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Photo by Brett Stanley/The Advocate
Chelsie Freeman coaches during a game
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Former Saint seeks to bring back tradition
The Advocate
Chelsie Freeman, MHCC’s new volleyball coach, has been playing volleyball for 16 years, since she was in the fourth grade.
Freeman first came to MHCC as a freshman in 2001. She played volleyball and majored in health education with a minor in physical education.
“When I was young, I wanted to coach and teach,” she said. “My dad was a coach and a teacher and we’re a lot alike so I thought that’s what I would end up doing,” said Freeman.
Now she’s the MHCC coach and said she adores her job, just as her players and co-workers say they adore her.
“I would feel lost if I didn’t have athletics in my life. That’s another reason why I coach, to keep it going,” Freeman said.
“She is a great athlete and her attitude rubs off on you. It makes me want to be a better athlete because of her,” said Haley Leithem, who is majoring in elementary education. This is her first year playing volleyball at MHCC but she attended MHCC last year and has known Chelsie “for like a year but not personally,” she said.
“I was in the volleyball P.E. class, the beginner one because I missed the game and then I started going to the advanced class in the evenings where she (Chelsie) asked me to play, I worked out with her all summer,” said Leithem.
Fred Schnell, the former athletic director at MHCC who has known Freeman for eight years, hired her as volleyball coach in March.
“She has great attention to detail, figures out what needs to be done and does not stop until she gets it done,” said Schnell. He also said “she has great determination that overpowers anything else she may be dealing with.“
Freeman has been active in sports her whole life, and not only in volleyball.
“In high school I played volleyball, basketball, and softball — and softball was my life,” said Freeman. She played softball in the summers and would consider that to be the sport she was most active in, but when she got to her senior year at Pendleton High School, she just didn’t want to give up on volleyball.
That’s when she came to MHCC and played volleyball and softball here for three years.
Freeman intends to keep the Mt. Hood winning tradition going this year. Her goal is to “win the NWAACC title, the big championship at the end of the season,” she said.
When Freeman played on the team, they won the NWAACC championship in 2001 and 2002. She then was the assistant coach when MHCC won in 2006 and 2007. She said she is set on keeping her team in shape and getting them ready for games.
“Figuring out how to reach each player and make them the best that they can be” is one of Freeman’s favorite things about coaching. She said she also loves the bond that she has with her team and “since I can’t play forever, it’s like the same feeling, like family,” she said.
Schnell said, “She makes them do what they need to do and doesn’t worry about ‘do they like me, or do they not like me.’ ”
Freeman is “mentally tough,” said Leithem, and “she puts it on us. That’s what keeps you strong and that’s what’s going to allow us to win the NWAACCs. She does everything with us and she has won four titles. That’s part of why we can trust her and relate to her,” said Leithem.
After her two years as assistant coach with former MHCC coach Lena Chan, Freeman had an opportunity to coach at her old high school in Pendleton, where that team also did well. But, she said, “I knew I wanted to be at this level, I like college better than high school.”
Schnell said, “I knew she still had Mt. Hood volleyball in her blood. Actually, I tried to hire her the year before. We hired another coach (Matt Hartner) and had probably the worst year in Mt. Hood volleyball history.”
With Michael Seemann as her former coach and Lena Chan as a former coach and associate, Freeman feels blessed to have learned from them. “I’ve been pretty fortunate with mentors and role models,” she said.
“We’re really glad she’s here,” said Schnell.
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