Freedom Irish Find Inspiration

By Dave Schroeder

The Freedom High School football team is making an unprecedented playoff push. The Irish never made it out of Level 2 until this year.

Freedom's football history is pretty bland. There are no state championships to speak of. In fact, just 3 years ago, the Irish went 0-9.

"My first year here helping out we went '0' for the season. That's tough. That happened, so there's not a whole lot of expectations," head coach Clint Kriewaldt said.

Kriewaldt, who made the opening tackle in Super Bowl 40, is in his first year as head coach at Freedom.

With no outside expectations, he has guided the Irish within one win of reaching the State championship game.

"You know, back in Pittsburgh when we won it we were the #6 seed. No one gave us credit. We had to go on the road and went on to win the Super Bowl. Coming in here we were the #8 seed, no one gave us a lot of credit; no one gave the Steelers credit that year."

Inspired by their new coach, the Irish have run free.

Senior running back Nathan Peters has rushed for 2,000 yards this season, and more than 200 yards in each of the last two games.

"It's the best offensive line I've ran behind. It's great. The holes are there, and I just have to run through them," Peters said.

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Freedom Irish Find Inspiration