It's year five of the Brandon Hall era at Freedom and the Patriots may have things finally going for them.

After getting news early in the season that veteran upper weights Jake Young and John Callahan had decided to not join the team for their senior year, it looked like the Patriots would struggle this season.

Instead, a change of heart has provided, perhaps, an added bounce in Freedom's step, as the Pates won the Battle at Bethlehem tournament last weekend, going 5-0 with wins over Upper Perkiomen, Stroudsburg, La Salle, Pittston and Berwick.

Young saw limited action over the weekend, while Callahan didn't wrestle, but Freedom features a balance of freshmen, sophomores, juniors and seniors across their lineup with the likes of Dylan Brown (jr., 126) , Jonah Zych (jr., 132), William Byrnes (sr., 138), Adam Evans (sr., 106), Jake Rugis (jr., 195) and Josh Newhart (sr., HWT). Newcomers include Ben Huber (so., 113) and Thomas Bonilla (fr., 145).

With Brown returning as a fourth-place Northeast Regional 3A placewinner at 106 last season, Hall hopes he can add to that list this season.

"Dylan Brown and Jonah Zych have really matured and will anchor the lightweights with freshmen Ben Huber and Andy Evans," said Hall. "We still need to improve on our overall numbers on both the varsity and freshman teams. There are several individuals on this team who feel they have a lot to prove after last season and are incredibly excited to start the season."

Hall hopes it was a good sign for the team to open up the year, as their trek through the new East Penn Conference will surely make them a battle tested group.

"As a team our goal is to win our three dual meet tournaments on our schedule and improve our league and district finishes from a year ago," Hall said. "Individually, the goal is to qualify as many wrestlers to Hershey as possible each year. Health will be a huge factor in our success this year."