Red Bank Names Freehold’s Ben DiBiase New Boys Basketball Coach

After losing its head coach to a bitter rival, the Red Bank Regional boys basketball team is replacing him with a head coach who helped hand the Bucs their two most bitter defeats of the past two years.

Former Freehold Boro head coach Ben DiBiase was approved at Wednesday’s Red Bank Regional Board of Education meeting as the new head varsity boys basketball coach at Red Bank, replacing George Sourlis after Sourlis was hired as the new Rumson-Fair Haven boys basketball coach earlier this month.

Once Sourlis was on his way east on Ridge Road toward Rumson, Red Bank athletic director Mike Stoia knew who he wanted as his next coach. Stoia and DiBiase are friends and former co-workers at Freehold Boro, where the two coached together.

“Stoia and I have a long relationship together, both professionally and personally,” said DiBiase, who will retain his teaching job at Freehold Boro. “That made it easier. It was a very hard decision. There were a lot of sleepless nights over the last three weeks. Freehold Boro is the only home I have known as far as coaching goes, so it was a big decision. The timing just worked out perfectly and I know I am going to have stability in the athletic director, which was not the case at Freehold. So we have a great opportunity at here.”

DiBiase coached two stints at Freehold Boro, spanning a total of 15 seasons as the Colonials head coach. He guided Freehold Boro to a pair of division titles and a Shore Conference Tournament semifinal during his first stint, which ran from 2006-2013.

DiBiase’s second tour as Colonials head coach got off to a slow start, but finished with a flurry. Freehold Boro won its first NJSIAA Central Jersey Group III championship in 51 years in 2023-24, making it all the way to the overall Group III final. In the Central Jersey Group III championship game that season, Freehold Boro beat No. 1 seed Red Bank in the Bucs’ home gym to capture the crown.

Last season, Freehold Boro entered the NJSIAA Tournament as a No. 9 seed even after winning its first Shore Conference division championship since 2011 and going on to win 20 games for a second straight year. Despite the middling seed, the Colonials still managed to win two road games — the second of which was another convincing win at top-seeded Red Bank in the Central Group III quarterfinals. The Colonials would then fall to eventual Group III champion Colts Neck in the sectional semifinal, capping a two-year stretch in which Freehold Boro went 44-18 with a division and sectional championship to its credit.

“It was no-brainer as far as Mike’s decision to call me,” DiBiase said. “It’s never easy replacing a legend, but we had a lot of success at Freehold Boro the last couple of years winning in their (Red Bank’s) gym. Hiring the guy who beat the guy who just left is a pretty easy way to spin it for him, so that worked in my favor.”

Freehold Boro’s unprecedented two-year run at the end of DiBiase’s 15-year tenure was fueled by the trio of Brian Tassey, Aidan Hamlin-Woolfolk and Qua’Mire Everett — all of whom graduated this past spring. The Colonials will attempt to reload with a group that returns some minutes with seniors Damier Lester, Mike Cush, Joe Haney and Max Girandola, but will have to replace three top scorers, rebounders and play-makers, who ranged from 6-foot-4 to 6-6 in height.

“I talked to the (Freehold) seniors and it was tough,” DiBiase said. “They are great kids and I told them, ‘Even though I’m not your coach anymore, I’ll always be your coach. You can reach out to me for anything.’ The right we went on the last couple of years was something special.”

DiBiase will face a challenge similar to the one he would have had he remained at Freehold Boro. Red Bank graduated four senior starters from its 2024-25 roster, which went 22-5 and won a second straight Shore Conference division title. Two of those starters to graduate are 2025 Shore Sports Insider All-Shore selections Zayier Dean (First Team) and Ryan Fisher (Second). The Bucs will also have to replace Anthony Moore, Trey Moore and Ronald Richardson — all of whom started at different points during last season.

Rising junior guard Justin Valentino and Will Galligan are set to be Red Bank’s top two returning players under DiBiase. Valentino started the majority of the season and Galligan contributed an averaged of 5.6 points off the bench as one of several three-point threats on the roster.

“The potential to win at Red Bank is endless,” DiBiase said. “I’m excited to write the next chapter in what is a storied history for the program. We have a ton of excellent players coming back and a lot of talent in the pipeline coming from Red Bank, Shrewsbury and Little Silver. You walk into that gym and you see that 1983 banner that says ’31-0′ and ‘Number 1 in New Jersey’ and it’s pretty crazy to think about. But that’s the kind of tradition we’re chasing.”

The Ridge Road rivalry between Red Bank and Rumson-Fair Haven reached new heights last year, when Red Bank beat Rumson for just the second time in 10 years, then completed the regular-season sweep to give Sourlis his 700th career win. Rumson then paid back Red Bank by knocking the Bucs out of the Shore Conference Tournament in the quarterfinal round.

Although the Bucs will have a much different roster this season, the coaching changes are sure to add intensity to the rivalry. Sourlis won 654 games as the girls basketball coach at Rumson-Fair Haven and raised eyebrows when he took the head boys job at rival Red Bank. Given Sourlis’s background in coaching girls basketball, plus Rumson’s success in boys basketball under coach Chris Champeau, Sourlis’s decision to coach at Red Bank was mostly well-received by the Rumson community.

When Champeau resigned as Rumson’s coach in late July to take the head coaching position at the Benjamin School in Palm Beach, Fla., Sourlis was the obvious first call for new Rumson-Fair Haven athletic director Beth English. With his deep roots at Rumson — Sourlis’s son, Teddy, won two sectional championships playing for Champeau — Sourlis could not turn down a chance to return to Rumson.

Now, his former players will face him at least twice in 2025-26, as both teams are part of the re-aligned Shore Conference Class A North division. Sourlis will have a 6-foot-9 All-Shore University of Pennsylvannia commit in Luke Cruz, but Red Bank now has the coach of the team that knocked Sourlis’s Red Bank teams out of the state tournament in each of the last two seasons.

“The Freehold-Freehold Township rivalry was intense,” DiBiase said. “That is nothing compared to Red Bank-Rumson. I’m already learning that.”