Kristen Olsen had played all of two varsity games. The slight, 5-foot-4 guard looks every bit the sophomore that she is. Yet there she was in arguably the biggest game in the history of the great St. Peter’s program getting major minutes down the stretch.
Only about one person out of the more than 1,000 who were at Monsignor Farrell on Thursday night thought Olsen could do what she did – and it wasn’t Olsen, who admitted to being “very nervous.”
“I believe in her,” Eagles coach Bob Daggett said after his team’s incredible 61-54 overtime victory over Moore Catholic that secured a 16th straight CHSAA Staten Island title. “I’ve watched her play all year.”
Olsen was the St. Peter’s junior varsity team’s leading scorer last week. This week? She’s one of the heroes that led the Eagles to immortality. Olsen had 10 points, almost all of them massive. A 3-pointer with 6:02 left in the game put Peter’s up 40-36. Two clutch free throws gave the Eagles a 48-43 lead with 1:17 left. Then there was the fearless baseline drive with 1:07 left in overtime that expanded the lead to 56-53, one that even took Daggett aback.
“That was a big shot for us at that point,” the coach said.
Olsen was a driving force in making sure St. Peter’s would not see its streak snapped with its school closing in June. Now no team can say it beat the Eagles to win the CHSAA Staten Island title again. The gravity of that statement was somewhat lost on the youngster after the game. She called it “big.” Teammate Jamie O’Hare, a junior, put into better perspective.
“For her to be able to do that, I’m just amazed,” O’Hare said. “I knew she could do it. But I thought the pressure and the nerves might have got to her. But she obviously was able to prove herself and she did.”
Daggett told Olsen’s parents Saturday night after the team’s Senior Night win over St. Joseph Hill that he would like to move her up from the JV, which is arguably the best JV squad in the city. The coach spoke to her over the phone later on.
“He told me that he needed a guard on the bench,” Olsen said. “I’ve been shooting well and he’d like me to come up.”
She made her debut Monday against one of the best teams in New Jersey, Trenton Catholic. Then she had 11 points in the Eagles’ win over North Bergen (N.J.) on Wednesday. Three games into her varsity career, one that is surely bright for the lucky school that gets her next year, and she’s pulling off what some seniors could never have dreamed of.
“We’ve worked together,” Daggett said. “We don’t have a gym [at our school]. We practice together all the time. She does it against the varsity kids every day. I had confidence in her.”
Olsen said her veteran teammates didn’t really tell her it was a big game so as not to put undue pressure on her back. But there was no doubting the significance. The crowd was loud, living and dying with every basket. It was certainly the most people she ever played in front of.
“I was just trying to stay in the game, not think about what was going on in the gym,” Olsen said.
What was going on in the gym was history. St. Peter’s got to 16 before she did.
