By David Gurney, Sports Writer
All three of them look back on it and you can sense the disbelief immediately.
As freshmen, Kurt Niebanck, Tyler Olsson and Chris Sisco were just three members of a wildly successful, 18-member class.
”Our freshman team had 18 kids, and we were pretty good,” Niebanck said. “There was some great potential on our team. You would expect half of them to have made it up to varsity as seniors. It’s ridiculous, hard to believe with where we are now.”
Today, there are only three seniors on a South Brunswick High baseball team that has defied most people’s expectations, carrying an 8-5 record (7-5 in the Red Division), and a No. 9 seed in the upcoming Greater Middlesex Conference tournament, traveling to No. 8 Dunellen for a first-round game Friday.
The most recent win was perhaps the most impressive, a 5-4 come-from-behind road victory over state power Toms River South in the Shore Challenge last Saturday.
For the seniors listed above, it was easily the biggest win in their collective varsity tenures.
”It was definitely the biggest win for us,” Olsson said “Talking to the guys afterwards, I asked them, ‘Didn’t it feel like we just won the World Series?’ It had a championship feel. It was unbelievable.”
The three seniors felt the emotional high of a victory that they hope won’t be the culmination of their long, tireless trek to the varsity level.
They all play integral roles on the team: Sisco, the ace of the pitching staff, Olsson, the starting second baseman, and Niebanck, another member of the starting rotation.
Yet, neither is a standout, and they know that.
Sisco has great velocity, but knows he’s not as overpowering as other pitchers in the area, Olsson is the number eight hitter on the team and Niebanck is finally recovered from a summer leg injury that affected his performance earlier in the season.
”We aren’t the best players you’ll see,” said Sisco, the most vocal of the bunch. “I won’t blow the ball by someone, Tyler isn’t a masher. I’ll make a big pitch, Kurt will make a big pitch, Tyler take an extra base. I think for us it’s been about work ethic. We wanted to play varsity and continued to work hard to get there.”
Sisco and Niebanck hail back to travel baseball days with the Bandits several years before the start of high school, while Olsson played with the younger age group due to a later birthday. But they played together in middle school and started on the same road as members of the freshman team.
When other kids pursued other interests, these three stayed on the fast track to varsity.
”This is a classic example of guys who kept on working,” head coach Leo Danik said. “We didn’t think they would be outstanding, but knew they could be good. For them it’s been all hard work and effort.”
All three, who all came in as juniors to varsity, seem to be peaking at the right time. Niebanck’s most recent start was a shutout win over East Brunswick. Sisco carries a 3-2 record into this week and Olsson has been a stalwart at the plate and in the field.
For most of the team, this time of the year will be experienced again next year. But this is it for the trio.
”We enjoy being with each other,” Olsson said. “It translates to the field, the atmosphere is so welcoming to success. I think there is a strong mutual respect between seniors and underclassmen. They’d love to win it for the seniors.”
