Coach Mike Beale

"We try to swarm to the ball... we're looking for people to step up and play man-to-man defense 32 solid minutes of basketball," the coach says. This may be Mike Beale's first year as official head coach of Freeport basketball, but he is certainly no stranger to the program's defensive style of play.

Besides stepping in as interim two years ago for long-time coach Garrie Davies (who came back for one more season before retiring last summer), Beale is homegrown, like most of the Freeport basketball coaches. In earlier days, he played for Davies, and was the coach's assistant for eight years. Beale sees Davies everyday and the coach still helps out behind the scenes.

"He bleeds blue and gold," Beale says, referring to the school colors. Davies may bleed "blue and gold" but the program lives and breathes hard-nosed defense and a full-court press. Mike Beale is not letting up on the 'D'. He says Davies "instilled a defensive mentality: establish a strong man-to-man defense and then build from there, so we really focus on that everyday in practice."

Freeport will need every bit of that defense to escape out of the conference and enjoy the success of last year's squad, who went to the quarterfinals of the PIAA. Notes Mike, "This year it's really a very well-balanced conference." Not only will the Jackets have to contend again with always-strong Jeannette and always-ready-to-play Apollo-Ridge, but also now this year they can say "hello" to new conference rival and old backyard buddy Burrell.

And though they did say "buh-bye" to old conference cross-river rival Leechburg, who was shoved to another conference by the Philly Realignment Effect, the Jackets will still face the Blue Devils twice this season in what could become a traditional on-court chess match between coaches of the two squads. It just so happens Leechburg's new coach is Damian Davies, son of the man Beale learned from and replaced, Garrie Davies.

Mike and Damian (who also assisted at Freeport) are friends and both have cut their teeth on the same style of play. Make that a wildly intense, on-court chess match. You can see Beale in an exclusive video where he talks about the Jackets' players and their prospects for the season, as well as the Freeport youth basketball program at this link.