Coach feature: Dick Freeman - From the Golden Age

Barry Faulkner

Dick Freeman absorbed his first football lessons from the master,

Anaheim High Coach Clare Van Hoorebeke. Long before he wore the

Colonists’ blue and gold, he would sit atop a fence overlooking the

practice field with his cousin, Van’s next-door neighbor, gazing with awe

as the legendary coach directed the likes of star running back Mickey

Flynn.

Later, as an All-CIF Southern Section offensive guard, Freeman basked

in the golden age of Orange County high school football, when 10,000

spectators regularly attended games involving “The Colony.” A whopping

33,374 watched Anaheim defeat Mater Dei in the 1966 CIF major division

semifinals his senior year, still the second-largest crowd in section

gridiron history and a night Freeman considers the highlight of his

distinguished playing career.

And while he came to appreciate Van Hoorebeke’s attention to detail,

innovative film study, weight training and exhaustive scouting reports,

Freeman took a dissenting view of the authoritative, intimidating

coaching style the Anaheim staff, like most others from that era,

utilized.

“Football was a business at Anaheim,” recalled Freeman, entering his

sixth season as head coach at Corona del Mar High, his 25th coaching prep

football. “I enjoyed playing there, but I also realized that wasn’t how

football needed to be. I never needed much pushing from the coaches,

because I pushed myself. But I always felt like there was a better way to

get your point across than jumping all over someone.”

Freeman earned a full scholarship to the University of Colorado, but

returned after one year to play for noted Fullerton College coach Hal

Sherbeck. He then completed his college eligibility with two seasons at

Long Beach State.

Though always a student of the game -- “I didn’t know much math or

history, but I knew what the left tackle was doing on a play away from

me,” he said -- Freeman was not immediately drawn to coaching.

Shuffling though a string of jobs, including working on a garbage

truck, making cabinets and working as an electrician, Freeman was asked

by a co-worker to help coach a Newport-Mesa Junior All-American clinic

(ages 8-9) team in 1973.

After three seasons tutoring football toddlers, then-CdM assistant Ed

Blanton, whom Freeman had known at Long Beach State and who is a current

member of Freeman’s CdM staff, introduced him to then-Sea Kings Coach

Dick Morris.

Morris hired Freeman to work with the defensive line, but, just one

season later, he became an overwhelmed defensive coordinator.

“That was horrible,” Freeman recalled of the first of 17 seasons

running the CdM defense (with a six-year interruption to join his former

Anaheim and Colorado teammate Jerry Witte at Saddleback). “But with the

help of some other coaches, we managed to do OK.”

Freeman quickly got up to speed, while refining his unique blend of

wit and wisdom, which CdM players might compare to the easygoing manner

of a favorite uncle.

That same affability endears Freeman to his CdM coaching colleagues,

though his unbridled competitiveness can come across as brusque to

coaching rivals.

He reluctantly took over the program when former coach Mark Schuster

was arrested, and later convicted of lewd conduct, two games into the

1995 season.

“The main reason I stepped forward, was because I didn’t want that

team to have any disruptions,” Freeman said. “I could have worked my

whole career as an assistant, but I’d make the same decision again. Some

people coach because of ego and some want to be the boss. I never needed

to do that. I was an offensive lineman, so I was used to never being

mentioned. I am almost the anti-head coach, because I allow my assistants

to make a lot of decisions.”

Freeman, 23-30, at the Sea King helm, guided CdM to the Division V

semifinals that year. CdM also made the playoffs in 1998 and ‘99, and

shared the Pacific Coast League title last fall.

Freeman, who teaches seventh-grade earth science at CdM, lives in Los

Flores with his 11-year-old son Brian and his wife Cathy.