Scene Around: Proud, Pint-Sized Hoops Champs

Fair Haven Boys Basketball Team gets a proclamation for its championship
Photo/screenshot of Zoom Borough Council meeting

They had no idea what a proclamation was, but the third grade Fair Haven Boys Basketball Team was present and proud to accept the honor for winning the 2022 Mid-Monmouth Championship from Mayor Joshua Halpern at Monday night’s Borough Council meeting.

The view of the meeting room showed a near-capacity crowd there for the boys as the mayor gathered them to explain the honor he was bestowing on behalf of a proud borough.

“Face the council here,” he told the uniformed boys. “What I’m going to read to you is a proclamation, OK?, celebrating the historic season that you guys had in Fair Haven. This is coming from myself, the administration and the borough council. We are all very, very proud of the season that you put together.”

And Mayor Halpern read the proclamation “congratulating the third grade Mid-Monmouth Boys Basketball Team” for their captured “second such boys championship in the history of the borough.” The team, the proclamation explained, had a regular season record of 9-1 and this season accomplished a 13-1 record.

The mayor further explained to the boys that the proclamation was to honor the dedication, hard work, long hours of practice and commitment that went into attaining the championship. He said that the celebration in officially proclaiming the success “serves to bring community together and honor the coaches and players.”

Halpern made the moment a bit of a civics teaching moment. Before he handed out individual signed proclamations to each boy to take “home and frame it or do whatever you want with it,” he asked them questions to put the championship’s weight into perspective.

The mayor asked the boys how many residents there are in Fair Haven, which some answered correctly. Roughly 6,000. He then asked how many residents there are in Middletown, which is the team they competed against for the championship.

One guessed that there are 11,000 in Middletown, another said 12,000. One gave closer estimate. The answer is 67,000. The mayor explained the overcome odds of the Fair Haven team considering population. “They (Middletown) do have another team there, but even if you split that in two,” they had roughly six times the amount of players to choose from. “Do you know what an accomplishment that is? he asked.

“Trust me I tried for many years. I’ve still been trying. You love the game? Don’t stop. There’s no reason that you can’t be back here at this exact same time next year. “
Fair Haven Mayor Joshua Halpern

Congratulations, boys!

Did you know?

Here’s a little fun fact. The assistant coach of this team, Sean McNeil, also Fair Haven Schools superintendent, came to Fair Haven schools from Middletown. So, it’s a bit of irony that he coached this team in this championship ultimately won against Middletown.