BRUSH PRAIRIE — Don Freeman’s footprint has tracked so far around Clark County’s baseball scene, that Thursday was not the first time he coached against a former team.
When he left Prairie the first time in 2004, after a 25-year coaching run in which he amassed the school two state titles, he went to coach at Hillsboro (Ore.). And his first game away from the program was an interstate road game at Prairie.
So it stands to reason that Freeman was well within his character to play a nonleague game against Heritage, a team he coached from 2008-10. He’s good friends with Heritage coach Dave Pilcher, he said.
“It’s fun to see people you know,” Freeman, who was hired back to be Prairie’s head coach in the offseason, said. “This game’s a great game.”
And after 13 years, and a WIAA Hall of Fame induction, he’s glad to be back on his old stomping grounds.
“When you spend 26, 27 years of your life some place it’s a big part of your life,” Freeman said. “I always enjoyed coming back. It’s kind of a special thing to be able to come back and say I was here years ago and here I am back again.”
But this time it’s with a new cast of players — many of whom were toddlers when he last coached at Prairie.
Freeman’s Falcons are off to an 0-3 start after Heritage won a come-from-behind nine-inning nail-biter, 4-3, on Thursday at Prairie High School.
Prairie reliever Zack Brown faced a top-of-the-seventh jam with bases loaded and no outs. He managed a pair of strikeouts, but a single into left field by Zach Butterfield scored in a tying run to force extras before Brown could close out the inning.
Heritage’s Damen Gilmore scored a runner from third on a single to right-center in the top of the ninth to take the lead. Closer Alan Becklehimer then sealed the game with three quick outs. He pitched the last 3.2 innings, dealt six strikeouts and gave up two hits and no runs.
That didn’t discourage Freeman, who has seen all teams from predominately inexperienced, to full of grizzled veterans.
“We’ve got a young team, really enthusiastic group of guys and there’s a lot of learning that’s got to take place, but we’ve been in all the game’s we’ve had, right down to the wire,” Freeman said. “It’s going to take some time, but I’m encouraged.”
Senior pitcher Josiah Nickel had never met Freeman, but heard his name come up in Prairie lore.
“I knew he weas a legend back in the day,” Nickel said. “I’ve seen him on the wall in our school.”
Freeman brought the school two state championships (1986 and ’89) in his tenure than ran from 1974 to 2004.
Nickel, who allowed four hits and struck out six in a five-inning start against Heritage Thursday, immediately noticed Freeman’s encyclopedic knowledge of the game. He’s been doing drills to help out with certain pitches and pick-off moves that the senior has never done before.
“He knows every single thing,” Nickel said. “Any question you have he’ll have an answer for. It’s really nice to have someone who knows that much about the sport.”
Freeman got a call from Mark Ripley last year after the season ended, Prairie’s most recent coach, who offered him an assistant coaching job on his staff. Ripley was with the program for 15 years and spent the last 10 as head coach.
Freeman knew he would be coming back to Battle Ground indefinitely to take care of his mother. But before he could make a decision, Prairie called back and upped the ante.
“They ask, ‘would you be willing to be the head coach?’ ” Freeman said.
He eventually accepted.
Freeman has logged plenty of miles in the sport, and many of them were in Clark County. He left Heritage in 2010 to restart the baseball program at Clark College and has spent the last four years in Germany coaching in Germany.
Even when abroad, he’d spend four months out of the year in his home Battle Ground. This year he was a volunteer assistant for Prairie’s gymnastics team.
“The thought of coming back to Prairie was exciting to me,” Freeman said. “I’ve spent a lot of time here. I’ve liked it here.”
