Although Freedom’s girls soccer team will enter the 2021 season with a lack of experience, there is a factor of adaptability from which the Patriots could benefit.

“There is really no one aspect that stands out above others as a strength other than perhaps our speed and conditioning,” said Freedom head coach Bob Eaton. “We are also extremely versatile in that a number of girls can play multiple positions.”

Key returners to the varsity squad are Addy Roemersma, Natalie Stannard, Kailey Turpening, Evangelia Hahalis, Natalia Triscari, Grace Joseph, and Megan Raffino.

Newcomers to watch are Anya Johns and Hannah Heidemann.

“Obviously as the season goes along, our lack of experience should diminish, and we should get stronger as the season progresses,” Eaton said.

Over the summer, the team spent time working on both their technical skills as well as their strength and conditioning.

As with all coaches, the Patriots are eager to compete against all teams from within the East Penn Conference this season and not just Northampton County as they did last year.

“I’m very glad to get back to playing a normal schedule,” said Eaton. “While we understood the reasoning behind last year’s scheduling, it was to a point of ridiculous in that playing each team twice in a two or three day period pretty much always resulted in two wins for one team and two losses for the other.”