HNT Boys Basketball Coach of Year: South Brunswick’s Hoehman
Coming into this season, the coaching staff of the South Brunswick High School boys basketball team knew it had something special, but no one really knew how special it would be.
Head coach Joe Hoehman and his staff led the Vikings to the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament final for the first time since 1993 and the Central Group IV semifinal for the first time since 2007.
This is why Hoehman is the 2015-16 Home News Tribune Boys Basketball Coach of the Year.
“I think it starts with the top, obviously, and him believing in us,” South Brunswick senior Eric Savage said. “At our first practice he said to us, if we want to do anything special this year, we have the talent. We just have to be one of the best defensive teams, and he did a great job emphasizing that and made sure we knew we had to defend in order to win as many games as we did.”
MORE: ST. JOSEPH'S TYUS BATTLE IS THE HNT PLAYER OF THE YEAR
South Brunswick finished with a 22-5 record, which tied the record for second-most wins in school history. The Vikings played in the tough GMC Red Division, with St. Joseph (Metuchen), East Brunswick and Old Bridge.
The Vikings finished tied for second in the division with East Brunswick at 9-3.
“When your team is successful, I like to be the guy in the background, I’m not one looking for all the credit, when you have the best players out there, I like to think that I can get a lot out of my kids,” said Hoehman, who has been coaching at South Brunswick for 14 years. “When you have the players, most coaches can get what they want when they need to, it was a really special group and we worked really hard the last couple of years. We started in the spring and the kids worked year round unless they were playing other sports. It’s nice to see, it was a special year for us.”
MORE: HNT BOYS BASKETBALL ALL-AREA TEAMS
South Brunswick earned the No. 2 seed in the GMC Tournament and dispatched rival East Brunswick in the semifinals to earn a berth in the final with top-seeded St. Joseph. The Vikings played tough, falling by only eight points to a team that had shut down almost every one it played this season.
In the state tournament, the Vikings again had to get past East Brunswick, and they did, winning in overtime on a buzzer-beater by Savage. In the sectional semifinals, third-seeded South Brunswick ended up losing to No. 2 Colts Neck.
“I think it was just our senior leadership, starting with Eric. He’s an awesome player to have, he’s got the competitive edge but knows what is in the best interest of the team,” Hoehman said. “We didn’t know where our ceiling was going into this year, but as the year progressed we felt this we this could end up being a really special year for us.”
Despite falling short of winning a championship this season, the Vikings brought the boys basketball team back into the spotlight, and they earned a reputation as a group that plays tough defense and can hang with anybody, in the GMC and beyond.
Although the team will lose a number of important seniors to graduation this year, the Vikings will return a number of players that received a lot of big game experience, which can only help South Brunswick next season.
And Hoehman will welcome the challenge.
“It’s tough to get kids to buy in with this day and age, with technology and Twitter, everyone has one opinion to what should be happening. It’s tough sometimes, but I just kind of felt like our guys were a tight knit group, there were no outcasts, we have our top seven, and we didn’t really have a set starting lineup, we rotated between those seven,” Hoehman said. “I think they all got along, they hung out together, and I think that that started with leadership, getting all those guys together and doing things outside of basketball and believing in one another. Once they started and they had that team bond, the sky is the limit when you’re willing to put it all out there for your teammates.”
Staff Writer Lauren Knego: lknego@gannettnj.com. Follow me on Twitter: @laurenknego