By Jeff Appelblatt
While Freehold Township High School’s boys’ basketball team has all intentions of getting back to the finals of the NJSIAA Central Jersey, Group IV playoffs, the team’s coach, Brian Golub, insists his team isn’t playing this year with last season on its mind.
That season ended after a loss in the Group IV finals against the rival from Colts Neck High School. Colts Neck clinched the victory when Brendan Clarke knocked down a shot at the buzzer.
“I dont think its making up for last season,” Golub said, thinking about all the positives he’s been witnessing on the sideline.
The Patriots are playing phenomenal this season, capturing six straight wins to start the season.
“We’re playing tough defense. We’re rebounding the ball well. Our defense creates a lot of our offense. We create a lot of turnovers. We work hard everyday,” Freehold Township’s coach said. “We have a substantial amount of kids back from the team that lost in the sectional finals to Colts Neck last year. They’re hungry, and they’re working hard.”
No team so far has had an answer for the Patriots’ hunger. They won each of their six games by at least 15 points.
“Some of our scores are 15-20 point wins, but they’re tight at halftime,” Golub said. “It hasn’t really been where we just blow somebody out.”
Christian Brothers Academy (CBA) and Manasquan High School escaped easy, with Freehold Township beating each of those teams by 15 points. Freehold Township scored more dominating wins over Freehold High School (by 19 points), Brick Memorial High School (by 34), Neptune High School (by 24) and Wall High School (by 29).
“We got a good group of seniors back. We got some good underclassmen,” Golub said. “I always want my teams to reach their maximum potential — to be the best they can be. I’m not worried about winning this championship, winning that championship. I’m worried about practicing hard every day. I worry about playing hard every day. And then the wins take care of themselves.”
So far the wins have looked simple for the Patriots, but only time will tell how long things will look this perfect in Freehold Township. Golub is convinced that everyone is eager to win as many games as possible, whether by one point or 50.
When Freehold Township starts facing its Shore Conference A North Division foes more often, Golub expects things to be closer.
“The A North is a war every night,” he said. “Marlboro [High School] is very good. Colts Neck is very good. Freehold Borough is good. Manalapan [High School’s] going to be tough. Howell [High School’s] going to be tough. There’s no easy night.”
That thought will be put to the test Jan. 5 when the Patriots make the trip to Colts Neck to face the Cougars (4-1) at 6:30 p.m. While Freehold Township will send Stephen Staklinski, Ryan Zyskowski, Bobby Weise and Ryan Cardone back onto the court to battle the Cougars, Colts Neck will only have one athlete on the court that scored a point in last season’s championship game. The other five graduated.
Surely the Patriots won’t be looking for payback. Aiming to win one regular-season game is far different than winning a championship. Freehold Township would likely take a win with a grain of salt, but pulling out a victory in Colts Neck would feel nice since it would be there, would be against a division enemy and would add another to the win column.