Middle school football has had a fantastic season so far, especially after the team merged with Rochester. This merger has had a positive effect, and the teams got along well. They wear Freedom uniforms for Freedom games and Rochester uniforms for the Rochester games.  The team is currently 7-0, and hoping to stay undefeated. The merge could not have gone better, and everyone is happy with it.

Compared to last year, COVID-19 has not affected the year much at all except for mask wearing during circumstances where physical activity isn’t necessary. The coaches for Freedom are Joe Leasha, John Leasha, and Mark Ellison. The coaches for Rochester are Matt Yount and Van Norm. 

“We have improved greatly as a group since we started in July, the boys have come together as a team. We’ve made great strides throughout our time together,” Joe Leasha commented on the team. The coach is happy with how quickly the team has learned different plays and came together.

“My favorite memory so far is our win over Cornell because we all worked hard together even though some of the guys on their team were big and harder to tackle than people on other teams. We all worked hard throughout the game  and got a win out of it. This year is much different because last year there was a full team of Freedom kids and this year all of the eighth graders from last year moved up to high school and there were much less people than last year. The lack of people resulted in us merging with Rochester which has worked out pretty well,” Andrew Wolfe, eighth grade player, commented on this year. 

Fairly happy with the outcome of the merging of teams, Wolfe notes that the strategy change did affect the performance of the team for a little bit in the beginning of the season, however soon after they adapted and overcame the difficulties.

“I improved by running hills and suicides,” Kaden Bailey, seventh grader, said. Bailey is impressed how he improved this year. His cousin was on the Rochester team and his best friend, so the merge was a pleasant experience for him.