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By Lauree Padgett / Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today

Boys Basketball Week 11

I have been putting this off for almost a full 7 days, but now I have to finally face the buzzer and write my last article about the 2022­–23 Dawgs’ season. I don’t think anyone who was pulling for the Red and Black last Saturday, 2/25, was expecting the Silver Knights of Sterling would slay the Dawgs to advance to the South Jersey Group 2 championship game, but that’s exactly what happened. Before the hard ending of that game, however, the Dawgs took care of two earlier-round Group 2 opponents. I’ll highlight those games, take a look at the Sterling contest, and then pick out what I thought were the game and player stats that stood out this season. I also have some commentary from Mr. South Jersey Basketball, aka Tom Betley, our favorite play-by-play announcer, Mark Hershberger, and the best coach in South Jersey, Paul Wiedeman.

NJSIAA South Jersey Group 2 Round 1:

West Deptford vs. Haddonfield, 2/21/23

The Dawgs had not had much trouble against their Colonial Conference Liberty compatriot Eagles in their two matchups in the regular season, beating them on their court 83–34 in December and then winning by a bit less at home earlier in February, 69–44. Not wanting to lose again by 25 points or more, the Eagles tried a different tactic for this game: stall ball. And it worked —for a while. After the Dawgs failed to score on their first possession, the Eagles got the ball with 7:29 on the clock. And at the 5:23 mark, when Patrick Ryan stole the ball, West Deptford had not yet attempted a shot.

Ryan got the Dawgs’ first basket on a feed from Zach Langan with 5:14 on the clock. About 30 seconds later, West Deptford went to the foul line and scored 2, and with 4:16 left in the first, the game was tied 2–2. Ryan put the Dawgs back up by 2, 4–2, and rather quickly, West Deptford shot the ball and it went in, so with 3:47 to go, the game was once again knotted, this time at 4.

Then it was back to stall ball. Finally, after West Deptford picked up its second foul of the quarter, Ryan took a pass from Teddy Bond and scored with 0:53 to go. Just ahead of the buzzer, after calling timeout with 13:6 on the clock, the Eagles landed another basket, and going into the next 8 minutes, each team had a whopping 6 points on the board, with Haddonfield’s three baskets all coming at the hands of Ryan.

The Dawgs managed to pick up the pace in the second quarter, putting 13 on the board. Narducci scored 8, starting with a jumper to get the offense going. After Ryan completed a 3-point play with a field goal and foul shot to put the Dawgs up 11–6, West Deptford got 2 from the foul line. A Bond-to-Ryan pass resulted in another bucket by Ryan, and then Narducci followed with back-to-back 3’s. His second jacked the Dawgs’ up to a double-digit, 19–8, lead with 3:51 to go until the half. The last 4 points of the half were scored by the Eagles off the foul line, and when the teams headed to the locker rooms, it was 19–11, Haddonfield.

The Eagles had possession to start the third and quickly (for them!) got a basket. Ryan answered at the other end with a 2, keeping it an 8-point game, at 21–13, with not even 30 seconds having gone off the clock. Langan got his first basket of the game to push the lead back to double digits, 23–13, with 6:05 on the clock, but West Deptford got a 3 its next possession to cut that edge down to 7, 23–16, with 5:39 to go. Ryan got 2 and was fouled, but his shot from the line didn’t drop. West Deptford picked up a foul, which turned into a 2 from Narducci, who was also fouled. His foul shot made it 28–16 at the 4:45 mark.

The Eagles got those 3 back in the same manner—a bucket and a foul shot—to get to within 9 once more, 28–19, with 3:43 on the clock. Langan did a nice reverse for 2, and a few plays later, Narducci stole the ball and drove in the lane for 2, putting the Dawgs ahead by 13, 32–19, with 3:01 remaining in the quarter. The Eagles picked up 2 more points from the foul line, and then Ryan finished off the Dawgs’ scoring in the quarter, first going up and in off an inbounds pass from Daire Roddy, and then getting another basket off a feed from Bond. West Deptford again got the ball in the net ahead of the basket, but the Eagles were still trailing by 13, 36–23, as the quarter ended.

The Dawgs would outscore the Eagles by 5 in the last 8 minutes. Narducci got another 3 and Ryan got his 10th and 11th baskets of the game, adding 2 more from the foul line. The final score was 47–29, so at least West Deptford succeeded in losing by less than 20 points. Ryan and Narducci were the offensive sparks of the game for Haddonfield, finishing with 25 and 16, respectively.

Quarter Scores:

Player Scores:

NJSIAA South Jersey Group 2 Quarterfinal :

BCIT (aka Medford Tech) at Haddonfield, 2/23/23

While you might have been able to slip down to the concession stand during Tuesday’s first-round game to get a hotdog and pretzel without missing any action, the beginning of Thursday’s game against the Jaguars nearly gave me whiplash, as both teams were racing up and down the court as if you would get extra points the faster you got the ball in the bucket.

The Dawgs had scored two baskets before 10 seconds had ticked off the clock, one by Teddy Bond off a feed from Zach Langan, and one off an offensive rebound by Patrick Ryan after a steal by Daire Roddy. Medford Tech got a basket at the 6:24 mark, but a 3 by Bond made it 7–2, Haddonfield with 5:51 on the clock. After the Jags did not score, Ryan got fouled in the act of shooting and made 1–2 from the line.

Medford Tech got the next field goal with 3:51 left in the quarter to make it 8–4, Haddonfield. Ryan scored off an assist by Bond; a few plays later, Medford Tech scored off a pickoff, and then Bond got a 2 to make it 12–4, Dawgs, with 2:38 on the clock. About a minute later, after neither team had gotten a basket under their net, Ryan got a slam, elevating up in the air before dropping the ball in, which got a roar of approval from the Dawg fans. That made it 14–6, and with about 20 seconds to go, Bond finished the scoring with a 3, giving the Dawgs an 11-point, 17–6, lead to start the second quarter.

The Jags got more competitive in the next 8 minutes, scoring 12 to the Dawgs’ 14. Ryan was a beast under the basket all game long, and in the 2nd, he made five field goals off feeds from his teammates and offensive boards. In his second basket of the second quarter, I noted that he had to fight for room underneath to go up and in. This was an action he repeated all night long. Nate Rohlfing was responsible for Haddonfield’s other 2 baskets of the quarter and when the halftime buzzer sounded, the Dawgs were up by 13, 31–18.

In quarter number three, the Jags and the Dawgs put 14 points on the board apiece. The Dawgs got three baskets from Ryan, a pair from Bond, and two foul shots each by Sam Narducci and Zach Langan. All those 14 points did for Medford Tech, however, was keep them trailing by 13, 45–32, going into the final 8 minutes of the contest.

In retrospect, maybe it wasn’t a good sign that in the last 8 minutes, Medford Tech actually outscored the Dawgs by 2, who nonetheless won by 11, 65–54. But no one was thinking about that while watching the amazing end Patrick Ryan’s tremendous outing. In those 8 minutes, he made six field goals, and on two of them, followed the basket with a foul shot. He finished with 37 points: 17 came from field goals and 3 from the foul line. It’s not the most points scored in a game by a Haddonfield player (Pete Smith still holds that record with 44), but it was quite impressive to say the least. He also pulled down 11 rebounds. Teddy Bond finished with 16 points.

Quarter Scores:

Player Scores:

NJSIAA South Jersey Group 2 Semifinal:

Sterling at Haddonfield, 2/25/23

As I was sitting in the stands before this game started, I texted Mark Hershberger with a “Whaddya think?” He replied, “If they key on Ryan [alluding to Patrick Ryan’s last two games, when he’d scored 25 and then 39], Teddy [Bond] and Sam [Narducci] need to light it up.” And when the Dawgs’ first basket of the game was a 3 by Narducci, Hershberger was looking pretty smart.

However, Sterling got the next four baskets on a bad combination of Haddonfield turnovers and missed shots, and with 1:41 to go in the quarter, the Silver Knights were up by 6, 9–3. The Dawgs’ only other basket of the quarter was, in fact, a 3, by Daire Roddy, and when the first quarter buzzer sounded, the Dawgs were trailing by 3, 6–9.

The next quarter went much better for the Dawgs, even though the Knights got the first basket to push their lead back to 5, 11–6. Another 3 by Narducci and a bucket in the paint by Nate Rohlfing tied it at 11 with 5:41 on the clock. After a near pickoff by Matt Morris and a blocked shot by Rohlfing that Morris retrieved, Ryan was fouled going in for a basket. His first shot dropped, to inch the Dawgs back in front 12–11, with about 5 minutes left in the half. The second shot did not go in, but Roddy got the rebound. Morris’ 3 went in and out (a later 3 attempt went so far in the net, I’m not sure how it didn’t keep going), but down the other end, Haddonfield got two more blocked shots. Working off that tough D, Narducci swooshed in another 3 to give the Dawgs a 4-point, 15–11, advantage with just under 3 to go

After a timeout, Sterling came back to get a 3 and after the Dawgs missed a very easy basket, Sterling got fouled and made both shots, giving them back the lead, 16–15, at the 3:18 mark. That edge didn’t last long thanks to Narducci’s third trey of the quarter, which was followed by another basket in the paint by Rohlfing off a feed from Morris. Zach Langan pulled down the rebound off a missed shot by Sterling, and Morris hit a jumper after the Dawgs worked hard to give the Dawgs two extra chances to score. With 1:30 and change to go, the Dawgs were looking to be in a pretty good rhythm and had a 6-point, 22–16, advantage.

Sterling had an answer, though, hitting a 3 in return, but Roddy’s field goal made it 24–19, Haddonfield with 49 seconds remaining in the half. Sterling got another basket to make it 24–21 with about 40 seconds to go. That would have been more than enough time for Haddonfield to set a play in motion and score, but instead, they got a traveling call. Sterling didn’t score, Roddy got another rebound, but with 15 seconds left, Haddonfield picked up an offensive foul, giving possession back to Sterling with 3.3 on the clock. Sterling’s last attempt did not go in, so as the half ended, the Dawgs were up by 3, 24–21.

Quarter 3 was a pretty frustrating one all the way around. It started out with Ryan stealing the ball from the Knights, who had inbounded. However, the steal did not result in a basket for the Dawgs. Sterling did not score, but the Dawgs turned the ball over. The Knights did score their next possession and also earned a trip to the foul line, where that shot also went in. So, with 6:29 on the clock, the game was tied at 24.

The two teams swapped 2-point plays: Haddonfield went back up by 2 on a basket by Rohlfing, but Sterling tied it again with 2 foul shots. Haddonfield had another turnover, but so did Sterling. Then neither team scored. Bond’s 3 broke the 2-minute-plus scoring drought by both sides, putting the Dawgs back on top 29–26 with 4:11 left in the quarter. The Knights got two more field goals and moved back ahead by 1, 30–29, with 2:31 to go. Although that would be Sterling’s last 2 points of the quarter, Haddonfield could not take advantage, so going into the final quarter, they were still down by 1.

Sterling once again had possession to start a quarter. Rohlfing got another blocked shot, but the ball went out of bounds off Haddonfield, giving Sterling the ball again. This time, they made a really easy layup to increase their lead to 3, 32–29, with 7:10 on the clock. Bond picked a great time for his second 3 to bring the match even at 32 with 6:36 left in the game.

The Silver Knights went back up by 2 at the other end, and after a missed shot by Haddonfield, Narducci showed great hustle to get the ball back. Sterling committed a foul with 5:26 to go, but a bad inbounds pass gave them back the ball. Their next shot did not go in, but they got a trip to the foul line, and made 1–2, giving the Knights a 3-point, 32–35, lead at the 5:21 mark.

Rohlfing grabbed the rebound after that second shot did not go in and Ryan’s field goal made it 34–35. Sterling went on an 8-point run after Ryan’s basket. The Dawgs weren’t just missing baskets, they were losing the ball and committing fouls. When that 8-0 run was over, Sterling was in apparent control of the game, up by 9, 43–34 with 3:23 remaining.

Haddonfield wasn’t going to just give up. Their players don’t know what that means. Bond got a point back from the foul line, and after an iffy call that looked like a foul on Sterling but went against the Dawgs, Sterling at least did not score. Narducci did, though, and with 1:42 left, the Dawgs were now down by 6, 37–43. Haddonfield picked up its 7th foul of the half, which meant Sterling headed to the line for a 1+1 but missed the front end. Narducci scored again, and now the Dawgs were back to within 4, 39–43, with 1:13 left.

About 14 seconds later, after a few more head-scratching calls by the three-ref team, Sterling was back on the foul line again. And again, the first shot did not drop. Bond got the ball with 29.6 left and the Dawgs still down by 4, 39–43. The Dawgs’ shot did not go in, Sterling was fouled and … you got it: They missed the first shot of a 1+1 for the third time in a row. Off the Haddonfield rebound Roddy drove in and scored, making it a 2-point, 41–43, game with 6.6 seconds to go.

Haddonfield called a full (60-second) timeout. That meant Sterling had to inbound the ball and good defense by Haddonfield made them call timeout before they were charged with a 5-second violation. (The inbounding team has 5 seconds to get the ball over the line onto the court or else they lose possession.) So, when Sterling tried again to inbound the ball, there was still 6.6 left on the clock. Again, the Sterling player was struggling to find an open man on the court. When he finally did, it seemed like that more than 5 seconds had passed (I honestly don’t know how refs time inbound plays), but instead of Haddonfield getting the ball under its own basket with a chance to tie or go ahead, the refs called a foul on Haddonfield. (I went back to this part of the stream of the game and used the stopwatch feature on my phone. I did it twice—I thought if I kept doing it, I would just go crazy. The first time, I got 4.9 seconds. The second time, I got 5.1 seconds …)

Fourth time at the line for Sterling was the charm, and this time the first shot, but not the second, went in. Now the Dawgs were down by 3 with 5.3 seconds left in their season. The Dawg coaches called another full timeout to set up what was going to have to be a 3-point play. Before the Dawgs could attempt a shot, the Silver Knights intercepted the ball, got fouled once more, and once more made 1–2. With 2.9 seconds on the clock and down by 4, the Dawgs had run out of time. When the buzzer sounded, the Sterling players, coaches, and fans were the ones celebrating. And I have to admit, I did not see the ending of this game coming …

Quarter Scores:

Player Scores:

Final Game Thoughts

When I consulted with Tom Betley and Mark Hershberger about why the game didn’t go Haddonfield’s way, both had similar thoughts. Betley noted that “turnovers were the biggest part of the story.” He added that eight of Haddonfield’s turnovers resulted in baskets for Sterling. Yet even though the Dawgs forced three straight turnovers in one stretch, they got only 1 point—off a foul shot.

Hershberger saw it this way: “Sterling kept us from doing what we’ve been doing most of the year, which is start fast, get a 10- to 12-point lead on a good team, then play tough defense and hold that lead.” He felt that we just could not get a real run going in the second half: “Seemed like every opportunity we had ended in missed layups or not protecting the ball.”

I also thought that problem as the game got into the final minutes was the Dawgs’ hesitancy to shoot the ball. When you’re ahead, the clock is your friend. But when you’re down by more than one possession, there needs to be a combination of not making bad shot choices but also not wasting too many seconds. The Dawgs didn’t seem able to find that balance when the game was on the line.

Season Highlights

I’m going to close out with the words Dawg coach Paul Wiedeman shared with me about the season, interspersing, in some cases, specific examples to go along with his commentary:

“Even though we were disappointed with how the season concluded, there were many positives to take away this year. We won the Colonial Conference Liberty division outright with a 9–1 record.”

            • The Dawgs were 14–1 overall, losing only once (to Sterling) between Liberty and Patriot league play.

“We finished with an overall record of 25 wins and six defeats. The 25 wins were second most in all of South Jersey. We defeated the SJ Group 1 champion, Woodbury …”

            • The final score was 47–42

“as well as the SJ Group 3 sectional champion Moorestown.”

            • Moorestown was ranked #20 in the state going into this game (and weren’t after it), which the Dawgs won 37–31.

“On the defensive side of the ball, we gave up the fewest points per game in all of South Jersey, only allowing 37.5 points per game.

            • In 16 of those 25 wins, the Dawgs held their opponents to less than 40 points. In eight of them, they were held to less than 30. That was due to what Teddy Bond and Daire Roddy christened “Haddonfield Havoc.”

“This was one of the most selfless, connected teams in my 24 years of coaching at Haddonfield. They were a pleasure to coach in games and in practice. They really enjoyed playing for one another.”

            • I don’t have stats to back this up, but I would guess that at least one-third of the points scored by Haddonfield per game were off feeds. This wasn’t a team where players hogged the ball. They thrived on setting their teammates up to put the ball in the basket. But I do have a quote from Teddy Bond after he tied the boys’ record for 3’s in one game (10) that I think is worth repeating: “I was nervous toward the end when I started to get close, but thanks to my teammates, I was able to tie it. It was a surreal feeling being able to do something special with that group of guys. If it wasn’t for my teammates, coaches, parents, and everyone involved, I don’t think I would have been able to do it. It’s not my record, it’s our record.” If that’s not the definition of “selfless,” I don’t know what is.

“We look forward to big things next year as we return four starters and our first two substitutes off the bench. We will miss our only senior on the team, Ted Bond. He provided leadership, skill, and great passion for playing basketball. Teddy will be missed.

“I want to thank all the players, coaches, parents, booster club, managers, administration, and the community for making 2022–2023 a successful season.”

And we all know how lucky the players and the school and its fans have been with Paul Wiedeman at the helm for 24 seasons. I, for one, can’t wait to see what happens with season 25.

See everybody then!

By Lauree Padgett / Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today

All things considered, the fact that the Haddonfield boys basketball team lost its last regular season game last Tuesday night to Eastern Regional High School seems the least important event of recent days to focus on. However, I’ll provide a recap of it before moving onto taking a look at the teams participating in the Group 2 South Jersey NJSIAA tournament, which starts this Tuesday, 2/21. (Because I am sure anyone who follows South Jersey basketball is aware of what happened during the final of the inaugural Camden County Tournament between Camden and Camden Eastside and the consequences thereof, I’m not going to go into that topic beyond how it will impact the Group 2 matchups.) And in between, I’m going to take a look at the latest chapter in a story about how two schools from different conferences (and even groups) continue to have a connection that has been decades in the making.

But first …

Eastern Regional High School vs. Haddonfield, 2/14/23

After both the Dawgs of Haddonfield and the Vikings of Eastern lost their quarterfinal games in the Camden County Tournament on Saturday, 2/11, I was not too surprised (in fact, I was expecting it) to see that the two teams were going to face each other in a nonleague game a few nights later. This made sense because if they had both won on Saturday, they would have played each other in the Camden County semifinals.

At the outset, the Dawgs were not looking too sharp on the court. The Vikings jumped out to a 5–0 start before back-to-back buckets by Zach Langan and Patrick Ryan cut the lead to 1,  4–5, at the 5:12 mark. But just like they would do throughout the game whenever the Dawgs got close, the Vikings went on a 3-point rampage, hitting two in a row and then a 2 to go up 13–5. After a basket by Sam Narducci, the Vikings struck again from behind the arc, making it 16–7. A 2 from the field and a basket from the foul line by Teddy Bond made it 16–10 with 1:18 left in the quarter. The Dawgs were still playing tough defense (despite all the 3’s) but by guarding against the 3, more than once during the game this set up an easy Viking layup, such as the one that was made with about 55 seconds to go, which pushed the lead back to 8, 18–10. Bond hit a bunk shot to get the Dawgs to within 6, 12–18, and that’s how the quarter ended.

The Vikings started the second quarter off the same way they started the first, scoring 5 on a 2 and 3, increasing their lead to double digits, 23–12. Almost half of the quarter went by before the Dawgs got a basket by Narducci, but luckily, the Vikings missed some scoring opportunities as well. So with 4:01 remaining in the half, it was 23–14, Eastern.

The Dawgs got a point from the foul line on a shot by Matt Morris and then a basket by Daire Roddy to cut the lead down to 6 with 3:29 on the clock. The Vikings got a basket before the Dawgs finally hit a pair of 3’s in a row, one from Morris and one from Narducci. So with less than a minute to go in the half, the Dawgs had clawed back to within 2, 23–25. However, the Vikings got the last basket—a 3—to end the quarter and were up by 5, 28–23, as the teams headed to the locker rooms.

The points put on the board in those last 4 minutes actually enabled the Dawgs to outscore the Vikings by 1, 11–11, in the second quarter. And the fact that Haddonfield had possession to start the third was promising. After a foul by Eastern, the Dawgs lost that possession due to bad ball-handling, and the Vikings took advantage, scoring a 2-pointer. After the Dawgs missed a shot, Roddy stole the ball, but the end result was not a bucket  under the Haddonfield basket.

Another basket by Eastern made it 32–23 with 6:24 on the clock. The next 2 points were made by the Vikings on the foul line, and with 4:50 to go, Eastern had that 11-point, double-digit lead back, up 34–23. The Dawgs got 1–2 from the line and then 2 off a shot by Langan, but Eastern was still up by 8, 34–26 with 3:50 remaining. After procuring two offensive boards and surviving a near-pickoff by Roddy, the Vikings had a 3 roll, rather than swoosh, in, and then got another one of those annoyingly easy layups as Haddonfield got caught protecting against the 3 again. This gave them their biggest lead of the night, 13 points, at 39–26, with about 1:40 left in the quarter.

Narducci hit a 3 to make it 29–39 with 1:27 on the clock. Eastern got another 3, this time as a result of an easy layup and a resulting foul shot, to make it a 13-point, 42–39, game with less than a minute to go. A drive by Bond ended the quarter, and with 8 minutes left in the game, the Dawgs were trailing by 11, 31–42.

I may sound like I’m dissing the Dawgs, but I think most of us who had been following the team all season knew the team was playing tired. Unlike most seasons, the Dawgs had been consistently taking on three or four opponents each week, and for 5 of those weeks, had a 17-game win streak to show for it. Even though the Dawgs lost this matchup, in the last 8 minutes, they dug deep and started playing their kind of game. Thanks in part to 3’s by Morris, Narducci, and Bond, the Dawgs put 18 points on the board to the Vikings’ 14 and made a game of it. The 3 by Morris got the Dawgs to within 5, 45–50, with 2:01 left in the game. That was as close as the Dawgs would get, but when the buzzer sounded, even with their 49–56 defeat, it looked like the team had shaken off what hadn’t been the best 8 quarters of the season and had gotten their collective groove back.

Quarter Scores:

Player Scores:

The HMHS–ERHS Connection

Do you know where Dave Wiedeman was before he came to Haddonfield Memorial High School for the 1971–’72 school year and basketball season? He was the head hoops coach at Eastern Regional High School from 1965–1971. Dave had two stints as the Bulldogs’ head coach with a 3-year break in the middle and finished up his 16-year career at the end of the 1991–92 season. Along the way, he led his teams to many Colonial Conference titles and two state championships. The first came in only his second year as head coach, in 1973 and gave the school its first-ever state basketball title. (You will be able to read more about that memorable game in an article I will be posting in a few weeks, which will look at that 72–73 season and feature interviews with Wiedeman and four of his players: Kevin Eastman, Kirby Wood, Tom Betley, and Chris “Hank” Whitten.) After Wiedeman left Haddonfield in 1992, guess where he went? Back to Eastern! Although he continued to teach after he put away his trusty clipboard, Dave would coach the Vikings for four more seasons, through 1996.

With Dave gone from Haddonfield, guess who took the head coaching job? Gary Wilson, who had been, yup, you guessed it, the head coach at Eastern. (Old-time Dawg fans will recall that Wilson’s wife, Donna, was the head girls coach at Haddonfield for several years, producing many winning seasons.) After Wilson left, Phil Smart, who would later become the Haddonfield AD before taking the same job at, no, really, Eastern, took the coaching reins. And in 1999, those reins were handed over to Wiedeman—Paul, Dave’s son, who has coached the Dawgs to a 23-5 record so far in this, his 24th season. (No, Paul did not come to HMHS via ERHS. He had been the assistant/JV coach at West Deptford, the team the Dawgs will face in the first round of the South Jersey NJSIAA tourney …)

In those 24 years, Wiedeman has led his teams to five state titles and seven appearances (the first coming his “rookie” year at Haddonfield). He’s coached a lot of players in those 24 seasons, including Nick and Rob DePersia, who were the guards on the team starting with their freshman season in 2011–12 through their senior season in 2014–15. In those 4 years, the team had an amazing record of 96–20. Both continued playing basketball while attending Rowan University. Rob is now an assistant men’s basketball coach at Villanova University. Nick just finished up his first year at—can you stand it?—Eastern as the JV coach and assistant to head coach to Kevin Crawford. He spent last year as an assistant coach at Triton.

If your head is not spinning yet (mine is), here is a little aside on the Crawfords’ ties to Haddonfield. Jim (the elder) taught and coached at Christ the King at Haddonfield for I have no idea how many years. His oldest son Jimmy played at Camden Catholic before earning acclaim (and the nickname Skyman) at LaSalle University. Jimmy’s two younger brothers, Mike (1971) and Dennis (1976) played for Haddonfield. (Dennis is one of numerous basketball players from one of the Wiedeman eras who has been inducted into the Haddonfield Athletic Hall of Fame.) Jimmy is Kevin’s dad. His other son, Matt, is the head coach at Camden Catholic, and Matt gets a bit of help from its former head coach, aka, his dad …

OK, back to the Eastern–Haddonfield connection and the JV game which proceeded the varsity game at the Haddonfield boys gym on 2/14. It was the first time since I’ve been going to and/or covering games that two former Haddonfield players whose careers did not cross but who were coached by the same person, Paul Wiedeman, came up against each other as opposing coaches. Nick DePersia’s counterpart was Anthony Parenti, who graduated from Haddonfield in 2011, the year before Rob and Nick’s freshman season. Parenti’s senior year, the Dawgs went 23–6 along the way to winning the Liberty crown in the Colonial Conference. Parenti has been JV coach and assistant to his former coach for 7 seasons.

While I was watching the end of the JV game (which the Dawgs won, but not by much), I had this combination “Sunrise/Sunset”–”Circle of (Basketball) Life” moment. For as the game neared its conclusion, DePersia stood in front of the Viking bench, Parenti stood in front of the Dawg bench, and their former coach—all of whom I had rooted for as Haddonfield players—stood in the alcove taking it all in.

I wanted to know what it felt like for Wiedeman as DePersia and Parenti went up against each other. He said he was “”very proud to see two former players coaching and being role models for the next generation of high school athletes.” Who knows? Maybe one of them will become the Haddonfield head coach down the road after Wiedeman retires. (But that won’t happen any time soon, as Wiedeman has his own son, Matthew, yet to coach, and Matthew, a 5th grader, has a few years to go before he becomes a freshman at HMHS.)

I got the chance to talk to Nick at the Camden County Tournament for a few minutes, and later reached out to him via Facebook to ask him what the experience had been like to be back on his old bouncing grounds as a coach for the competition.

“It was very weird sitting on the other side,” Nick acknowledged. “It was awesome being back in that gym because it’s been so long with Mikey’s teams playing at Cherry Hill East.” (Lest anyone has forgotten, Mikey DePersia took over the point guard position as a freshman in the 2015–16 season, the year after Nick and Rob graduated. In his junior and senior years, due to ongoing construction, the Dawgs played all their home games at Cherry Hill East.) Nick also told me that Coach Wiedeman’s first comment to him was how strange it was to see him in blue.“Gotta get you back in red and black,” Wiedeman said. (My sentiments exactly!) For Nick, coaching against Parenti and Wiedeman was a tremendous experience. “I knew a lot of their sets and actions, so we were very well-prepared coming into the game. It was a big [varsity] win for us going into the playoffs. I know that was our coach’s first win ever against Haddonfield.” And may it be his last! (Just kidding. Well, not really, because it’s hard for me to get too upset when there is a DePersia on the winning side …and it’s not the last game of the season.)

I’m not quite through with all these connections. While Nick was aware of the Crawford–Haddonfield links, he reminded me of one more involving Haddonfield and Eastern. His grandfather Jon Batchelor, a stellar athlete at Haddonfield, who, along with his wife Mae, is also a member of the HMHS Athletic Hall of Fame, was a math teacher at Eastern for 33 years and was the head football coach there for 17 of those 33 years.

Nick, who likes being a high school coach, has a “day” job as a civil engineer. But who knows? Perhaps he’ll eventually follow the path of his grandpa or his former high school coach, who got a business degree from Rowan (it was still Glassboro when he started his college career) before realizing his heart was on the court, not in an office, and ended up turning to teaching and coaching. In the meantime, it’s nice knowing that both Nick and Rob are sharing the lessons their high school coach taught them about the game of basketball and the game of life.

Betley’s Bracketology

After the NJSIAA’s official brackets for the four public and the two non-public groups came out on 2/14, I turned to someone who knows as much about South Jersey basketball as anyone in the state: Tom Betley. How, I wanted to know, did Betley see Haddonfield’s South Jersey Group 2 bracket shaking out? First, Betley wanted to make sure everyone knew the Dawgs had “earned” the #1 seed. I think most of you can read between the lines and infer what Betley meant, so I’ll leave it at that. Before the unexpected turn of events last Thursday, Betley was projecting a Haddonfield–Camden showdown in the finals. He predicted Camden would be up by 12 at halftime and bluntly said, “We’ll lose by 31. [We] can’t hang with them.”

Here are the other teams he thinks have some potential to advance into the later rounds. He noted that Lower Cape May Township (#9), who Haddonfield blew out last year because they had all lower classmen, is much improved. Betley calls Medford Tech (8#), who will be Lower Cape May’s first-round opponent, “dangerous.” Whoever wins that matchup would face Haddonfield, who Betley says will “cruise” by West Deptford. He thinks Overbrook (#5), in Haddonfield’s half of the bracket, and Cinnaminson (#3), in the bottom half, could wind up in the mix. He reminded me that Cinnaminson has former Dawgs’ freshman coach Pat Harvey’s twin nephews, noting, “They are good.” He also added that Cinnaminson has had an easy schedule, which is why their record is good but they aren’t ranked.

Camden’s unexpected exit from the tournament before it even began drastically changed the dynamics of the South Jersey Group 2 bracket. With Camden, which had been seeded at #2, out of the lower bracket (Lindenwold has been awarded a 2–0 victory), there could be a showdown between Cinnaminson and Middle Township (#7) in round three. After initially picking Cinnaminson to advance, upon doing further research, Betley revised his position and now favors Middle. In Haddonfield’s half of the bracket, it could be a win-all-or-go-home rubber match between Haddonfield and Sterling (#4) in that semifinal round. Biasedness aside, Betley and I both would give the edge to Haddonfield, who would then not have Camden waiting for them in the wings.

The saying, “What a difference a day makes” may be old, but in this case, it rings true.  Four days ago, all prognosticators had the same view: Nobody was going to beat Camden on the way to or in the Group 2 final. Now, as a result of the brawl at Cherry Hill East on 2/16, no one has to. The absence of Camden has infused quite a bit of excitement into that looming final: It’s now up for grabs instead of literally being a no-contest done deal. Although it’s anyone’s game, Betley’s got Haddonfield and Middle Township, who have a history of close South Jersey finals, duking it out for a chance to advance to the state semis. That he’s sticking with his alma mater to come out on top 45–41 is more a sign of Betley’s honed hoops instincts than his partisanship to Haddonfield. 

Let’s go Dawgs!!!

And speaking of going, all fans must purchase tickets in advance of Tuesday’s 5 p.m. round-one game versus West Deptford. Click HERE to get to the Haddonfield Ticket Box Office: https://haddonfieldathletics.org/main/ticketing. No other passes will be honored. You can also purchase tickets for the girls game at 7:00 p.m. versus Camden. Both games will be live-streamed on the Haddonfield Athletics’ YouTube channel.

By Lauree Padgett / Exclusive to Haddonfield[dot]Today

Well, the bad news is that the Dawgs’ winning streak did not reach 18, thanks to the Tigers of Camden Eastside, who eliminated them from the Camden County Tournament in their quarterfinal matchup on Saturday, 2/11. The good news is that win number 17 in a row, which came against Sterling on Thursday, 2/9, gave the Dawgs sole possession of the Colonial Conference Liberty crown, at 9-1. (They also finished atop the overall conference, going 14-1.) Haddonfield’s only conference loss came in the first week of January at the hands of the Silver Knights on Sterling’s home court, so this win at Haddonfield was extra special.

First, I’ll give some highlights of the Dawgs’ initial game of the week at Paulsboro, provide some more details about the Liberty conference clincher, spend a little time assessing the team’s first defeat in 18 games, and then take a look at what lies ahead.

Game 1: Haddonfield at Paulsboro, 2/7/23

My travel buddy and I texted each other ahead of the game that we were both a little antsy about this trip down to the Red Raiders’ turf, as no matter what their record is, it’s never easy putting away Paulsboro on their own court. En route, I asked about something that had been perplexing me for the past few days. Ever since the Colonial had split into two divisions, Paulsboro had been in the Patriot and Haddonfield had been in the Liberty, which meant we shouldn’t have been playing them a second time this season. Had they, I asked, switched divisions? The answer was yes, and the swap-out meant that another team which had been in the Liberty division, Collingswood, took Paulsboro’s place in the Patriot. This happened as a result of enrollment sizes changing in both schools. This is why it’s so helpful to have a travel buddy that knows all these details, since I had clearly missed the (non) memo about the schools switching places.

Meanwhile, our fears about the Red Raiders giving the Dawgs a rough time were put to rest before halftime. Sam Narducci got the offense started by swooshing in a 3 after both teams failed to score their first possessions. The Red Raiders’ first bucket was a 2, at the 4:14 mark, but after Daire Roddy pulled down an offensive board, he passed it to Teddy Bond, who went up and in for 2. Roddy then picked off the ball, dished it to Narducci, who did a dandy overhand maneuver, and with 2:59 on the clock, the Dawgs were up by 5, 7–2.

The Raiders got 2 on a nice drive in the paint, but the Dawgs would finish out the quarter with a 2 from Zach Langan, a 2 from Patrick Ryan, and another 3 from Narducci, putting them up by 10, 14–4, going into the second quarter.

The Red Raiders got 7 on the board in the next 8 minutes, but the Dawgs added 15. Bond and Roddy hit 3’s, Roddy’s coming on a great pass from Langan under the basket. Speaking of Langan, he got another bucket off a nice bounce pass from Ryan. Nate Rohlfing made 3 baskets in the paint; two came from feeds by Roddy, and the last one was off a pass from Ryan. Going into the half, the Dawgs were making Paulsboro see red, up by 18, 29–11.

As if the Dawgs D (aka Haddonfield Havoc) hadn’t been giving the Raiders enough trouble in the first two quarters, in the third, they held Paulsboro to just one field goal, which came midway through. Meanwhile, Bond kicked off the second half with a 3, Langan and Rohlfing each scored a bucket, and Ryan picked up 2 more baskets. Going into the last 8 minutes of play, the Dawgs were ahead by 27 points, 40–13.

The Raiders actually doubled their score in the 4th quarter, but this was the Dawgs’ biggest offensive output of the game as well, as seven players combined for 21 points. Matt Morris got a field goal, Rohlfing got a bucket and made a foul shot, Ryan got another pair of 2-pointers, and Narducci knocked down one more trey. The JV squad came in to contribute 9: Phil McFillin drained a 3, as did Mike Douglas. He also made one from the foul line. And Joe Tedeschi also got a ball in the net from the field.

When the buzzer sounded, the Dawgs had hit sweet 16 in their winning streak, defeating a team that is not usually so easy to beat at home by a score of 61–26. Rohlfing finished with 12, Narducci had 11, and Ryan added 10.

Quarter Scores:

Player Scores:

Game 2: Sterling at Haddonfield, 2/9/23

In 1973, Haddonfield, under the leadership of Dave Wiedeman, our current coach’s dad, won the school’s first state title on St. Patrick’s Day. They did not win the Colonial, however, as they lost two times, both to Sterling. (And by the way, happy 50th anniversary to Dave and his team, which included Kevin Eastman, Tom Betley, Kirby Wood, Tom Hare, and Hank Whitten.) By the mid-70s, the team to beat in the conference was Haddon Heights. I remember one time on a snowy night when Haddonfield, known at the time as the Haddons or the Bulldogs, hosted Heights in game that was stressful from the first whistle to the last buzzer. If memory serves me correctly, Haddonfield eked out a 1-point victory.

Fast-forward to the early 2000s, and the Panthers of Collingswood had become the main conference nemesis of the (now) Dawgs. In one contest at Collingswood in 2007, the Panthers were up by 5 and literally seconds away from a victory when Greg Steinberger hit a 3 and after an out-of-bounds off Collingswood with maybe 1:5 on the clock, Spencer Reed tied it off the inbounds, pushing the game into OT. Haddonfield won that easily.  

And now, in the 2020s, it seems like Sterling and Haddonfield are once again the big rivals in the conference. The Silver Knights’ 8-point win in January at home versus Haddonfield meant they had won four out of the last five games against the Dawgs going back to the abbreviated 2020 season. However, coming into Thursday’s contest, Sterling had one more loss than the Dawgs in the Liberty (having been defeated by Haddon Heights and Paulsboro). So if the Dawgs could pull off a W, they would claim the Liberty outright, not have it end in a tie with the Silver Knights.

Thanks to a strong first 8 minutes of play, the Dawgs were able to secure that win and the title. Daire Roddy started things off with a 3 on a pass from Zach Langan. Although Sterling failed to score, the Knights speared the ball away and got a bucket to make it 3­­–2, Haddonfield, with 6:41 on the clock. The Dawgs shook that mistake off and went on a 7–0 run with a pair of 2-point baskets by Patrick Ryan on feeds from Langan and then a 3 from Bond off an assist from Roddy, which made it 10–2, Dawgs.

The Silver Knights ended their mini drought on a field goal, but Ryan and Bond followed with another 2 and 3, respectively. With 1:15 left in the quarter, the Dawgs were now up by double digits, 15–4. Sterling did get a 3-pointer, but Ryan got his third field goal of the quarter, and when the buzzer sounded, the Dawgs on top by 10, 17–7.

Ryan kept the Dawgs in front in the second. His series of baskets and foul shots looked like code in my scorebook: 2 1 2 1 2. At one ahem, point, he was outscoring Sterling all on his own. He was aided and abetted by a 3 from Sam Narducci, 2-pointers from Bond and Langan, and a foul shot by Nate Rohlfing. Although the Silver Knights upped their points in the second quarter, the Dawgs still bested them by 5, and at the half, the Dawgs’ chances of the Liberty title were looking quite promising, as they were ahead by 15, 33–18.

In the third quarter, Sterling put 1 more point on the board than Haddonfield, with 13. The Dawgs only had four field goals, 2 by Narducci and 1 each by Ryan and Bond. The other 4 points came from the foul line. Matt Morris was fouled attempting a 3, so he was awarded 3 shots from the line and coolly sank all of them. Ryan also added 1 from the line. Sterling’s 1-point quarter edge didn’t make much of a dent in the Dawgs’ lead, and going into the final period, Sterling was still trailing Haddonfield by 14, 31–45.

In the fourth, 8 of Haddonfield’s 12 points came off of foul shots. Narducci and Bond each made 4. I thought this was a good sign overall, as one of my few criticisms of the Dawgs has been there inconsistency at the foul line. Bond also had a field goal, as did Joe Tedeschi in off the bench. So without causing their fans (or coaches) much angst at all, the Dawgs evened the season series with Sterling at 1 all but, most importantly, won the Colonial Liberty with their 57–40 victory. Patrick Ryan, with his 7 buckets from the field, was high scorer for Haddonfield with 17. Bond was close behind with 16, and Narducci had 13.

I contacted Haddonfield Coach Paul Wiedeman the next day for some comments about the team. I specifically asked about the tough D they have been playing all year, and if the streak had helped them with their confidence. This is what he had to say.

First, he noted that they have had the same mentality all year: “Play fast and unselfish on the offensive while pressuring the ball on the defensive side with our zone defense.” He did acknowledge that while the streak is not something they have focused on, it has helped them to know if they “play hard and unselfishly, good things occur.”

He added that the emphasis has been on instilling good habits in practice that the players can then execute during games. His response to how much the team has worked on defense was interesting: “Because of the new basketball calendar, and playing so many games in a week, we have not had as much time to practice and work on our defense. We just instinctively know how to pressure the ball and cause teams to rush their shots or turn the ball over.”

Quarter Scores:

Player Scores:

Game 3: Haddonfield versus Camden Eastside at Sterling—Quarterfinals of the Camden County Tournament

I admit that I was more than a little apprehensive coming into Saturday’s quarterfinal game against the Tigers of Eastside. I had done a bit of checking and found out that although Eastside was seeded third to Haddonfield’s sixth slot (with the seedings determined earlier in the season before Haddonfield had gone on its tear), going into the match, the Dawgs had the better overall record, 23–3, to Eastside’s 14–4. The Dawgs also had a better conference record, 14–1, to Eastside’s record of 7–4 in the Olympic conference. Those extra wins did not convince me that the Dawgs were going to roll over the Tigers in the same way as they had done to so many other opponents this season.

The first half of the game was competitive, and the Dawgs led for a good part of it. Although the Tigers jumped out to a 5–0 and then a 3–8 lead (with the 3 for Haddonfield coming off a trey by Sam Narducci), the Dawgs fought to tie it at 8 a the 3:22 mark thanks to another 3 from Narducci and 2 in the paint by Patrick Ryan. After a pickoff that was a team effort but ultimately credited to Narducci, Ryan scored again to put the Dawgs up by 2, 10–8, with 2:02 on the clock. The Tigers tied it off an offensive board, but Teddy Bond’s 3 with about 38 seconds to go put the Dawgs back in front 13–10. After the Tigers answered with a 2, Narducci drove into the lane just ahead of the buzzer for 2, giving the Dawgs a 3-point, 15–12, edge going into the second quarter.

At the outset, Eastside brought the match even again with a foul shot and then a basket. At the foul line again with a chance to make a 3-point play, the Tigers did not convert, and Bond grabbed the rebound. He set up another 3 from Narducci, and after the teams exchanged turnovers, Bond picked off the ball again and Nate Rohlfing scored, making it 20–15, Haddonfield, with 5:35 to go in the half. That would be the Dawgs’ last field goal of the half. Rohlfing did add 1 from the line, and Eastside got another 2. The Dawgs lost the ball out of bounds with 13.1 on the clock and instead of the Dawgs having a chance to add to their lead, the Tigers had a chance to get closer. Narducci’s steal kept that from happening, and as the teams left the court at halftime, the Dawgs were up 21–17, and I was feeling a bit more optimistic than I had before the game tipped off.

The way the second half began did not bode well for the Dawgs, who had possession. The Tigers, who gave the Dawgs a taste of their own medicine the whole game with a lot of pressure defense, caused the Dawgs to lose the ball out of bounds off a bad pass. They scored to make it a 21–19 game. A few plays later, Eastside stole the ball and scored again, tying it at 21 with 6:06 on the clock.

Narducci broke the tie with a 3, enabling the Dawgs to go back up 24–21. Foul shots by Eastside cut that cushion to 1, before a basket by Zach Langan pushed the lead back up to 3, 25–21, with 1:59 to go. The Tigers finished out the quarter on an 8–0 run with a pair of 3’s and 2 shots from the line. Going into the final 8 minutes, were up by 5, 31–26, and most concerning, they had held the Dawgs to just 5 points.

The Dawgs did a little better offensively in the fourth, putting 9 on the board, but Eastside began to pull away. Haddonfield just could not hold onto the ball, losing it on bad passes or due to sloppy ball handling. This seemed to be largely due to fatigue that was overtaking the Dawgs, who were not used to playing with a team that liked to push the ball offensively and press defensively. They bested the Dawgs by 16 in the quarter, with 2 coming off impressive (said grudgingly) slams. When the horn sounded, the Dawgs’ 17-game win streak had been snuffed out at the claws of the Tigers, who won by a 12-point, 47–35, margin. Narducci was the only Dawg in double figures, finishing with 19, and kept the Tigers from winning by a larger margin.

Quarter Scores;

Player Scores:

Having been eliminated from the final two rounds of the Camden County Tournament, the Dawgs have some open slots to potentially fill between now and the start of the NJSIAA tournament on 2/28. (Bracket selections should be out by Tuesday, if not Monday.) It looks like Tuesday night (but double-check the Dawgs’ online schedule), the Dawgs are going to host Eastern Regional High School, as the Vikings also lost their quarterfinal match on Saturday. I suspect Coach Wiedeman will try to get a few more games onto the schedule so the Dawgs aren’t idle for too long. It’s looking hopeful that the Dawgs will get a high, if not the number 1, South Jersey Group 2 seed, which means they would be playing on their home court for at least the early rounds of the state tournament.