‘This is my Super Bowl’: Stories from JSBL’s opening night where everyone has a story to tell

MANASQUAN – One of the best things about the Jersey Shore Basketball League is that everyone has a story to tell. A personal basketball journey that took them to the Manasquan High School gym for Wednesday night’s doubleheader to open the league’s 56th^th season.

Take Hazlet’s Mike Aaman, the 6-8 forward who led Raritan High School to the 2011 Shore Conference Tournament title, played two years for Dan Hurley at Rhode Island before three solid seasons at Wagner.

“This is my Super Bowl,” Aaman said. “All these guys play professionally, play in college. I’m 30 years old. I have an injured knee. I lost 21 pounds in three weeks just to prepare for this. That’s just loving the game.”

It certainly is.

All Aaman did was score 37 points on 16-of-25 shooting and grab 17 rebounds to lead Ortho-NJ to a 115-107 victory over Larson Ford who got 30 points from Rutgers forward Aundre Hyatt and 26 from Nate Pierre-Louis, the former Catholic star from Roselle, now in the NBA G-League.

“It’s amazing,” said Aaman, now a youth basketball coach. “I’m all about basketball. I coach kids, I coach kids, everything is basketball, basketball, basketball. So I’m investing in myself and hopefully in a few years I’ll be a college coach.”

Then there was the bedtime drink, in which Rutgers transfer guard Jordan Derkack scored 39 points to lead an undermanned Sterns Trailer to a dominant 123-95 victory over Sea View Jeep.

More: Jersey Shore Basketball League featuring NBA, G-League, foreign stars and college players

With Rutgers coach Steve Pikiell in the stands — Pikiell’s son Kevin, a rising CBA senior, was a starter for the Sterns — Derkack scored 27 points in the first half alone, shooting 16 of 26 from the floor for the game, while grabbing 12 rebounds.

It was the last chapter in the story of the Cologne native’s homecoming. He played three games early last season for Sterns Trailer before leaving for his sophomore season at Merrimack, where he was the Northeast Conference Player of the Year before transferring to Rutgers.

“My little brother (Aiden, who plays at Colonia High School) comes to this league, so I want to be able to play with him. I’ll be out of college by the time he gets there,” Derkack said.

“You discover different things about yourself (in summer basketball). Today I was shooting a little more than normal in terms of threes. I was just having fun. That’s what summer is all about. Having fun, getting to know your teammates and doing your thing.”

Derkack, who is expected to play a key role on the Scarlet Knights’ talented youth roster, was together on the court with his new teammates for the first time over the past two weeks during practice in Piscataway.

“It’s incredible,” he said. “All the coaches really believed in it. I can feel that. I have great teammates. We go there every day. I’ll be there tomorrow at 6:30 and we’ll be in the gym running, talking, shouting at each other, pushing each other, so it’ll be a good time.

“When you get to a certain level, sometimes there are egos, and I just don’t feel like there are any on our team.”

It was already evening when players of all levels gathered on the court, reaching various points of the basketball scene.

Former Monmouth star George Papas, for example, recently returned from his second season playing in Greece, heading overseas after having a first-team All-MAAC season for the Hawks in 2021-22. Papas scored 19 points, grabbed eight rebounds and dished out 10 assists for Ortho-NJ.

“It’s great to be back,” Papas said. “When you are away from family and friends for 10 months it is difficult. But you make a good living, you have a good life and all you want to do is go back and be around your friends, especially my Monmouth boys, and play ball.

Papas, who has Greek citizenship, hopes to return to Greece next season, although he is not yet sure who he will play for. Papas switched teams midway through last season, moving from Olympiacos to Promethias.

“The main goal was to try to get playing time,” Papas said. “It was a difficult adaptation because where I was at Olympiacos it was a very good organization. It felt so right to be there. But I just wanted to prove to myself that I can play at the professional level. I feel like I did a solid job. There’s definitely room to grow, not playing for a year and a half and then going straight to the court, but it was a good stepping stone to where I want my career to go. It was a good experience.”

This article originally appeared in the Asbury Park Press: As the Jersey Shore Basketball League opens, hoop journeys intertwine