OLD BRIDGE, NJ–For the fifth consecutive year, the Old Bridge Knights finished with a non-winning season. For the second year in a row, the Knights were knocked out of the Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament Preliminary Round by an upstart GMC Blue Division opponent. However, where there are clouds, there are silver linings. Those silver linings I happened to see a bit of in a January loss to East Brunswick on the road at the fierce Route 18 rival.
The first impression I got came right away on that early January night when I saw the throngs of Old Bridge fans at the game. Now, it is true that these two schools are neighborhood rivals, and perhaps that should be expected, but when I saw the student section standing with t-shirts, and an enthusiasm I hadn’t seen in years at any Old Bridge game counting the years before the merger at Cedar Ridge and Madison Central, I was pleasantly surprised. Now, it did make it difficult to jot down notes, and see everything that was going on, but it was nice to see anyway.
The next impression from the game that I got was the play of a freshman named Julian Daley. Despite being on the short end of the stick in terms of the final overall outcome, Daley shined, and didn’t show that he was a freshman playing varsity ball. Rather, he demonstrated the determination of a hardened veteran. Daley ended up tied for game high with 14 points on 5 of 8 shooting including 1 of 2 from beyond the arc, and 3 of 3 at the foul line while picking up 3 rebounds, and an assist. His passion and youthful exuberance is a nice addition to a squad that has a good deal coming back next year including the likes of Tyler Abad, Jimmy Gaffigan, Femi Adeleye, Andrew Tomlin, Matt Totten, Justin Morik, and Jeremy Kutner.
Then, there is first year head coach, Paul Salisbury, who gives this program the energy it needs to go into this critical offseason ready to do some work, and strive toward improvement for 2009-10. So, you have a youthful head coach, a talented young player, 11 of 13 players from this year’s squad returning, and a renewed enthusiasm about a sport that usually plays second fiddle to wrestling and football. These three elements combine to make Old Bridge, one of the largest schools in the conference, a team to look out for next year. Keep in mind everyone that while the Knights have been mired in mediocrity (a combined record of 45-72 since 2004), they still managed to reach the Elite Eight of the GMCT in five of six years running from 2002 to 2007.
In 2007, the Knights pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament as the 15th seed by knocking off second seed, and tournament favorite St. Joseph’s in the Round of 16. Last season, after starting off with a record of 0-7, the Knights rallied with nine wins in 16 games before losing to Spotswood in the 2008 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament Round of 16. One of those victories was on the road at J.P. Stevens, which ended up reaching the GMCT Quarterfinals. There were also victories at home over Carteret and South Plainfield, and close losses to tournament teams such as Piscataway and Sayreville.
This season, Old Bridge ended up 8-14, but they finished the season not as strong as last year. After beginning the year at 3-3 overall despite playing in the always tough WOBM Classic as well as against St. Joseph’s, the Knights appeared to be in decent shape. However, after the loss at East Brunswick, Old Bridge went 5-10 the rest of the way including a defeat at the hands of 17th seeded Metuchen in the 2009 Greater Middlesex Conference Tournament.
With a solid off-season program that includes participation in a Summer League, Team Camp, and Fall League, the Old Bridge Knights could start bridging the gap between themselves and the rest of the GMC Red, and not be that sleeping giant of GMC Basketball that people occasionally talk about.