With last season in the rearview mirror Freedom head coach Joe Stellato enters this winter with a new perspective for his 17th season in Patriot-land.

The Pates are coming off a 7-15 mark from a year ago and Stellato and company look to fix that this season with the goal of the postseason on their minds.

“We are an athletic team who likes to get up and down the court,” he said. “We’ll be a competitive team and look to make the playoffs. We need to learn how to play together and gain chemistry playing together.”

Returning players for the Patriots include Najee Cash (Sr, G), Nick King (Jr, G), Jose Rivera (Sr, G), Roy Saunders (Sr), Kharory Smith (Sr, G).

A junior contingent of Joushten Rodriquez, Tyler Muniz, Tyrese Stewart, Lewis Hargett and Jason Hall are also in the mix along with seniors Sean Abel and Jonah Gundrum.

Stellato expects big things out of Cash, King and Hall this season to lead the Pates in the scoring department.

After being one of the final four team’s remaining in the Stellar tournament this summer, Freedom has hopes that they can turn things around this winter, after going 15-29 the last two years.

“The number one goal is to make the district playoffs,” Stellato said. “We need to use our length and athleticism on the defensive end to create offense.”