Freundlich selected to all-conference soccer first team

Published 4:48 pm Friday, June 24, 2011

LANGLEY — When Dean Freundlich defends someone, they know it before they ever see him.

They feel it when he slams into their bodies with all 6 feet, 2 inches of him.

Sometimes they have a decent scouting report and know he’s the team’s top center back.

Other players learned the hard way — the body slam, turf-hard way.

That rough-and-tough defense led Cascade Conference coaches to vote Freundlich to the all-conference boys soccer first team. All the coaches remembered him.

“It felt good getting the respect from the other coaches,” he said.

Freundlich, 18, was a four-year varsity starter on the boys soccer team. He says he’s competitive, but it’s hidden under layers of shyness, politeness and love of soccer.

He smiles when he speaks about losing to Bellingham and Squalicum in the district playoffs — the toughest losses in his career.

“I like playing soccer so much it’s hard to say I have a least favorite game,” Freundlich said.

He smiles when speaking about beating Coupeville on senior night — his favorite soccer memory.

He smiles when he talks about the bull he raised for 18 months on his family’s farm, recently butchered and is selling the meat.

Being voted to the first team surprised him. He smiles about that, too.

After missing five games in the middle of the season, Freundlich thought his chance to make the all-conference lists was slim. Both ankles were sprained and he had a deep tissue contusion, basically a bruise that made it difficult to walk, let alone run, slide, kick and jump.

Others didn’t have such doubts.

“He’s a great young man,” said South Whidbey boys soccer head coach Joel Gerlach. “He’s very smart and a fantastic athlete. He’s self-motivated.

Gerlach respected Freundlich’s skill and leadership so much so, that the coach selected him as a team captain at the end of the 2010 season.

“He just kept getting better every year. And he kept growing,” Gerlach said. “He’s this amazing physical specimen. He’s absolutely fearless.”

Being fearless served him as a defender, and more specifically a center back with the Falcons.

Freundlich said his paramount duty was to, “play like you’re the last defender.” That mentality moved him from a second team selection last season, to first team this year.

At times, Freundlich stopped an opponent’s dribble, stole the ball, then reversed the pressure. He dribbled the ball straight up the field, rarely moving toward the sidelines.

Defenses were caught off guard, and that was the point, he said. It changed the offensive looks, because the defense had to mark or assign defenders differently based on personnel.

Basically, he is so tall for a soccer player, a smaller defender marked to the 5-foot-8 Mike Grimm, scrambled to switch with someone to not defend the 6-foot-2 Freundlich.

Statistics are not available for defenders, or at least not recorded by the high school coaches or their staff. If there was a statistic specified for Freundlich’s defense, it would be a body count of how many players he sent to the grass or turf. He gained a reputation around the conference as an enforcer and a bruiser.

“I like the intimidation,” Freundlich said. “They know who I am. I always make it legal.”

He also liked stopping the other team’s stars. His coach knew it, too, and utilized that motivation.

“He has a role of limiting the other team’s opportunities and keeping them to a bare minimum,” Gerlach said. “He sees a team, he figures out what their strengths are, and who their threats are.”

“At a certain point kids decided it was a better choice to pass the ball around him,” Gerlach added.

Freundlich followed Gerlach’s mantra of three D’s: deny, deflect and destroy.

“That doesn’t necessarily mean you have to kill him,” Gerlach said.

Freundlich didn’t send any players to the hospital, that he recalls. Once, he was singled out by a referee with a warning.

“I’ve been warned by the ref to stop slide tackling because he didn’t want anyone to have broken legs,” Freundlich said.

Despite being injured through a quarter of the season, Freundlich played through lingering pains.

Spectators may not have noticed, though. Except for the five games he missed because of his injuries, Freundlich played every minute, whistle to whistle, in all the other games except the second half of an 8-2 win against Granite Falls.

“He’s fast, he’s strong and never seemed to run out of gas,” Gerlach said. “And he never complained. I’m sure there were times he was hurting and tired and he never let on.”

The intimidator used to be intimidated, though.

As a freshman on a senior-laden Falcon soccer team, he was intimidated not only by the other teams’ players, but also his own teammates.

Once he found his soccer identity in the defense, it allowed him to become a leader.

“I’m not one of the kids who gets stuck back there [defending],” Freundlich said. “I like playing back there.”

As one of three co-captains Gerlach appointed, Freundlich improved the defense through his game day efforts and advice to the other defenders. He said he was proud how sophomores Andrew Holt and Cameron Coupe progressed into reliable and sometimes spectacular defenders. He also praised sophomore defender Connor McCauley.

“He’s been solid this year, and was solid last year,” Freundlich said.

Gerlach said he expects those three sophomores and freshman Calvin Shimada to replace Freundlich’s defensive presence and intimidation.

“We’ll be OK there,” Gerlach said. “He’ll be missed.”

As a co-captain and a defender, Freundlich’s main focus was relieving all-conference goalie TJ Russell. The two played on varsity together the past three years, and Russell became the starting goalie this year.

The rapport the two seniors had became instinctive and silent.

“We communicated without communicating,” Freundlich said. “We know we had each other’s back.”

The other third of the co-captain trio was all-conference forward Pat Myatt. Myatt was the boisterous leader, and Gerlach called Myatt the “attitude” of the team.

In Freudian terms, Russell is the id — as a goalie, reacting instinctively to save goals. Myatt is the super ego — working toward perfection. Then Freundlich is the ego — acting realistically and employing defense mechanisms, though not the behavioral kind, in soccer, at least.

“Naturally, I’m kind of a calm guy,” Freundlich said.

It’s a poor relation to Freundlich, though, because as a defender, the spotlight and glory rarely struck him. He had moments, though, like when he stopped a streaking Coupeville forward by chasing him down the field, getting between him and the goal and forcing him to pass and lose possession.

That stalwart defense may continue when he heads off to Connecticut College in New London, Conn., in August.

He chose the small liberal arts school after visiting Boise State, Washington State and Oregon State universities. Freundlich — who graduated with a 3.9 grade point average and was a member of National Torch Honor Society — decided he wanted an intimate setting to study. Plus, he plans to try out for the Division III men’s soccer team there.

For a Clinton kid who’s position was mostly stationary — he was a defender after all — Freundlich can’t wait for the opportunities of life away from Whidbey Island. He has lived on Whidbey since he was 5 weeks old.

Freundlich lives in Clinton, in the Maxwelton Creek Cohousing Community. The green and environmentally-focused neighborhood instilled hands-on and do-it-yourself values in him. He runs his own lawn mowing, landscaping and general contracting business, which has operated since he was in seventh grade at Waldorf School. He also works at Mike’s Place as a dishwasher.

Some of the money he earns will go toward school. The rest he isn’t sure what he’ll do with. If his urge to travel takes over, it may be invested there. He worked on a salmon fishing boat in Alaska last summer, too.

“I always like doing projects,” Freundlich said.

One project that’s finished is his South Whidbey soccer career. He knocked it down just like he knocked down two dozen opposing players, or finished it like one of his projects.

Then it’s on to the next job.