Steinert’s Tyler Gulsby tries to shake a Princeton Day School defender during a 16-2 county tournament loss May 9, 2013. (Staff photo by Samantha Sciarrotta.)
Head out to any boys’ lacrosse game in Mercer County and you will see plenty of names that are recognizable from other sports. Most of them played football, soccer or ice hockey.
Swimming, not so much.
That’s where Steinert’s Tyler Gulsby is an exception. The Spartans’ all-time leading lacrosse scorer was also a key performer in the boys’ swimming success over the past four years.
“I came onto the lacrosse team with my brother (Kyle, also a swimmer), and there was one other kid from Lawrence on the swim team but he stopped swimming,” Gulsby said. “I’m thinking there’s not a lot of people who do both sports.”
Steinert actually has one other player who does both in Dan Caffarello, but the two sports don’t really lend themselves to each other.
“When you think about it, lacrosse is a full contact, aggressive sport, and swimming there’s no contact,” Gulsby said. “You’re not even running. You’re in the water.”
And while some of the same tendencies are used in lacrosse as they are in football, soccer and hockey, there aren’t many similar skills one can bring from the pool. Still, Gulsby feels swimming has helped him.
“The sports are so far apart,” he said. “But I do think the fact I do swimming, I come into lacrosse in phenomenal shape. I’ve been swimming all winter, doing a lot of cardio, and it’s allowing me to come into lacrosse season already in shape. I don’t have to worry about running to get in shape. I can go in getting my stick skills down and working on other things.”
Spartans coach Corey Siwiec agreed with that assessment.
“Being a swimmer obviously has advantages,” Siwiec said. “Tyler is always in top shape come lacrosse season.”
But Gulsby also enjoys the physical contact that is missing in swimming.
“Very much so,” he said. “I find that during swim season, as we approach closer and closer to lacrosse, I want to get out on the field and play a more physical game.”
Gulsby has adapted well to land. After a freshman season of getting adjusted, he scored 13 goals as a sophomore, 33 as a junior and as of mid-May this year, he had 40 despite getting extra attention from defenses.
He and brother Kyle, who graduated last year, grew up learning the game from their father, who played for Edison High School in Middlesex County.
“That’s always been what everyone’s done on his side of the family,” Gulsby said. “So from a young age we were exposed to lacrosse. It was a natural thing. We always have been around it. We’ve always had a stick in our hands. Playing lacrosse was something in our minds since a very young age.”
Neither Tyler nor Kyle got to play before high school, however, due to a lack of club teams. During Tyler’s freshman year, the sport was still a club program at Steinert, but it was obvious he had the skills.
“Tyler has been a pillar of Steinert’s lacrosse team since he was a freshman,” Siwiec said. “Due to his father’s involvement and tutelage, he came to the team as one of our most seasoned players. We have been relying on his goal-scoring ability for the past four seasons, and he doesn’t disappoint.”
Gulsby felt he had a head start due to just playing around in the backyard growing up.
“We were never on the field playing but just having stick skills, that was pretty much it when we got to Steinert,” Gulsby said. “For the game of lacrosse, stick skills are everything. Being able to come in freshman year and catch and throw and pick up a ground ball is huge.”
He added that there was no frustration with his teammates, despite the fact so many of them were holding a stick for the first time.
“We were actually kind of expecting it, knowing there was no feeder program in Hamilton at the time,” Gulsby said. “We knew coming in not everyone would have the skills. For a lot of people, it was the first time ever being on the field with a lacrosse with stick in their hand. We kind of had the expectations we had to teach people.”
Despite having some skills his older teammates hadn’t yet acquired, Gulsby’s time was limited as a freshman.
“I was a timid, smaller kid,” he said. “I wasn’t phenomenal at the sport, it was still a new experience for me as far as games were concerned. Like most of the kids that come in for the first year, I was just put at mid[fielder] doing the best I could.
“I watched a lot of games from the sideline. It happens sometimes. You gotta take your time, learn the game and advance your skills.”
Which is something Gulsby worked on before his sophomore season. He considers swimming his main sport, but took the time to improve in lacrosse.
“In the off-season, I went out, found lacrosse nets and found a wall, and I was playing lacrosse, just shooting it at a net bouncing it off a wall five to six times a week,” he said. “You don’t realize it at the time, but doing it every day it improves stick skills a lot. I came back catching balls that I wasn’t able to catch before, and I had a faster shot.”
That hard work has made Gulsby one of the most feared scorers in Mercer County. He had plenty of support last year, but graduation took a big hit on Steinert’s attack corps. Thus, he is getting plenty of attention from the opposition.
“He has been the target of many team’s defenses, facing double teams more than once,” Siwiec said. “As frustrating as it can be for him, he has never had a selfish attitude and as a captain he speaks to the team about taking advantage of defenses keying on him and getting other players to take control and score.”
“It’s been frustrating,” Gulsby admitted. “They’ve been trying to take me out of the game. It’s been something I’ve had to deal with this season, it’s been another learning step. I have pressure on me because we graduated so many seniors last year I needed to pick it up on offense.
“I’ve been trying to do anything to get that defender off me. I’ll have a guy set a pick or I would make cuts running through the middle of the defense and causing havoc. Anything to make myself as useful as possible while the defender was trying to take me out of the game.”
That includes setting up teammates.
“I’ve been doing a lot more feeding this year with (underclassmen) Chance Eggert, Nolan Kopec and Connor Burroughs, I know they have the ability to finish if they get a feed,” Gulsby said. “That gives me the confidence to throw it to them and they can put goals on the scoreboard. That’s a big relief.”
Gulsby is headed to Mercer County Community College next year, which does not have lacrosse. He plans on trying to get some other players together to start a club team, which is something that Lawrence super scorer Nick Bosted wants to do, as well. So, it just may happen.
And while he won’t have a club swimming team to compete with, Gulsby will be happy if he can still play lacrosse.
“If you look at stats and what I’ve done, I do have better statistics in swimming,” he said. “But I look at lacrosse as the sport I enjoy doing more. Swimming is just repetition, repetition, repetition. You’re getting in the pool, doing the same strokes, the same drills. Eventually it becomes boring.
“What I like about lacrosse is you get out there every day, try different things, challenge yourself with things like using your left hand. You’re not just worried about yourself. You’re worried about other people as well. You’re worried about your teammates, the guy covering you.”
And rest assured, the guys covering Gulsby are worried about him as well.
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