Alex Freeman's competitiveness on the soccer field might stem from pickup basketball games against her siblings on the family's backyard court.
From one-on-one matchups and games of
H-O-R-S-E against her older brother and two older sisters, Freeman learned she had to work hard to have a chance of winning.
That attitude has helped Freeman become one of the Northland's top soccer players as the Duluth East junior forward has scored eight goals in her team's first seven games.
"She's probably the most explosive kid in the area, if not the state, as far as what she can do off the ball," East coach Steve Polkowski said of Freeman, who tallied 15 times as a sophomore. "Her teammates are finding her in spots where she can use her speed and get in behind defenses and calmly put the ball in the back of the net."
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Freeman comes from an academic and athletic family. Her father, Todd, played basketball at the University of Nebraska-Omaha and her mother, Lindsey, was a high school gymnast and softball player in Omaha; brother T.J., a Duluth Marshall graduate, went to Division I Creighton in Omaha to play basketball, though redshirted a season and left the program to finish his degree; Katy, 24, signed at Division I Missouri-Kansas City, transferred to Southern Illinois and played basketball for two years before transferring again to finish at Minnesota Duluth; Meghan, 23, played sports at East before completing her undergraduate studies at Creighton and is now studying at Yale University.
"All of her siblings are hard workers and competitive in the academic realm and the athletic world," said Katy Freeman, who is completing an accelerated nursing program at Creighton. "That's helped her understand what hard work can do for somebody. She's grown up watching that."
Though she hasn't beat Katy yet one-on-one, Alex hasn't given up.
"Katy tries to bring it out in me," she said. "She tries to get me more competitive and work at everything a lot."
Katy said she sees a little of herself in her youngest sister.
"It must kind of run in the blood," Katy said. "It's been competitive, but in a really positive way. It's not the negative sibling rivalry, but competing to make each other better."
Polkowski notices the effect that Freeman's attitude has on her teammates.
"When you have your goal-scorer as your hardest worker, it definitely elevates the play of everyone else," he said.
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Teammates see Freeman's desire every day in practice and on gameday.
"She likes to win, she doesn't like to lose," said midfielder Rosie Nelson, who has been best friends with Freeman for as long as she can remember. "She always is competitive and wants our team to win."
And that's what East is doing. The Greyhounds are 4-2-1 and ranked eighth in Class AA.
"We were expecting to do well and make it to state," Alex said. "Our team bonded so well right off the bat; we all get along and there's no drama."
Freeman, who sports a 4.0 grade-point average, said she has received recruiting interest from a pair of Division I universities -- she declined to say if one of them was located in Omaha -- and more will be on the way if she continues to score at her current pace.
"There's no question she'll be on the national radar sooner rather than later," Polkowski said.
