The Renegades capped off their 2018 season with the program’s first state championship in 11 years.
In 2017, the Shawnee High School boys basketball team’s season ended in disappointing fashion when the Renegades lost in the NJSIAA Group IV state championship by 16 points to Linden High School.
While the loss was frustrating, the experience served as a building block for a historical 2018 season for the Renegades.
“Losing that game, I think they realized the hurt they felt then is going to be joy the next year if we can get to that same spot,” head coach Joe Kessler said.
Joy was exactly what the Renegades felt on March 11 when Shawnee, back in the Group IV state title game for a second straight year, took care of business, defeating Newark East Side High School, 56–53, for the program’s first state championship since 2007.
“We knew that last year, we had to come back,” senior Sean Heine said. “We didn’t want the same outcome.”
The Renegades were well prepared to make a title run in 2018. Nearly the entire 2017 team was back, and the players were determined to make improvements to better prepare themselves for the postseason.
To give his team some experience against high-level competition, Kessler scheduled Shawnee to play a tough non-conference schedule. The Renegades opened the season on the road against one of the top private schools in New Jersey, Gill St. Bernard’s. Over winter break, Shawnee played two tough, out-of-state programs, Penn Charter School in Pennsylvania and Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School in Maryland. The team played two other tough private schools, Blair Academy and St. Thomas More Preparatory School in Delaware, during February.
“Last year, when these guys were juniors and sophomores, I knew we were going to be good so I beefed up our schedule with non-league games,” Kessler said.
The Renegades entered the year with a potent offense already in place. Senior Dean Noll was one of the best players in the state, scoring 737 points to set a single-season school record. Senior Dylan Deveney chipped in an additional 598 points, and senior Daevon Robinson led the team in both rebounding and assists.
“We just pass the ball and move and try to get everybody touching the ball so nobody feels they’re out of the offense,” Robinson said.
One area the team improved in over the course of the season was defense. Shawnee played a man-to-man system and made a lot of progress on defense by going against each other, one-on-one in practice.
Kessler really felt the team began hitting its stride right before the playoffs began. Shawnee won its last eight games prior to South Jersey Group IV sectional tournament.
“Those last few games really didn’t mean anything standings-wise, it’s just getting ready for the run we wanted to have,” Kessler said. “Going through those last few games, you could see us getting better and better each day.”
Many of the players feel the most challenging games came in the early rounds of the playoffs. In the sectional semifinals, Shawnee trailed Eastern Regional High School by six points in the first quarter before pulling away over the next two quarters. In the sectional final against Atlantic City High School, Shawnee didn’t pull away until the fourth quarter.
“We didn’t skate by anyone,” senior Kane Feudtner said. “I think we played some of the best teams in sectionals.”
Shawnee defeated Atlantic City, 61–48, on March 5 for the South Jersey Group IV title and would then take down Central Jersey champion Trenton High School four nights later to get back to the Group IV state title game.
Prior to the state championship against Newark East Side, Kessler recalls sharing some words of wisdom with his team.
“You’re going to remember this day forever,” Kessler told his team prior to the state title game. “Make it a good one.”
The state championships game was a wild affair, with Shawnee dominating out of the gate to build a 25–7 lead over the first quarter. However, the lead was gone by halftime, as Newark East Side came back to tie the game at 31.
At halftime, Heine said it was Shawnee assistant coach J.R. Gillern who helped get the Renegades back on track.
“He was talking about how we were in the same situation last year and lost,” Heine recalled. “He was going back to all of the games we lost to previous teams and won.”
The second half was a back and forth affair, with Shawnee and Newark East Side exchanging the lead.
Despite the back and forth affair, the Renegades remained confident. Senior Drew Brennan said he felt the team would win simply because they had clutch players such as Noll on their side.
“I trust him with the ball all the time,” Brennan said of Noll. “When he’s on the court, one guy on him, two guys on him, he can handle the press.”
With less than 20 seconds remaining in the game, Shawnee took the lead for good when junior Connor Deveney scored following a missed free throw by Noll. The Renegades hung on in the final seconds to win, 56–53.
“I don’t really think too much of it, because I was doing what I was supposed to do,” Deveney said. “I was just standing there and the ball came to me and I shot a layup.”
“Me and Ryan (Heine) were going crazy on the bench,” Brennan said. “When Connor made the layup, we were trying to keep everyone from running on the court.”
Winning a state championship was the perfect ending for players such as Robinson and Noll who had been a part of the varsity lineup since they were underclassmen.
“We’ve been playing with each other since freshman year. We’ve had a lot of experiences together, so winning a state championship puts it over the top,” Robinson said.
This year was the sixth time Kessler has coached the Renegades to a state title in his 31 years as head coach. A couple weeks after Shawnee won the 2018 state title, Kessler looked back at how this year’s team compared to championship teams of years past.
“This team was together more than the other teams,” he said. “Dylan and Dean started as freshmen, Daevon started as a sophomore, so they’ve been together for a while.”
“They got better,” Kessler added about the 2018 team. “As juniors, they were getting the experience. As seniors, they accomplished what they set out to do.”
Shawnee’s playoff run continued into mid-March. The Renegades defeated Group I state champion Woodbury High School, 68–47, in the first round of the NJSIAA Tournament of Champions. The team’s season ended on March 15, when Shawnee lost to Non-Public Group A state champion Don Bosco Preparatory High School in the Tournament of Champions semifinals, 49–39, on March 15. While the players were disappointed they couldn’t win the Tournament of Champions, the loss couldn’t dampen an achievement members of the school community will be talking about for years to come.
“The future Renegades will hear about these guys for a long time,” Kessler said.
