Freedom, Nazareth success starts at top
For years whenhewas trying to get the Freedom High School football program established, Patriots coach Jason Roeder talked about having to beat the perennial powers to get to a level of respect.
“We talked about beating what we call Lehigh Valley football royalty, the bluebloods like Easton and Parkland,” he said. “To get where we wanted to be, we needed to beat them. There is such great football in our league, such a fine line between winning and losing and there are many teams who don’t get to win a championship because they’re on the wrong side of that fine line.”
But more often then not, Roeder’s Freedom team has been on the right side in recent years. They have become part of Lehigh Valley royalty, a blue blood.
When the Patriots face Nazareth Friday night at Whitehall, they will be playing in their fourth district final in five years. After losing to Parkland in 2016 and 2017, they broke through for a championship with a rout of Emmausin 2018. They lost to Parkland in the semifinals last year, but have clearly established themselves as a Lehigh Valley football blue blood.
Friday’s opponent, Nazareth, is nearing the same status. A second consecutive District 11 6A title for coach Tom Falzone’s team would almost definitely make the Blue Eagles blue bloods in local football.
After Easton and Liberty dominated the 2000s with seven district titles in the highest classification between them and Parkland won six straight from 2012-2017, the balance of power has shifted and a new, more competitive era is emerging and both Freedom and Nazareth are now two of the perennial powers.
The reason for their emergence? It starts at the top of each program.
Roeder’s road
Roeder, a Bethlehem Catholic and Moravian College product, was just 29 year old when he was hired by Freedom to replace Jim Morgans in the winter of 2005 after Morgans left to become head coach at Park land. Roe der had been Chuck So no n’ s defensive coordinator at Becahi before taking over the Patriots.
It hasn’t always been easy. Freedom was just 2-8 in his first season.
“We almost had to rebuild the program twice,” Roeder said. “In those first four years, were 2-8, 5-5, 9-3 and 10-3. We got to the district final and lost to Liberty in 2008 when they won the state title. Then we hit some dips in the road. After having some success, it was really tough to go back to the drawing board, but that’ s what we had to do .”
Freedom was 2-8 in 2013 and Roeder said that year forced the coaching staff to “take a hard look in the mirror and evaluate everything we were doing from top to bottom. We talked about focusing not on wins and losses, but the process of how to win. I talked to a lot of different people about howto do that. We focused on accountability as coaches and players. The 2014 season really turned it around for us and we’ ve been pretty consistent every since.”
Starting with the 9-3 2014 squad, which lost to Easton in the district semifinals, Freedom has been a final four team every year. Including this year’s 5-1 mark, the Patriots are 60-21 in the last seven seasons.
“It started with focusing on championship behavior and habits and that has turned into a championship culture,” Roeder said.
Freedom athletic director Nate Stannard began working with Roeder in 2016 and saw on a daily basis why he has become one of the area’s most successful coaches.
“We talk every day during the season and I love to watch him in action,” Stannard said. “He’s always working. His work-ethic is second to none. When the season ends, we talk
and his first question is always how can we we get better? He has made the kids much more accountable in the weight room. That’s where it starts and he preaches to the kids about getting better every day and that’s how he approaches his job .”
Roe der also stay son top of everything from the youth football level through the middle school, freshman and JV programs and also runs his own popular summer camp that features many of the area’s top coaches.
This year, like all coaches, Roe der has had to roll with the unpredictability of the corona virus pandemic.
“We threw a lot of things at the coaches this year, and Jason did a great job of rolling with it,” Stannard said. “Even this last mandate of kids having to wear a mask while playing, he didn’ t even blink. He said ‘OK, we’ ll mask up .’ His preparation,
his dedication, his ability to get kids to believe and want to play here is outstanding. People see the success and they want to be a part of it.”
Following Falzone
Falzone, a former Catasauqua and Lafayette College standout, was less than a decade removed from his own playing career when he was hired at Cat as au qua in January 2009. He coached as a Rough Riders assistant for three years and as a Whitehall assistant for six before taking his first head coaching position at Catty.
In five seasons with the Rough Riders, he went 47-18 and led the team to a pair of Colonial League titles and a District 112 A gold medal.
While reluctant to leave his alma mater, he relished the challenge of coaching in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference and was hired at Nazareth in the winter of 2014.
Like Roeder, it was not always easy for Falzone. Like Roeder in 2005, Falzone went 2-8 in his first season with the Blue Eagles.
He got his program established over the next several seasons and after 5-6, 5-6, 6-5 and 5-6, things took off in 2019 thanks to Anthony Harris, Nathan Stefanik, Jake Wilson and a talented group that led the team to a 12-2 mark, the EPC South crown and its first district title since 2011 and just its fourth overall.
Having lost several marquee players, the Blue Eagles were expected to descend this year. But it hasn’t happened as one of the best off seasons any of F al zone’ s teams ever had has paid dividends. Nothing could knock the team off its per ch, including the coronavrius pandemic.
“Obviously going through the COVID-19 stuff throughout the summer and then the whole roller-coast ride of ‘You’re not playing, then you are’ going into the season and then being told our season was over before we started districts ... wow, it was has been a wild ride, the wildest ride I’ve ever had as a coach,” Falzone said.
At one point, F al zone said he was wondering when he was going to collect equipment from his kids. Now, he’s hoping to collect gold medals to give out.
But Falzone and a veteran, experienced coaching staff that he considers to be a family, has kept a firm hand on the steering wheel through the wild ride.
“It has been a matter of survival,” he said. “I’m proud of the kids. I’m happy we got to play as many games as we have. We’re just looking forward to the opportunity.”
Falzone doesn’t want to say his program has reached a certain status. He wants to keep working at it.
“I don’t know what the formula is ,” he said .“I know we’ ve come so far after that first year, which was rough and we were making the transition to the EPC. We had a lot of things to figure out. We have one of the smallest schools in the league and we had to overcome a lot, but the coaches worked hard and the kids have bought in. They play for each other. It has been a heck of a ride .”