Sanu Looking to Bring New Brunswick Back to Prominence

Former Sayreville Standout Becomes New Coach of the Zebras

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ–Earlier this year, Samir Sanu was hired as the new varsity boys basketball head coach at fabled New Brunswick High School. Sanu, who was a standout player at Sayreville, and even played some Division I hoops at Rider University before ending up at William Paterson, is looking to return the Zebras back to prominence in Middlesex County.

Since the late Odie Page stepped down as coach after the 2003-04 season, New Brunswick has had six different coaches at the school, which avoided a winless season by first defeating 19th seeded Middlesex in the 2016 GMCT Play-In round, and then a win over 14th seeded North Brunswick in the Preliminary round. Sanu, however, is looking to buck the trend, and provide some longevity to his tenure.

Sanu has a big advantage over his predecessors in that he had already worked in the New Brunswick school system, and served as coach at New Brunswick’s Middle School before joining Art Tooles staff a couple seasons ago as a varsity assistant as well as JV coach. Last season, the Junior Zebras were quite successful at the JV level with a 12-10 record including an overtime win over Edison on January 21st.

The Zebras have some good talent returning this year. First they have football standouts, Curtis Revan and Jahbree Jeffrey-Seawright coming back as well as reserves such as Frank Lebron and Jodie Harris. On top of that, German Pimentel, who has been playing football at NBHS in the fall, but playing hoops and baseball the past couple years at Piscataway Tech, transferred into New Brunswick during the off-season, and has already made an impact.

There is also promising talent coming up from the Middle School where Sanu had coached previously. New Brunswick will be having a freshman team this year after not having one in 2015-16. Some of that incoming freshman talent poll will get a shot to play some varsity, and there are some keepers, especially at point guard. Over the summer, the Zebras played in the Odie Page Summer League, where it finished the regular season at 7-2 including a win over South Brunswick.

After earning the top seed for the playoffs, and defeating Bishop Ahr in the semifinals, New Brunswick fell in the Championship Game to third seeded Elizabeth on July 28th (52-39). In addition to playing in the Odie Page Summer League, the Zebras also journeyed out to Allentown, Pennsylvania and played in the Jam Fest event there against a number of teams from around the Northeastern United States. New Brunswick is looking to be competitive with the likes of Sayreville, Woodbridge, North Brunswick, and Colonia in the rough and tumble GMC White.

The last time that New Brunswick had a good run in the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament was in 2012 when it lost to eventual finalist, North Brunswick in the Elite Eight round. In that same year, the Zebras lost to Lakewood in overtime in the quarterfinal round of the Central Jersey Group 3 State Tournament. Both losses were heartbreakers, and the program hasn’t been the same since. Over the past four years, New Brunswick has gone 8-81 overall including a 5-51 mark in White Division play. Sanu is hoping to change that, and there are already some signs that he will be successful.