By GRAHAM BROOKS / Staff Writer

HELENA–Helena High School baseball pitcher Brooks Freeman will continue his academic and athletic future at Huntingdon College and a celebration was held Wednesday, Feb. 10, to celebrate his signing ceremony.

Freeman will join the Huntingdon Hawks baseball team and current Huntingdon head baseball coach D.J. Conville took time to speak about the newest addition to his program.

“First of all, I want to tell you how excited we are to have you join our program and our family,” said Conville. “Brooks, we’re looking forward to having you here for the next three to four years and we think you’re a great addition to the program. We think your future is bright and we think it is a good fit for you academically and athletically.”

In his junior season for the Huskies, Freeman finished with a 4-1 overall record that included 40.2 innings pitched and a 2.41 ERA. Freeman also amassed 33 strikeouts, according to Maxpreps.com.

Family, teammates, current and former coaches and more all packed the HHS athletic field house to congratulate Freeman on his signing, who became the second player in program history to sign a National Letter of Intent.

“I could not think of a better young man for this opportunity,” said Helena head coach PJ Guy. “Brooks, in my 10 years of coaching, is by far one of the most unselfish kids I’ve ever coached. He has a drive and unselfish attitude and a team attitude to always want to put everybody else above him. Every day he comes with a great attitude to want to get himself better and the team better. I’m just so blessed and proud to have the opportunity to have a small portion in his life for the last two years to coach him.”

Freeman took the opportunity to thank everyone who has helped him along the way in becoming a better baseball player and when asked how it felt to finally have all his hard work pay off, Freeman responded saying “Surreal.”

Freeman and his teammates will look to build on last season’s success when they finished as the Class 5A State Runner-up.