Joe Stellato and Chad Landis appear to have something in common this year when it comes to their respective basketball teams this winter. As Liberty is dealing with a mostly inexperienced roster down the road, Stellato walks into similar footprints at Freedom during his 13th year as coach of the program.

Following a 17-10 finish a year ago, Freedom returns senior big man Dave Williams and point guard Nigel Long (sr., 5-9). The good part of that makeup is that the Pates have initial inside-outside threats to work with.

Now, it's about finding the pieces around those players to hopefully make the Patriots into a playoff contender when things are all said and done.

"This team is very in experienced and needs games under their belts," said Stellato. "We have two very good returning starters and we need the other players to play their roles and be aggressive and get better and better as the year goes on. We will be competitive, but need to play consistent. If we do that we could be a good team by the end of the year."

Freedom's supporting cast this year will be Dashaun Neufville (sr., 5-10), Nicholas Sharpe (sr., 6-4), Josh Jackson (sr., 6-4) , Najee Cash (jr., 6-2), KJ Pretty (jr., 6-0) , Jason Fraser (jr., 6-1) , Jeff Toronto (jr., 6-2) and Nick King (fr., 6-0).

Coming off an appearance in last year's LVC playoffs and a trip to the District 11 4A finals, where the Patriots lost to Parkland 65-50, Stellato knows that his team may be taking a step backward from last year.

But he hopes that Williams and Long can hold the fort down, while he gathers the rest of the troops into varsity mode.

"We want to make the playoffs," he said. "We need to play with confidence and be aggressive. We need to continue to work hard and get better as the year goes on. Make the playoffs and try to make some noise from there."