Karl Gilbert has missed 11 Freedom boys’ basketball games since 1972.

The Patriots statistician has been a mainstay at center court for the past 54 years, keeping score of 2,353 games and counting, including junior varsity games. He recently became the Lehigh Valley’s longest-serving high school basketball statistician of all-time.

Gilbert surpassed the late Roy Arlotto of Dieruff this season, who served as the Huskies statistician from 1967 to 2020.

Gilbert’s 54-year run is a profound achievement of dedication and commitment to a job he loves and it all started going to a Moravian College basketball game in 1965.

“My dad took me to my first Moravian College basketball game in 1965 when I was eight years old,” said Gilbert. “My older brother Dan Jr., who played basketball and had an interest in basketball statistics, gave me a scorebook, and taught me how to use it.

“It only took one game to hook me on basketball, and keeping score and other statistics. As a son of a history professor, I innately view statistics as a current performance measurement, and as a historical record of the game.”

Dan Jr. was a second-team East Penn League all-star in 1970 for Freedom and went on to play college ball at Dickinson. Karl wanted to follow in his brother’s footsteps, but was cut from Freedom’s freshman and JV teams.

While golf became his main sport, Karl still wanted to be apart of the basketball team and volunteered to keep stats for the JV team his sophomore year before doing the varsity team his junior and senior year.

With Gilbert heading off to Moravian the next year for college, some of the Patriot players and head coach Rich Baksa, asked if he wanted to keep being the statistician the following season, and as they say, the rest is history.

Current Freedom coach Joe Stellato has been with the program 26 years and Gilbert has been there every step of the way.

Gilbert has been a beacon of information and that helps Stellato and his staff in various ways.

“The amount of detail in his stats is invaluable to our coaches and players,” said Stellato. “He gives us exactly what we need to evaluate how we’re playing, which makes it much easier to identify adjustments at halftime or points of emphasis for the next game. Then he sends us combined weekly stats, and that helps us build practice plans around the areas we need to improve. His work directly impacts how we prepare and how we perform.”

Now, the question is how much longer will Gilbert, who’s 68, keep being a mainstay at Freedom basketball games.

“I take it year-by-year now,” he said. “I hope I know when it’s time to leave.”

Over the years he’s witnessed the Pates win two District 11 championships, in 1976 and 2020. He’s seen sports and culture change--from coaches wearing coats and ties to people smoking in the gymnasiums.

His son, John, who started for two years under Stellato, has been the junior varsity coach the past four seasons, making attending games even more special for the Gilbert family.

He parlayed his love for golf into a 30-year career as a golf writer that indirectly led to the creation of the Golf Association of the Lehigh Valley, the Lehigh Valley Junior Golf Tour, which has become the region’s premiere junior golf development program; and the Lehigh Valley Golf Hall of Fame--all from meeting a sports writer at the scorers table of a Freedom game.

It’s been a long ride for Gilbert with the Freedom boys and one day it’ll end, but until then, he’ll keep enjoying the journey.

“I love watching a great sport, seeing kids learn to play the game and perform, and having our children and grandchildren come to games,” said Gilbert of his favorite part of the job. “As our son and daughter were growing up, I would take them to high school basketball games, and they developed a love for the game. They both played basketball in high school.

“Now our grandchildren come to games. They like to come to the scoring table at halftime and after games.”