Girls soccer coach Eaton has led Freedom all the way to the top – lehighvalleylive.com

Bob Eaton finished his sixth season as Freedom girls soccer coach in the fall.

And things have definitely changed for the Patriots over those years.

There were a couple of major differences. When Mark (Fabey), Brian (Flynn) and I took over coaching at Freedom, the program had been down for a number of years and it seemed to an extent like more girls were just playing for the social aspect of it than were actually dedicated and committed to the success of the team, Eaton said. In fact, in our early years, it was fairly clear that the girls went into certain, if not most, games believing that they would not get a positive result. Over the last few years, this, however, has changed and there is now what I would consider to be a winning culture. This culture change is directly attributable to the girls as while six years ago there may have only been five or six girls who were driven to succeed, that number has grown each year since to where now everybody wants to succeed and will work hard to achieve their aspirations.

With this improved drive also came the belief that the girls could compete with anyone, where in previous years this was not always the case, Eaton added. "The final step was not only believing they could compete, but that they could win these games as well.

Not only did Freedom win games this season, but the Patriots won a championship. They earned their first District 11 title in program history.

For his ability to build Freedom into champions, Eaton is the 2019 lehighvalleylive Girls Soccer Coach of the Year.

Coach Eaton has been my coach since seventh grade and it has been a fun ride through my senior season at Freedom, senior forward/midfielder Katie Flynn said. I have really enjoyed having Coach Eaton involved in my life and my soccer career. He has always been supportive and provided me with a lot of encouragement that allowed me to become a much more confident soccer player. My growth from freshman to senior year was tremendous and I contribute that to Coach Eaton and the assistant coaches.

The seventh-seeded Patriots beat second-seeded Emmaus, third-seeded Northampton and eighth-seeded Nazareth on their way to the district title.

After losses to Emmaus in both the regular season and the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference tournament, the Patriots picked up a 2-1 victory over the Green Hornets in the D-11 quarterfinals.

Clearly the key was that the girls had nothing to lose, they were the underdog, and that they could just go out and have fun. In fact this was true not only against Emmaus, but all the way through districts and into the state quarterfinals, Eaton said.

Junior Haley Gschrey scored with 7:30 left in regulation and senior Lily Judge found the back of the net with 1:58 remaining in the first overtime as the Patriots beat Northampton in the district semifinals.

Gschrey tallied two goals in the district championship game as Freedom posted a 3-1 victory over Nazareth.

Freedoms Cinderella run didnt stop there as the Patriots beat Council Rock South 3-1 in the first round of the PIAA Class 4A tournament behind two more goals from Gschrey.

There were a couple of things that drove our success, Eaton said. First, there were no expectations to get to a certain level or achieve this or that. There are way too many strong teams in District 11 and honestly any of five or six teams can win the championship in any given year. Second, we told the girls to just go out and have fun, play their game, and know that they gave it their best, regardless of the result, when all was said and done. Lastly, the girls were extremely motivated by what they felt was a lack of recognition and respect. An example of this was immediately before one of the district games a girl from the opposing team was overheard asking a teammate who they play next,' meaning after they beat Freedom. All of these things, when combined with their inherent desire to win, motivated the girls to accomplish everything they did.

Coach Eaton was a big part of our success, Gschrey said. He would never make us feel like we couldnt win districts. He would never let us take a step down from how we usually play, which is good and makes us work hard.

Eaton, who is also the head coach at East Hills Middle School, lives in Bethlehem Township with his wife Lisa. They have two kids, Patrick, 25, and Christa, 23. Both of the kids played soccer for Freedom and went on to graduate from the University of Pittsburgh.

The Freedom coach said his players made the past seasons group special.

These girls genuinely care about each other no matter what their differences, Eaton said. Day in and day out we would see them encouraging and supporting each other regardless of the situation. They never gave up and looked at adversity and odds that were not in their favor as a challenge and not as a barrier to their success.

This is really about the girls, Eaton added. It was of course very satisfying to win districts but not so much for myself as for the girls given all the time, effort, work, commitment and dedication they have put in not only this year but in previous years as well.

Josh Folck may be reached at jfolck@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshFolck. Find Lehigh Valley high school sports on Facebook.

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Girls soccer coach Eaton has led Freedom all the way to the top - lehighvalleylive.com