Knights Have Been Practicing Outdoors Since January 19th
OLD BRIDGE, NJ—While teams began practices on January 11th as scheduled by the NJSIAA, the Old Bridge school district announced that it would delay the start of winter sports such as boys and girls basketball. The Knights, which received the top seed in the 2019 GMCT, and reached the GMCT Semifinals in 2018 before turning a sub .500 season around to reach the Elite Eight a year ago, began practices outdoors on January 19th.
Old Bridge is scheduled to begin play on February 1st. One of the largest school districts in the Garden State, Old Bridge has been conducting remote classes, and the high school including its gymnasium has been closed. Old Bridge did participate with all but three of the GMC schools in football in the newly formed Big Central Football Conference during the fall.
The Knights have become one of the top contending teams in boys basketball in the Greater Middlesex Conference over the past 7 seasons. Under the direction of head coach, James Macomber, Old Bridge, which emerged after the merger of Madison Central and Cedar Ridge High Schools in the 1994-95 school year, has appeared in two GMCT Final Fours, six GMC Elite Eights, and had all five of its 1,000 point scorers since the 2012-13 season.
In the 2018-19 campaign, Old Bridge (21-5) became the first team other than St. Joseph’s to win the GMC Red since East Brunswick won the division in the 2012-13 season. After being awarded the top seed and winning its opening round game over North Brunswick (69-42), the Knights were stunned by 9th seeded New Brunswick (50-49) in a controversial ending of their GMCT Quarterfinal game at Middlesex County College.
A year ago, the Knights started the season with losses in 14 of their first 16 games, but then ended the year with wins in 5 of their last 8 including a GMCT Preliminary Round victory over Middlesex (77-70) and an upset of 3rd seeded New Brunswick (65-61) in the GMCT Round of 16 to avenge the 2019 GMCT Elite Eight loss before falling to Edison (77-62) in the 2020 GMCT Quarterfinals at Middlesex County College.
Since the 1998-99 season, Old Bridge has reached the GMCT Elite Eight on 11 different occasions. The Knights lost the likes of Sean Williams, Ryan De la Cuesta and Jaden Caban to graduation in June while one of the GMC’s top freshmen in 2019-20, Anthony Williams, transferred to St. Joseph’s during the off-season. Nevertheless, OBHS has a good group of players returning for the 2021 hoops season.
Seniors Lucas Grissett and Chris Wyer have been contributing to the varsity program since they were freshmen while Peter Gamba and Robbie Kim are also returning seniors that figure to be contributors along with the likes of junior Miles Sala and sophomore Ryan Witte, who along with the younger Williams, were members of the 2020 GMC Hoops All Freshmen Team.
According to recent US Census data, Old Bridge is one of the most populous communities in Middlesex County. With a population of over 65,000 as of 2018, Old Bridge ranks only behind Edison and Woodbridge as the top three largest towns in the county. As of January 21st, Old Bridge had 4,716 total COVID-19 cases with 123 deaths for a mortality rate of 2.61 percent.
Old Bridge has a little more than 7 Coronavirus cases per 100 residents, 124 cases per square mile, and 3 deaths per square mile in a town that covers a land area of just over 38 square miles. With a total enrollment of 2,082 according to the NJSIAA, Old Bridge High School ranks behind South Brunswick (2,189) and ahead of East Brunswick (2,080) as one of the largest schools in the Greater Middlesex Conference.
As a result of Old Bridge’s delayed start to the 2021 boys basketball season, East Brunswick, originally slated to be the Knights opening night foe on Tuesday, January 26th, will be facing off against Dunellen, a new member of the GMC Blue, in a conference crossover game on opening night. The game, which will be held at Faber Elementary School in Dunellen, a.k.a. The Faber, at 6:00 PM on Tuesday, and will be broadcast on Central Jersey Sports Radio.
Currently, the Knights are scheduled to begin its season on Thursday, February 4th at home versus Piscataway at 6:00 PM. Old Bridge will then travel to New Brunswick, a new member of the GMC Red, on Saturday, February 6th for a contest at 11:30 AM. The Knights will only play its neighborhood rival, East Brunswick once this season, on February 16th at the Bears’ Den at 5:30 PM.