, with the final score 70-42. But that 28-point differential didn’t matter. It did not define their season, and at its conclusion, I was as proud of these boys as I was after any other game I’d been to all season.

In an unexpected way, the boys were lucky that their season came to an end as a result of a defeat. Most of the remaining eight public and four parochial teams who were supposed to advance to the state semis never got to play those games. COVID-19 saw to that. So, technically, Haddonfield still holds the title as the reigning Group 2 state champion. But even though the team didn’t quite reach that height this year, in going 25-5, winning yet another Colonial Liberty title, and giving their coach his 500th career victory, this group of highly competitive and highly committed young men far exceeded expectations. And in doing so, they once again proved just how unwise it is to ever underestimate a team helmed by Paul Wiedeman.

End-of-Year Speech: 2019–20

In an “odd coincidence,” as our coach put it, the day I reached out to Paul Wiedeman to ask him if he wanted to include any comments in my wrap-up article, he had just written what appears below. While it’s not the same as hearing him deliver it in person (nor is it quite as long as it would be in person!), it seems fitting that this article should conclude with our incomparable coach’s comments about this amazing season

From Coach Wiedeman

In what many would describe as a rebuilding season for the 2020 Haddonfield Boys Basketball Program turned out to be business as usual for the Haddons. With a team graduating six of their top eight returning players, many South Jersey teams, including all of the Colonial Conference, were excited to take advantage of a “perceived” weakened team. However, you cannot place a value or quantify the importance a program has with a strong culture, character, and competitive spirit that makes Haddonfield student/athletes so successful every single year.

This was a special group of athletes who exemplified all the above traits from Day One in the preseason all the way until the final buzzer in the SJ Group Two Finals. I cold not be any more prouder of a team that I coached in my 21 years at Haddonfield High School than this unit in 2020. With their dedication, resiliency, worth ethic, and team-oriented style of play, they were able to win 25 games, capture the Colonial Conference Liberty title, and compete in the SJ Group 2 title game. It was an amazing transformation to watch this team develop and mature throughout the course of the season. They did it playing selfless basketball on offense, and relentlessly defending every possession on defense. Our amoeba-style zone defense was so effective, we allowed the fewest total points in all of South Jersey. We allowed an average of less than 40 points per game that became a source of pride for our coaches and players.

Some memorable moments from the 2019–2020 season include winning on the road, and coming from behind in both cases against West Deptford, and Sterling, to clinch the outright Colonial Conference title. Two unbelievable comeback wins against arch rival Haddon Heights. The first one in the regular season on the road, making up a huge deficit in the fourth quarter with Stevey McClane having the court sense to find a diving Ben Cerrato for the game-winning layup. Then two and a half months later, we meet Haddon Heights in a rubber match for the right to go on for the SJ Group 2 finals. Ben hits a clutch 3 in the corner to tie the game at 33 apiece. Heights calls timeout with around 7 seconds left on the clock. We devise a different defensive look we just put in the day before. Heights tries to throw an ill-advised cross-court pass that Conner Fell anticipates so perfectly well. He intercepts the pass and races down the other end and lays the ball in to give us the lead and ultimately the win. What a perfect way for our seniors to play their final home game and defeat Haddon Heights after being away at Cherry Hill East for the past 2 seasons.

Our seniors were the backbone to our success this year. We had great senior leadership, as they led through their voices and their choices. Their voices were always loud and infectious, inspiriting positive enthusiasm and body language during practices and games. The message they communicated was team first and the individual second. They helped the underclassmen understand the culture and style of play that makes the program successful. They choices were always doing the right thing on and off the court. They were role models as students in the classroom and as players performing in practice and games. They were invested in each other and on their craft to make the whole better than the individual parts. It made the season so enjoyable to coach such hard-working, attentive, and respectful players. The senior class has left an indelible impression on not only the coaching staff but also the Haddonfield community. These six seniors have kept a standard of excellence in their four years that includes: 4 Colonial Conference Liberty titles; 2 SJ Group 2 titles, 2 NJ Group 2 State Championships, only the second graduating class to appear in 4 SJ Group 2 finals, and finally, 109 career wins. I want to thank the seniors for their years of sacrifice and dedication to the program. You will be missed. I want to thank the entire program, including the coaches, JV and Freshmen teams, the booster club, the team managers, and the entire Haddonfield community.

My only regret is not having an end-of-the-year banquet, where we can all meet together one final time and share the wonderful memories together in person. There is so much more I would want to share in person, especially thanks to the booster club parents, for team dinners, concession stands, half-court shootouts, meals on the bus, etc. You make this a first-class operation that I do not take for granted. Hopefully, when life returns back to normal, we can all get together as a group one more time. Take care.

For Part 1, click HERE.

For Part 2, click HERE.

For Part 3, click HERE.

For Part 4, click HERE.

Dawgs Hit the Heights

By Lauree Padgett for Haddonfield Today

Paul celebrates with his dad, Dave, kids Matt and Sara, and wife Sue.

Part 4 of 5: 

The win at Sterling not only got us the Colonial Liberty crown, it put the Dawgs at 21-3 with two nonleague games remaining before the South Jersey Group 2 playoffs began on March. 3. First up was an away game versus the Burlington County Technical Institute (BCIT)-Westampton Panthers. In the first, the Dawgs got behind almost immediately, down 2-6 with 3:16 left in the quarter. A 3 and a 2 by Gos put the Dawgs up 7-6, but a layup by Westampton with less than 30 seconds put them back on top 8-7. As the buzzer sounded, Coach Wiedeman could be heard telling his team there had been too many turnovers in the first 8 minutes. And he was right.

Boosted by a trio of treys by Steve McClane, one that started off the Dawgs’ offense in the second and one that ended it, Haddonfield had turned that 1-point deficit into a 6-point, 20-14, lead, at the half. The Panthers mounted a comeback in the third, putting up 11 points to the Dawgs’ 9, and as the last quarter began, the Dawgs’ lead had been cut to 4, 29-25. That lead disappeared altogether as BCIT scored the first two baskets, and at the 6:38 mark, the game was tied at 29 all. But Gos answered with a 2 to push the lead back to 2, 31-29 on the Dawgs’ next possession. Nothing happened offensively for more than 2 minutes. With 4 and change on the clock, McClane secured a defensive rebound, and that was followed by a big 3 by Gos, giving the Dawgs a 5-point, 34-29, edge with 4:04 to go. The Dawgs got the ball back only to lose it on a Westampton steal and basket, closing the Panthers’ gap to 3, 34–31, with 3:23 left in the game. McClane picked a good time to hit his final 3 — he would have five total — of the game, to double the Dawgs’ lead to 6, 37-31. Again, the Panthers’ responded with a basket to get back to within 4 again, 37-33, with just under 2 minutes remaining. The Dawgs’ finished out their scoring on the foul line, with Gos converting both ends of two 1+1 opportunities with 14 and then 2 seconds left. Another buzzer trey by the opposition made it a 41-36 final. And it gave Haddonfield its 22nd win of the season.

It’s always good to head into the playoffs with momentum from a win, and that’s what Haddonfield and its fans were hoping for when the 11-14 Burlington Township Falcons came to town to wrap up the regular season on February 27. Those hopes were not to be realized, however, as the Falcons, who looked big and athletic during warm-ups and lived up to my assessment after the game tip-off, clipped those aspirations, pulling off a 52-48 win. What hurt the Dawgs was a badly executed second quarter. Although only trailing by 1, 8–9, when the second quarter began, the team only managed to put 3 points on the board—all off foul shots—while the Falcons added 15 to own a 24-11 lead at the half. In the last 16 minutes, the Dawgs’ found their shooting, outscoring their first-half total by 2, putting 13 points on the board to the Falcons’ 8, but they were still down by 8 heading into the 4th. That’s when their inability to make a field goal in the 2nd really came back to haunt them. Despite doubling their score by knocking in 24 points, with Gostovich leading the way with 11, it was not enough, as the Falcons’ 20 points enabled them to hold onto the lead and walk away with a 4-point W.

The Playoffs — And a Rematch for the Record Books?

When the South Jersey Group 2 seeding came out on February 14, no one was too surprised that Haddonfield, then at 18-3, drew the #2 slot behind Camden. What was a bit unexpected, three weeks after the seedings came out, the Dawgs were sitting at 22-3 going into that first round game. If they advanced to the semi-finals, which would be the round-three game, they could be going up against none other than Haddon Heights in their quest to reach the 25-win mark. Twenty-five wins for this Dawg team was not something many people, including me, had been contemplating as the season began. In and of itself, a 25-win season is an quite an accomplishment. But for this team, it would be more than an accomplishment, it would net Wiedeman, in his 21st season as head coach at Haddonfield, an impressive, to say the least, milestone: win number 500 of his career.

At some point earlier in the season, as the Dawgs kept racking up wins, it started to occur to me that what had seemed improbable at best at the outset of the year — 25 wins — actually had a chance, slim perhaps, of occurring. I wasn’t sure who else besides me knew this. Dawgs and Wiedeman nerd that I am, I have been keeping a running tally of the Dawgs’ record, season by season, starting with the younger Wiedeman’s debut at Haddonfield during the 1999–2000 season. That year, the rookie coach and former Bulldog took his team to the Group 2 state finals. Although they came up a bit short, the team still finished the year with a 21–8 record. With my season-by-season summary, I knew that with his win-loss record at 475-112, as the 2019-20 season loomed, Wiedeman was 25 victories away from 500. What I did not expect was that this team was going to give him a real chance of getting to that 500 plateau.

But in early February, as the W’s kept rolling in, it did not take a math wiz, thank goodness, to be able to calculate that win 500 was becoming within reach. I decided to share this info with Beth Cerrato, Ben’s mom, who was in charge of the booster club, just in case … About the time the Dawgs’ got win 20, Beth texted me. Was I sure Coach Wiedeman only needed five more wins to hit 500? Uhhh … I was pretty sure, but pretty sure wasn’t going to cut it. So, I pulled out my yearly summary and my past few scorebooks, where I list the schedule for the year, the results, and note any significant happenings, such as a player reaching 1,000 points. And there was the information I needed! On January 14, 2017, in a 71-30 thrashing of Triton, Wiedeman got win number 400. All I had to do was count each win from then on and I would make sure my current win total was accurate. After I gave myself a scare by initially counting that Triton win instead of starting with the next win, I was able to reply to Beth that, yes, I was 100% sure Paul was five wins away from 500.

When the Dawgs were sitting at 21-3 going into the games with BCIT-Westampton and Burlington Township, Tom Betley, another Haddonfield boys basketball junkie and another person who knew how close Wiedeman was getting, told me he was hoping the Dawgs would win both games, so that if Haddonfield and Haddon Heights met up in the semi-finals, the added pressure of going for Wiedeman’s 500th would be off the team’s shoulders. I agreed, but had a feeling, and actually an itch, to have that potential game be the setting for 500. Wiedeman’s 200th win had come in the South Jersey Group 2 finals against Colonial nemesis Collingswood in 2007, and it seemed fitting, perhaps even destined, that his 500th would come against another Colonial rival.

But first the Dawgs, not to mention the Garnets, had to get to that semi-final contest. Up first for Haddonfield on March 3 was Pennsauken Tech, touting a not-too-intimidating record of 9-12. The Tornadoes didn’t exactly get blown away, because the Dawgs had a low-offense production, only scoring 14 points in the first half, to the Tornadoes’ 6. It wasn’t until the 4th quarter, thanks to a pair of 3’s by Gos and one by Cerrato, that the Dawgs put double digits — 17 points — on the board. The final, lackluster score, was 37-21.

In the round-two quarter-finals versus Point Pleasant Boro, the team picked up the pace a bit. Against yet another team who were called the Panthers, the Dawgs pounced to a 16–5 lead after 8 minutes of play, spurred on by a trio of 3’s by Gos and a pair of 2’s by Cerrato. The baskets didn’t fall quite as easily in the second quarter, but at half, the Dawgs were still up by 8, 25-17. In the third, Gos added 8 points on field goals, and Cerrato hit a 3, giving the Dawgs a 37-22 lead going in the last quarter. They matched their first-quarter tally, putting 16 on the board, with Mooney and Kasko leading the way with 6 points each. The final score was 53–28. The Dawgs were advancing to the South Jersey Group 2 semi-finals. Would they need to find a way to beat Heights again to reach the finals and give their coach win number 500? Oh yes!

Haddonfield vs. Haddon Heights, the Rubber Match: March 7 at Haddonfield

Although a highly anticipated game, and an extremely nerve-wracking one on a few levels, the third battle between the Dawgs and the Garnets was going to play out to be another game in which neither team made it to 40 points. And like the first contest in January, the last basket won it in the closing seconds. A bit out of order as to how I posted it on Facebook the next night (spoiler alert: that’s because I was out celebrating that night), here is a recap of the game, focusing mainly on the second-half action:

This was not a high-scoring game, but that meant every point mattered. And it meant Dawgs who don’t always get a lot of points needed to step up when called on. In the first half, junior Justin Kasko made three field goals. In the second quarter, he accounted for 2 of Haddonfield’s 4 points, [which] meant the Dawgs were only trailing by 3, 13-16 going into the half.

Heights got the first points of the second half from the foul line to increase their lead to 5, 18-13, but Kasko answered with a basket to get his team back to within 3, 18-15, with 6:06 on the clock. Heights got back to the foul line, this time sinking 1-2, at the 5:55 mark to make it 19-15.

While Haddonfield’s defense was keeping Heights from getting the ball in the net, their own offense was not resulting in good looks. “Somebody needs to step up,” I muttered after Heights lost the ball out of bounds. And that’s exactly what sophomore Tommy Mooney did. First, he went in for a layup. Although he didn’t score, he did get to the foul line and hit both shots. This got the Dawgs to within 2, 19-17, with 3:02 showing on the scoreboard.

But the Garnets got those points back on a wide open shot. Senior Ben Cerrato answered with a bucket to make it 19-17, Heights, with 2:35 to go. Senior Steve McClane hustled to intercept a bad pass, landing on his back but making a pass behind him to Fell. Mooney, looking for the open man, couldn’t find one and decided to take the shot himself. It dropped in and with 1:55 remaining in the third quarter, the Dawgs had tied it at 21.

After a timeout by Heights, the Garnets ended up losing the ball on a misfired pass. This time, McClane went up and in to put the Dawgs ahead 23-21, with 1:17 on the clock. The Dawgs pressed Heights on the bench side line and the Garnets lost the ball out of bounds. Cerrato’s drive in the paint with 48 seconds to go pushed the Dawgs’ lead to 4, 25-21, and although there were several more plays in those 48 seconds, no one scored again, and going into what would be the final 8 minutes of one team’s season, the Dawgs were still up 25-21.

Heights had possession to start the 4th, but a blocked shot and then a rebound by senior Andrew Gostovich set up what looked to be Gos’ second trey of the game. To the dismay of all the Dawg fans, a foul was called ahead of the shot, so the basket did not count. What followed was, as I scribbled in my notepad, “a mess.” The Dawgs lost the ball, got it back, and lost it again, and to add insult to injury, Heights scored and was fouled. The foul shot cut the Dawgs’ lead to 1, 25-24 with 6:21 left in the game.

Cerrato picked a perfect time to nail his first 3 of the game, pushing the Dawgs’ lead back to 4, 28-24, with 5:53 left. Heights was fouled and converted 1 of 2, and after knocking the ball out of bounds during the Dawgs’ next possession, then picked it off for an easy 2. Now the Dawgs were clinging to a 1-point lead. Mooney gave the Dawgs a bit of breathing room from the foul line, again making both shots, and making it a 3-point, 30-27, lead with 4:37 to go.

That 3-point edge was short-lived at the Garnets scored at the other end of the court, getting to within 1 once more, 30-29, with 4:18 on the clock. Neither team was able to score the next few times up and down the court. Heights committed a non-shooting foul with 2:10 left in the game, then knocked the ball out of bounds. The Dawgs were suddenly having a hard time in-bounding the ball, and the Garnets took advantage, stealing the ball and scoring to retake the lead, 31-30, with 1:50 left.

The Dawgs failed to score and the Garnets scored again. and with 1:27 on the clock, the Dawgs were down by 3, 33-30. After a Dawgs’ timeout, Gos’ shot went in and out. A jump ball gave possession back to Heights with 1:05 remaining and in the stands, Dawgs’ fans were getting a bit uneasy. There was another loose ball, and almost every player on the court dove for it. Haddonfield came up with it, but another shot missed the net.

With 46.6 seconds left, Heights lost the ball out of bounds on solid D by Haddonfield. In the right corner, Cerrato got open and sent the ball up—and in, tying the game with 35 seconds left. The Dawgs’ fans were on their feet. Heights took a timeout with 22 seconds left to set up what was probably going to be their last scoring drive of the game. Whatever that play was, it was not supposed to include senior Connor Fell, [Haddonfield’s] toughest defender on the court, sensing a pass a split second before it happened, snatching the ball, and doing something he rarely does — going in for a layup — to put the Dawgs in front by 2 with 6 seconds left.

Heights still had a chance, especially after the refs called a foul on what should have been a back-court violation on Heights, but by then there was .6 seconds left on the clock. Although the Heights player’s near-midcourt heave came a little closer than expected, it missed its mark and the game was over. The Dawgs had once again fought off the Garnets in the final minutes of the 4th quarter to steal, literally this time, the win, showing everyone in the gym what it means to never, ever give up. As the buzzer sounded and the home crowd whopped it up, students rushed on the court and started the celebration even before the two teams could do their obligatory handshakes.

Although he is usually one to shun the spotlight, when the attention rightfully turned to our masterful coach, Paul Wiedeman, he was all smiles as his team, coaching staff, family, friends, and fans took turns congratulating him. The booster club had big black cutouts of a 5, two 0’s, paw prints, an exclamation mark, and a big basketball that read “Coach Wiedeman’s 500th Win.” The coach happily posed for shots with his wife, Sue; kids Sarah, Abigail, and Matthew; and then his dad Dave and brother Vic, as well as his team and coaches. When I got a chance to go up to him, he asked, half-seriously, I think, “Are you sure this is my 500th win?” As I heartily assured him it was, he added, “You’ve been here from the beginning,” a fact that I am very lucky to say is true. Tom Betley, who knows just about everything there is to know about South Jersey high school basketball, is pretty sure Paul is now the youngest South Jersey coach, perhaps the youngest in the whole state, to reach 500 wins. Who knows how many wins — and titles — he and his teams will collect in the years to come.

As I watched the festivities on the court, it was quite touching to see how excited the players were, not just to have beaten Heights again in the last seconds, but especially to have given their coach win number 500. In fact, many of their parents, who graciously asked me to join them and the boys at the usual place of victory celebrations, P.J.’s, told me how determined the team was to make sure win 500 came this season, not next, and at their hands. Beth Cerrato shared a conversation she had with the one of Paul’s assistant coaches after the Point Pleasant Boro game. Apparently, he and the rest of the assistant coaches were not sure whether to tell the players that Wiedeman would be going for his 500th win in the next round, as they didn’t want to put any extra pressure on what was already going to be a big-time contest. The assistant coach was quite surprised when Beth informed him that the boys already knew the next win would be 500, and since they had found out it was within reach this season, securing it for Wiedeman had become their goal along with winning the Liberty conference and making it back to the South Jersey finals. This win assured that all three of those goals had been reached.

For Part 1, click HERE.

For Part 2, click HERE.

For Part 3, click HERE.

PART 5 of 5 will be published on Friday, August 7.