KARNS CITY — When it comes to sports, basketball is David Olszak's main course.

But soccer has been a pretty good side dish.

The point guard on the Karns City basketball team has been the Gremlins' goalkeeper the past four years. Olszak recently snapped the school record for most career wins and shutouts.

“I've been a point guard since junior high and basketball's always been my No. 1 sport,” Olszak admitted. “I thought about going to a Division III college to play basketball, but I decided to attend Penn State.

“Sports will be over for me after this school year.”

He's certainly making them count.

Olszak runs track in the spring, plays basketball in the winter, soccer in the fall. He almost didn't come out for the soccer team his freshman year.

“He figured he wasn't going to get on the field because we had a senior starter coming back in Derek Sadowski,” KC coach Jim Grenninger said. “When Derek decided he didn't want to play his senior year, we called David. We needed a goalkeeper.”

Olszak had only played one game at the position in his life. He was a midfielder who scored a few goals in junior high.

“I played goalie one game in junior high and I loved it,” Olszak said. “I just had fun with it. I had good instincts for that position and decided to stick with it.

“Coach (Roy) Parker told me I could start the first game my freshman year and we'd see how it goes.”

Olszak has started every game in the net for the Gremlins since, through the transition of the retiring Parker and new coach Grenninger.

Olszak has compiled a record of 57-11-1 with 31 shutouts in his high school career. He broke the previous school records of 51 wins and 29 shutouts, set by Coach Grenninger's son, Josh.

Josh Grenninger was a three-year starter in goal who graduated from KC in 2008. He had a 51-6 record for the Gremlins and is now a volunteer coach with the team.

“Josh congratulated him after David broke his records,” Grenninger said. “He was happy for him. He's worked with him as a goalkeeper.”

Olszak fully recognizes and appreciates the fact he didn't set this record alone.

“Our defense is always stellar. There's a lot of games where I don't have to do too much,” he said. “The defenders own this record every bit as much as I do.

“We have a sweeper, John Garing, who's been a starter with me all four years. He's definitely earned a big piece of this.

“Josh was a great goalie here and he's helped my game. He came on the field after I broke the record and congratulated me. I'm sure he's proud of me,” Olszak added.

During the summer, Olszak worked on the punting portion of the goalkeeper position. He's improved his punting distance by 10 or 15 yards as a result.

“There was a time when David could throw the ball farther than he could punt it,” Coach Grenninger said. “He dedicated himself to improving that part of his game and it's made a big difference.”

“Yeah ... I wasn't very good at it,” Olszak said of his punting. “It's important for the team that I'm able to kick the ball downfield, so I decided to work on that on my own.”

Carrying a 3.9 grade point average, Olszak hopes to get into petroleum engineering after graduating from Penn State.