Optimism abounds for NIU coach Chuck Ehrlich and his 1989-90 men’s gymnastics team.

The three main reasons for this elation are: Philip Fulcher, Genaro Severino and Waldemar Kolasa, three foreign-recruit students Ehrlich is looking to for top performances.

“They are all very fine gymnasts,” Ehrlich said. “Their skill level is excellent and I have high expectations on their competition.

Fulcher and Severino are from Brazil, while Kolasa comes straight out of Germany. Fulcher is the younger brother of Carlos Fulcher, who holds the NIU collegiate all-around record and is an All-America pole vaulter.

These three gymnasts and the rest of the NIU team are good reason for Ehrlich to be eager to start the season. National qualifer Eric Sulky also returns to aid the Huskie cause this season.

“All of our early competition will be learning for the three freshman,” Ehrlich said. “By regional time, we should be right where we want to be as a team.”

The first match for the Huskies is on Nov. 11 at Chick Evans Field House, which is an alumni meet. Ehrlich said in order to make things more interesting and fun, he will mix up the alumni with this year’s team and have two teams that will divide up the seven all-arounds. There will be three alumni on one team and four on the other.

One strength Ehrlich feels his team has this year is the depth of his club in each event. Usually six men compete in each event with the first three being kind of shaky and the last three being the strong performers. This season, Ehrlich said, his number one guy will be just as strong as his number six performer. The top five scores of the six performances are recorded.

The Huskie schedule is very competitive and has them facing four of the Top 10 teams in the nation from one year ago. NIU finished last season ranked 16th in the nation, but they were plagued by the injury bug.

“It was devastating without some of our key performers,” Ehrlich said. “But we still finished in the top 16 in the nation.”

That, in itself, is encouraging to Ehrlich who has all but one performer in good condition right now. The injured Huskie is Kolasa who suffered a broken ankle back in March, but is expected to start the season in full force.

Ehrlich feels that this team has a legitimate shot at the national championships.

“If we stay consistent and healthy,” Ehrlich said. “We have an excellent shot at the top 8 teams in the country. I’ve had teams with less talent make it and this team has the most talent that I have ever had before.”

The Huskies will end each of their matches with a bang, Ehrlich said. The horizontal bar is the last event of the matches and that is where NIU is strongest right now.

“Four our of our six performers are doing two big release moves,” Ehrlich said. “It is going to be pretty exciting in that event.”

Yet, the Huskie coach sees his men being very strong in all the events and he feels they will put on a good show.

“What I see from one event, all the way down, is very good gymnastics,” Ehrlich said. “I hope the student body doesn’t miss out.”