Malden High’s football team on their way to the locker room during halftime. Photo by Falyn Kelley.
Malden High’s football team has recently hired a new head coach this season, Stephen Freker. Freker, who is in the Malden High Hall of Fame, and the Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, has been associated with Malden High Athletics since 1982. Freker coached “three sports [at MHS] from 1982 to 1999.” In that time span, Freker coached football, baseball, and basketball, being the head coach of baseball for 15 of those years, assistant varsity basketball coach for 10 years, and finally the assistant varsity football coach for 17 years.
After 1999, Freker took a 16 year hiatus from Malden High, then decided to return to the school. Freker also coached at Malden Catholic for 15 years. This means that Freker has coached for over 30 years all in the City of Malden.
Freker is also Malden High’s Building Safety Monitor and Communications Manager. Regarding football, Freker states, “[He] wouldn’t really compare what [they] do to past seasons as the coaching staff was different and had different intentions. [Their] goals are to teach the sport to the players and to help them develop in order to have a successful season and be competitive in every game.” Running drills and learning on and off the field has also had a big impact on the team.
Sophomore Muneer Odally is very optimistic for the rest of the season as he believes that “[Coach Freker] is an amazing coach.” Odally played last season under head coach Bill Manchester. “[Freker] is bringing his own spin to Malden Football and [Odally] likes the direction [Freker] is taking the team in.” Odally also feels that “Freker’s coaching is something new and is going to pay off in the long run.”
Sophomore Edmond Resmi, who had also played last year, mentions that “[Freker] has been a great coach so far. He has some unique qualities as a coach that no other coach [Resmi] has seen, has.” Under Freker, Resmi believes that more plays have been made in 3 games this season than all of last season. He adds that “[their] practices consist of drills and plays that [they] would actually use in a game.”
Aside from coaching multiple sports, Freker was also the last Editor-In-Chief for the Malden Evening News before their dissolution in 2017. Freker is clearly well rounded, whether it’s coaching three different sports or being in two hall of fames, Freker has done it all.
Correction: An earlier version of this article was uploaded without crediting Falyn Kelley for the photograph.
