Matters of the Heart: Manasquan’s Title Streak Ends Under Trying Circumstances

MANASQUAN — As it became clear that Manasquan would not win its seventh consecutive NJSIAA sectional championship on Friday night, Andrew Bilodeau — fresh out of the hospital after recovering from a heart attack he suffered Tuesday in the Wall High School gymnasium — left his Manasquan home and headed for the gym, where doctors just told him to avoid going while he recovers from a near-death experience.

The stress of a championship game had faded, most of the home crowd headed for their cars and there was nothing left to be decided in the gym. In the locker room, however, there was a team of players distraught that one of the great runs in Shore Conference boys basketball history was over on their watch and their head coach was not there to provide closure to the season.

With that, according to Warriors assistant and acting head coach Ryan Ritchey, Bilodeau walked into the Manasquan locker room and delivered a message that had nothing to do with the 32 minutes prior, during which Rumson-Fair Haven avenged championship losses at Manasquan in both 2024 and 2025 by beating the Warriors, 47-33, and ending a run of sectional championships for Manasquan that dates back to March of 2019.

“He didn’t talk about the game, because the game’s not important right now,” Ritchey said, his description of Bilodeau’s words purposefully vague. “It was more about the four year of the seniors and how far this team has come. We didn’t talk basketball in there. Just about the memories and the effort this team has given all year.”

Manasquan’s run of six straight sectional championship, which includes two overall Group II championships, is remarkable on its own, but what has made the Warriors’ run so compelling is the adversity they have had to face.

In 2020, their 30-1 season and chance to play Camden in the Group II semifinals in Toms River was snatch from them by the outbreak of COVID, which canceled the season from the public group semifinals onward.

In 2022, senior star guard Ben Roy tore his ACL in the fall and missed the entire season, but Manasquan still captured the Central Jersey Group III championship while starting two freshman and two sophomores.

In 2023, everything fell into place for the Warriors, but they still had to play the sectional final on the road at South River despite being the top-ranked Group II team in the state behind Camden for most of the season. Camden was disqualified from the NJSIAA Tournament for fighting with rival Camden Eastside during their county tournament final and Manasquan went on to win their first ever Group II championship in boys basketball.

In 2024, senior point guard Ryan Frauenheim tore his ACL, but Manasquan still managed to win a Central Group II title with a rousing comeback win over Rumson in the final. In the following round, Manasquan appeared to have pulled an all-time upset over Camden, only to have Griffin Linstra’s winning basket erroneously overturned by the officials.

In 2025, the Warriors were on a mission to avenge the 2024 loss to Camden and in the state semifinal, they beat the Panthers on a game-winning shot by Linstra with two seconds left — a finish fit for a movie script.

Heading into 2026, the challenge was to overcome the absence of Rey Weinseimer, who had not played a single minute this year heading into Friday night due to a torn meniscus that required surgery in September. Then, the Warriors earned a spot in the final by knocking off Wall on Tuesday night in the sectional semifinals and that story changed dramatically when Bilodeau collapsed to the court right after the final buzzer.

“His health is much bigger than basketball,” Rumson-Fair Haven coach George Sourlis said. “He is one of the best coaches in the history of the Shore Conference. For him to not be here tonight doesn’t feel right. There’s nothing wrong with their coaching staff, they are great. He is still the head coach.”

For the past two days, Manasquan has had to balance concern for their head coach with preparing for a championship game without him. It is not the first time Ritchey has had to stand-in for Bilodeau, who missed the final three games of the 2021 season with a medical condition, but he had to take the reins along with a team that had overcome inexperience and a lack of explosive offense throughout the year — neither of which were problems for the 2021 team.

“Nervous is an understatement,” Ritchey said of the feeling of preparing to coach a championship game without Bilodeau. “We’ve been stressed the past couple of days, but it was a total team effort. We have the best coaching staff around. The kids are great. We felt prepared, we felt ready. They (Rumson) were just much better tonight.

“I met with (Bilodeau) yesterday (Thursday) and I talked to him on the phone twice today (Friday) and he just said, ‘You’re ready,” Ritchey said. “You’ve done this before, I trust you.’ I was stressing about this all day and he said, ‘Don’t. You’re ready.’ It gave me confidence, it made me feel better.”

Factor in a motivated Rumson-Fair Haven team on the other side of the court and the challenge for Ritchey and his team Friday night was immense, especially when Sourlis threw Manansquan a couple of new wrinkles in the game plan. The Bulldogs came out in a full-court press to force Manasquan into an early timeout, as well as a 4-0 hole. Sourlis also switched star forward Luke Cruz onto Logan Cleveland on defense after using Cruz against senior Jack O’Reilly in a 43-32 Manasquan win at Rumson on Feb. 3.

“Sourlis is a legendary coach,” Ritchey said. “He made some adjustments that I didn’t necessarily expect and I didn’t adjust well enough. The kids played great. They played so hard. Their effort was unquestionable.”

Manasquan, however, also had an ace up its sleeve. Weinseimer made his season debut by flinging off his warm-up top and entering the game off the bench during the first quarter to a standing ovation. The 2025 First Team All-Shore selection was blocked on his first attempt, but got the ball back on the same possession and drained a three-pointer from the left quarter, blowing the roof off the Manasquan gym in the middle of the first quarter.

“We found out this morning,” Ritchey said of Weinseimer’s availability. “He got clearance from his doctor, we met with his parents, the trainer the (athletic director), everyone. We made sure he was comfortable, worked him out again. His parents basically said, ‘You are an adult in two weeks. You know the risk.’ He wanted to give it a go and the guys were all for it.

“The kid has done everything right. He makes his (physical therapy) schedule around practice, so he never misses a practice or a game. He is all-in, the rest of the team knows it, so if he is medically cleared, the parents are okay with it, the school is okay with it, we were okay with it. Obviously, we watched his minutes, but we wanted to give it a go. He is crushed, but I’m like, ‘Rey, you risked your career to play in this game to try to help your team. Don’t be upset.'”

Rey Weinseimer gets on the board for the first time this year. pic.twitter.com/j8tk9o10jP

— Matt Manley (@Matt_Manley) March 7, 2026

The three-pointer by Weinseimer was the feel-good moment on what turned out to be a difficult night for the Warriors. Bilodeau’s son, Sean, had a quiet night on the court (one point on one field-goal attempt) with his father on his mind.

“He was fine. He’s a tough kid,” Ritchey said. “He is a Bilodeau. They are built different.”

Sourlis made a point to find Sean Bilodeau after the game.

“I just told him (Sean Bilodeau) he is a great player and thank god your father is okay,” Sourlis said. “That’s more important than this game. He is going to have a great career ahead of him and I told him I’m not looking forward to playing against him next year.”

O’Reilly — a senior leading averaging better than 14 rebounds per game in the tournament — spent most of the first half on the bench with two fouls and still managed 10 rebounds, although he did not score. Cleveland, meanwhile, was the only Manasquan player to reach double-figure scoring and its next two scorers — sophomores Kennedy Larned and Noah Matuch — each finished with six points.

Based on the potential returns of Weinseimer, Cleveland, Sean Bilodeau, Larned, Matuch and sophomore Luke Winn, Manasquan’s immediate future would appear bright and compared to the rosters of other Group II contenders from the Shore — Rumson-Fair Haven, Wall, Holmdel and Ocean — the Warriors stack up favorably looking ahead to 2026-27. On the flip side, if Manasquan’s last eight years of basketball have reinforced anything, it is that nothing should be taken for granted.

“The amount this team improved in four months is outrageous,” Ritchey said. “Injuries, graduation, we’re playing six guys who had never played varsity before. We dropped some early games. We didn’t think we would be here, but they worked hard every day, individually getting better, which helped the team get better. And they won a lot of big games to put us in this position. It stinks losing, yeah, but getting here was a big accomplishment.”

The opening tipoff to the season is still a long way off and anything can happen between then and now. Even if bad luck does not befall the Warriors again, they will need that time to recover from Friday’s loss and the way it all went down.

“I feel so bad for the four guys who are graduating,” Ritchey said. “They are top-notch kids. It stinks having this feeling, not only losing the game, but saying goodbye to these guys.”