With 2020 being a lost volleyball season for all teams in the area, Freedom enters the campaign with a young an inexperienced team.

However, veteran head coach John Yanek hopes the groups experience playing on the club level could expedite the learning curve for a team returning only one starter in Jason Ziobro.

“We are very young,” Yanke said. “Almost all the starting lineup did play Club Velocity, so they have some experience. We need to practice hard everyday. We need to be able to serve receive well in order to compete. The team has a great attitude. We are also working on serving tough. Our offense will take time to gel. We are not yet battle tested, so we need to see how we respond to that. We have to remain positive.”

Newcomers this year include Nilansh Gupta, Krish Patel. Austin Hoffert, Dillon Fleckenstein, Brayden Erker, Zach Franges, Owen Lynn and Eric Chen.

Yanek will rely on Ziobro, as well as Gupta and Patel to lead the team.

“We want to compete with the middle of the pack and to have a good showing when playing the upper tier,” said Yanek of the team’s goals. Getting to .500 is our goal and competing in any match. It’s always our goal to make the conference and district playoffs.”