FREEMAN SCHOOL BOARD HIRES FRIESEN AS TEACHER, COACH
JEREMY WALTNER – PUBLISHER
The Freeman School Board early this week made a number of notable staff moves, including hiring a new head boys basketball coach/social studies teacher and accepting the resignation of a longtime teacher and coach, and also the school counselor.
After meeting in executive session Monday night, May 10, the board voted 5-0 to hire Lance Friesen to replace Curtis Sage as the middle school/high school social studies teacher and Mitchell Johnson at the helm of the Flyers boys basketball program. The resignations of Sage and Johnson were both accepted Monday night — Sage after 17 years with the district and Johnson after one.
In addition to social studies, Sage was the head girls basketball coach and assistant track coach while Johnson taught 6-12 science and was an assistant football coach with the Pride.
Friesen, a 2000 Freeman High School graduate who has been at Parker the last five years, will also coach junior high boys basketball at Freeman Public.
The board also on Monday night accepted the resignation of Josh Faulkner, who is finishing his third year as the school counselor and was also on staff as a para for two years before that. Faulkner said he has accepted a school counselor position at Marion.
Freeman Public is expected to announce the new head girls basketball coach on Friday.
In other staff-related news, the school board on Monday:
Hired Victoria Boese as the new third-grade teacher. Boese, who will replace Becky Kunz, lives in Freeman and previously taught at Tea Area;
Re-hired Kendra Peterson and Rylie Christensen as head and assistant volleyball coaches for the Flyers. The 2021 season will be the third for Arens and second for Christensen;
Hired Amy Sorensen as an assistant track coach;
Hired Chad Rembold as an assistant golf coach;
Hired Dustin Tschetter as an assistant football coach.
Several other staff positions remained in limbo as of Tuesday, including: 6-12 SPED (held by Rachael Massey), head girls basketball coach (held by Sage), assistant boys basketball coach (originally held by Johnson before he replaced Will Massey mid-season), 6-12 science (held by Johnson), junior high volleyball (held by Scott Dent), as well as two other assistant track coaches and another assistant football coach.
