District 11 hoops recap: Fretting and frowning over Freedom's exit

FROM KEITH GROLLER

Contrary to popular opinion, we don't root for particular teams during the course of a season.

I always say I root for Keith Groller, and if I said it once, I've said it 1,000 times over the last 30 years: "I don't care who wins, as long as it doesn't go to overtime." Deadline, you see, always looms.

And, I admit, I root for myself -- to a small degree -- in these prediction contests. You like to show you are paying attention and know what you're talking about, at least some of the time.

But I always feel sad when teams have their seasons end and I felt real bad for Freedom on Saturday night when a last-second shot just wouldn't drop and the Patriots lost to Parkland 47-45 in their third classic meeting of the season.

I felt bad, too, for Allen which also had its season end with the semifinal loss to Emmaus.

However, this was basically a transition year for the Canaries after they graduated four starters from last year's district title team. (By the way, it was nice of Jalen Cannon to come all of the way back to the Lehigh Valley after his own game for St. Francis in Brooklyn on Saturday to watch his former team play. Cannon had 19 rebounds, he told me).

Allen has had a lot of success, and making the district quarterfinals seemed like it was just about right for this bunch. The Canaries, with a great freshman team coming on the scene, will be a force in the next few years.

I felt much worse for Freedom because this was supposed to be the PATRIOTS YEAR.

They looked spectacular back in the summer when they won the SportsFest tournament and Stellar/Allentown Summer League titles.

They looked great again at the start of this season, winning a school record 13 consecutive games to show that they were for real.

And, along the way they had memorable games in absolutely tremendous basketball environments.

Because of their terrific student section -- either called "The Riot Squad" or "Freedom Family" (pictured at right) -- every game was played in front of a large, noisy crowd. This fan group was a throwback to the 1960s and 1970s when every school seemed to have a large student presence at the game.Riot

Freedom's students were the stars of this season as far as I was concerned, bringing an energy, enthusiam and passion that had been missing in recent years. Even the opposing teams looked forward to playing Freedom because of them. Who wouldn't want to play in a game where everything you do is either cheered or jeered?

So, while happy for Parkland, which had its own disappointment in the LVC semis, you could not help but feel bad for Freedom on Saturday night.

This is a program that has never won a league title and hasn't won a district title since 1976.

It's a school that always seems to be in the shadows of its big brother, Liberty.

This was their time to shine, but it wasn't meant to be.

No wonder there were a lot of tears in that locker room and on the bus ride home from Easton. The fact that they won 21 games -- second most in school history, was of no consolation.

Freedom coach Joe Stellato (pictured left)Stellato, who really was a key figure in getting everybody pumped up and excited about Patriots basketball this winter, took it hard -- about as hard as any coach I can remember.

He said it was unfortunate that this meeting had to take place in the quarterfinals and not in the semis or the finals, and I agree.

But as long as league champs get preferential seeds in the district basketball tournament you're always going to have favorable bracket routes and unfavorable routes. Freedom had a tough road. And frankly, Emmaus and Parkland in the semis also might be coming a round early, too.

Here's what Joe had to say after the game:

"The hardest part of this is that I don't get to coach my seniors on Monday," Stellato said. "That's the hardest thing for me to swallow. I thought we played great, I thought we battled. Parkland is a good basketball team. Emmaus, Allen, they're all good teams at this point in the season. Unfortunately, we couldn't see them in the semis.

"We put ourselves in tough situations a lot this season, but our kids have such big hearts and work so damn hard that they usually find a way to win. Our luck just ran out tonight.

"I hate to use the word magical. I didn't use it all year with the press, but I knew this was a magical year and something special was going on. In our locker room, during practices, the way we were winning games ... it was a magical season. The seniors were the toughest group of kids I've ever been around mentally and and physically. They got down, but they never packed their bags. The seniors had a little swagger to them, too. Our seniors were our hardest-working guys and when you have seniors working as hard as ours did, something good is going to happen.

"I just hope the younger watched and learned and we can continue this in the next couple of years. We lose six seniors, including four who really played a lot. We've got some very good coming back in Nyreef Jackson, Derike Chiclana and Maceo Connor. Those three will have to be the catalyst and in the leadership roles next year."

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